Registry

Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2012 - 2013
Please note that this information is subject to change.

Module Title	Documentary in Film and Television
Module Code	CM528
School	School of Communications
Online Module Resources
Module Co-ordinator	Semester 1: Roderick Flynn Semester 2: Debbie Ging
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5
Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

Description

The aim of this course is to provide students with a theoretical and historical understanding of the development of the documentary form. Documentary is investigated as creative and artistic practice, as a public process of engagement, and as a powerful tool for communication and for fostering understanding and change. The course also stresses aesthetic, scholarly, and ethical considerations involved in representing individuals and cultures.

Learning Outcomes

1. Students will be able to trace the historical evolution of the documentary form, and relate films within the historical context from which they come.
2. Students will critically relate a range of approaches to documentaries to wider cultural and critical theories.
3. Students will identify and analyze different forms of documentary in its characterization ascreative treatment of actuality: documentary as historical archive, as social advocacy, as propaganda, and as aesthetically and formally innovative art form.
4. Students will engage with the ethical debates involved in documentary making, including the burden of representation, and responsibilities towards interviewees and participants.
5. Students will negotiate and debate the epistemological frameworks within which documentary functions, including the contingency oftruth in the context of documentary as personal and social expression.
6. Students will investigate the place of documentary within an information-led society, where the wider democratization of documentary practice has led to issues of credibility and public trust.

Workload	Full-time hours per semester
*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Lecture	44	No Description
Assignment	30	No Description
Library	10	No Description
Independent learning time	41	No Description
Total Workload: 125

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Lecture 1.
General outline of documentary debates – ethical, aesthetical and representational with specific reference to Bill Nichols’ “Documentary Modes of Representation”, “The Domain of Documentary” from Representing Reality..

Eyes on the Revolution.
the creative and political development of Non-fiction cinema in Russia – “Kino-Eye”, Dziga Vertov, Eisenstein. Agnes Varda and the historical archive (found footage and the art of gleaning)..

Representing Survival.
Robert Flaherty, romantic, explorer and advocate, and the ethics of representation..

Documenting the workers.
The Griersonian film project, British Documentary Movement, and John Grierson’s critics..

The aesthetics of fascism, and documentary as communal mourning..
Leni Riefenstahl, Alan Resnais; Claude Lanzmann and documenting the unspeakable..

Documenting Ireland.
The history of documentary in Ireland..

The Cinema Verité movement, reflexivity, and modern ethnography.
Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin.

Direct Cinema and Reality Fiction.
Frederick Wiseman, Richard Leacock and American movements in documentation-realism..

The cinema of social concern, the modern crusading polemic, and documentary in the age of (mis)information..
Errol Morris to Michael Moore.

Documentary and multiculturalism.
The Black Film Collective. The concept of “Third Cinema”, and its radical possibilities..

Ethnography and surrealism.
Creativity in documentary, reflexivity and meaning..

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	100%	Examination Weight	0%

Course Work Breakdown
Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assignment	One essay (3,500-4,000 words) chosen from a set of 5-6 titles	100%	n/a

Reassessment Requirement
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; 1 = A resit is available for all components of the module 2 = No resit is available for 100% continuous assessment module 3 = No resit is available for the continuous assessment component
This module is category 1

Indicative Reading List

Bill Nichols: 1991, Representing reality, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 0253340608
Erik Barnouw: 1983, Documentary, A History of Non-Fiction Film, Oxford University Press, New York, 0195078985
edited by Michael Renov: 1993, Theorizing documentary, Routledge, New York, 0415903815
[edited by] Kevin MacDonald and Mark Cousins: 1996, Imagining reality: The Faber book of documentary, Faber and Faber, London, 0571177239
Harvey O'Brien: 2004, The real Ireland, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 0719069076
William Guynn: 1990, A cinema of nonfiction, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Rutherford, 0838633404
Paul Swann: 0, The British documentary film movement, 1926-1946, Introduction, Manchester University Press, 0521334799
edited with an introduction by Annette Michelson; translated by Kevin O'Brien: 1984, Kino-eye: The writing of Dziga Vertov, Introduction, Pluto Press, 0520047605
Richard M. Barsam: 1992, Nonfiction film, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 0253311241
edited by Alan Rosenthal: 1988, New challenges for documentary, University of California Press, 0520057252
William Rothman: 1997, Documentary film classics, University of Cambridge Press, 0521456819
Barclay, K. and O'Briain D: 0, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Chavez after the Coup,
Coner, John: 1996, The art of record: a critical introduction to documentary, Manchester University Press,
Vlada, P. ed. by Waugh, T.: 1984, Show us life - towards a history of asthetics of the committed documentary, Esther Shub: Film as a Historical Discourse, The Scarecrown Press,
edited and translated by Richard Taylor; co-edited with an introduction by Ian Christie: 1988, The Film factory, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 0710096283
Jay Leyda: 1983, Kino, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 0691003467
Vlada Petrić: 1987, Constructivism in film, (Vertov / Eisenstein controversy) 'The man with the movie camera, a cinematic analysis', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 0521443873
Edited by Luda and Jean Schnitzer and Marcel Martin. Translated and with additional material by David Robinson: 1973, Cinema in revolution, Dziga Vertov Chapter 5, Secker and Warburg, 0809013703