Documentary Films 2008

Lecture notes will be entered each week after the lecture in outline form.

Reading these lecture notes is no subsitute for attending each week.  Questions on final examination will be based on lectures, readings, and films screened independently and in class.

This Week (as it is add/drop week) = Introductions.

Definitions of a Documentary
JohnGrierson defined the genre as a “creative treatment of actuality” on film.

Common elements of Documentary film:

long form non-fiction visual treatment

a POV or point of view: usually the personal view of a single film maker or a team of film makers.

not necessarily an “objective” journalistic treatment.   [most documentaries tend to be highly subjective]

either a narrative form or unnarrated observational form

with or without “set-up” interviews

During this first lecture we providing a “sampler” of SOME of the films we will be considering.

Among the points we addressed – which will be expanded upon later – we pointed up the importance of music to create mood and drama in documentary film from the earliest times (the 1920′s) to the present day.  We noted that early films were scored and accompanied by live “pit” orchestras in the theatres in which they were screened.

We also noted our key text for this book will be the documentary film history by Erik Barnouw “Documentary: a history of non-fiction film” Oxford University Press – available at the University.

Among the films we screened in excerpt this week were: 

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City 1927 by Walter Ruttmann

Gimme Shelter, 1970, The Maysles Brothers

Myths Behind the Miracle, 1981, Malcolm Clarke/Jim Laurie

From Mao to Mozart, 1980, Murray Lerner

To Live is Better than to Die  2003 by Chen Weijun

Manufacturing Dissent, 2007, Debbie Melnyk/Rick Caine