Registry
Module Specifications
Archived Version 2011 - 2012
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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 as creative 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 of truth 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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 |
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Indicative Content and
Learning Activities Lecture 1General 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 Revolutionthe 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 SurvivalRobert Flaherty, romantic, explorer and advocate, and the ethics of representation.Documenting the workersThe 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 IrelandThe history of documentary in Ireland.The Cinema Verité movement, reflexivity, and modern ethnographyJean Rouch & Edgar MorinDirect Cinema and Reality FictionFrederick 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 MooreDocumentary and multiculturalismThe Black Film Collective. The concept of “Third Cinema”, and its radical possibilities.Ethnography and surrealismCreativity in documentary, reflexivity and meaning. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Indicative Reading List
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Other Resources None | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Programme or List of Programmes |
MCSI | MA in Contemporary Screen Industries |
MTV | MA in Film and Television Studies |
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