Lecture 5 – February 22

    Elements of Style: Influential Contemporary Film Makers 1978 – 2008:           

We examine this week the unique styles an choices of subject matter  of three film makers

IN RESPONSE TO A STUDENT’S QUESTION – we start by exploring the influence of Michael Moore in modern documentary film making.

then we turn our attention to film makers who have developed styles far more profound than Moore:

Ken Burns – and historical films as produced for American Public Television

Errol Morris – and cinematic documentary film maker with the touch of Hollywood

Nick Broomfield – and his personal approach to film making from Britain 

We also added consideration of another highly personal film maker – Harvard University lecturer in film Ross McElwee

            Historical, Anthropological, Personal film making.

Films to be shown in excerpt in class.

           Films:                   The Civil War (Burns 1990)     

                                                   http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/             

                                          Jazz (Burns 1998)      

                                                  http://www.pbs.org/jazz/index.htm

                                         The Thin Blue Line (Morris 1988) 

                                         The Fog of War (Morris 2003)    

                                                   http://www.errolmorris.com/biography.html

                                         The Selling of a Serial Killer  (Broomfield 1992)                                     

                                                           http://www.nickbroomfield.com/home.html           

other films – related genre -  Brother’s Keeper  (Berlinger and Sinofsky 1992) 

also compare Nick Broomfield to Michael Moore in terms of involvement in the documentary and personal stamp.

For more complete details of content see the powerpoint presentation HERE

jmsc-0044-documentaries-week-5-feb-22-08-for-web.ppt

             Other  Readings:     Barnouw pages 321 – 330                                  

             Other Websites:                                                                                   http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/04/31/errol_morris_interview.html                                   http://www.philipglass.com/            http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/                      

                         http://www.current.org/hi/hi308.html                                

      Note: Graduate students will be soon given extra work and seminars. They should read from Stubbs.   

 Chapter 5, Emotional Archaeologist                                  

 Chapter 8, Modern Adventurer                

 Chapter 9, Journalist Storyteller                                    Chapter 10, Experiential Storyteller