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After completing this module, you should be able to: |
understand the differences between “traditional” and cinema verite documentary.
understand the development of cinema verite documentary form.
understand characteristics and examples of docu-drama, mock documentary, music documentary, sport documentary, and televised documentary.
understand and apply rhetorical, genre, semiotic, and audience analysis approaches to issues of reality television.
understand how documentary can portray cultural worlds.
understand and consider ways of using documentaries to study social issues.
understand strategies for having students produce their own documentaries
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In studying documentary, it is useful to examine the role and function of documentary within the larger context of its relationship to “reality.” Documentary does more than simply present or mirror lived world events. It constructs its own versions of “reality.” Audiences must then judge the validity, verisimilitude, or success in presenting that version as a social commentary about experience, as well as its motives in doing so.
| It also useful to study documentary as a form of ethnographic understanding of cultural worlds. Ethnographers have recently turned to use of video and photography as tools for conducting studies of cultural worlds, as well as using older documentaries such as Nanook of the North — an early documentary of the Eskimo culture — as documents for studying cultures.
| And, documentaries can also be studied in relationship to the current media/postmodern culture. In a culture in which media versions of “reality” are themselves now considered a “reality,” reality television programs purport to present a dramatized, often sensationalized “reality.” However, that “reality” may be more a version of a “television drama reality” in which participants’ practices are geared to playing to the television camera in ways that are consistent with what these participants believe is part of playing a role on a reality-television program.
| By studying documentary in relationship to these issues of “reality,” students begin to examine the larger function of the media in a mediated culture. And, by producing their own documentaries, they recognize that their own versions of “reality” are themselves only constructions of lived experience.
| And, documentaries themselves play an important role in history.
The PBS series, Eyes on the Prize, Part I (1986) and Part
II (1989) documented the civil rights movement from 1954 to the
mid-1980s. |
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| What
was
important
about
this
award-winning
series
was
that
it
itself
influenced
attitudes
towards
race
in
the1980s
by
demonstrating
the
historical
sacrifices
Martin
Luther
King
and
many
civil
rights
workers,
while
at
the
same
time,
portraying
the
fact
that
the
struggle
for
civil
rights
was
far
from
over
in
the
1980s.
| Similarly, Spike Lee’s 1997 documentary, Four Little Girls, portrayed the bombing of a Birmingham church that resulted in the deaths of four young Black girls, and the aftermath attempts to bring those responsible for the bombing to justice.
| a
useful
introduction
to
documentary
Center
for
Independent
Documentaries
Center
for
Documentary
Studies,
Duke
University
The
Documentary
Institute,
University
of
Florida
Bright
Lights
Film
Journal:
reviews
of
documentaries
Documentary
Box:
journal
on
current
trends
in
documentary
production
Docuseek:
database
of
documentaries
| A
curriculum
unit
based
on
the
series
by
Peter
Herndon
of
the
Yale/New
Haven
Teacher’s
Institute
| reviews
of
documentaries
Jenny
Joynt,
Documentary
Viewing
IMBD:
Top
Rated
"Documentary"
Titles
(voting
as
of
May,
2004)
Rank
|
Rating |
Title
|
Votes |
1 |
8.5 |
Chagrin
et
la
pitié,
Le
(1969) |
273 |
2 |
8.5 |
Bowling
for
Columbine
(2002) |
25,741 |
3 |
8.3
|
Corporation,
The
(2003) |
363 |
4 |
8.3 |
The
Fog
of
War
(2003) |
1,173 |
5 |
8.2 |
Waco:
The
Rules
of
Engagement
(1997) |
400 |
6 |
8.2 |
Capturing
the
Friedmans
(2003) |
1,721 |
|
7 |
8.2 |
Promises
(2001)
|
337 |
8 |
8.1
|
Hearts
of
Darkness:
A
Filmmaker's
Apocalypse
(1991)
|
2,206 |
9 |
8.1 |
Nema-ye
Nazdik
(1990)
|
262 |
10 |
8.1
|
Spellbound
(2002/II)
|
2,066 |
11 |
8.1 |
Times
of
Harvey
Milk,
The
(1984)
|
272 |
12 |
8.1 |
Hearts
and
Minds
(1974)
|
250 |
13 |
8.1
|
Touching
the
Void
(2003)
|
1,128 |
14 |
8.1 |
Olympia
1.
Teil
-
Fest
der
Völker
(1938)
|
373 |
15 |
8.0 |
Un
coupable
idéal
(2001) |
277 |
16 |
8.0 |
Rivers
and
Tides
(2001) |
282 |
17 |
8.0 |
Mio
viaggio
in
Italia,
Il
(1999)
|
215 |
18 |
7.9 |
Salesman
(1969) |
265 |
19 |
7.9 |
Peuple
migrateur,
Le
(2001)
|
2,184 |
20 |
7.9 |
Être
et
avoir
(2002)
|
1,105 |
21 |
7.9 |
Ônibus
174
(2002)
|
251 |
22 |
7.9 |
Nuit
et
brouillard
(1955)
|
888 |
23 |
7.8 |
Paragraph
175
(1999) |
217 |
24 |
7.8 |
Stevie
(2002)
|
286 |
25 |
7.8 |
Thin
Blue
Line,
The
(1988)
|
1,718 |
26 |
7.8 |
Sans
soleil
(1983) |
327 |
|
27 |
7.8 |
Super
Size
Me
(2004)
|
499 |
28 |
7.8 |
Endurance:
Shackleton's
Legendary
Antarctic
Expedition,
The
(2000) |
353 |
29 |
7.8 |
Into
the
Arms
of
Strangers:
Stories
of
the
Kindertransport
(2000) |
299 |
30 |
7.8 |
Harlan
County,
U.S.A.
(1976)
|
234 |
31 |
7.8 |
Hoop
Dreams
(1994)
|
4,024 |
32 |
7.7 |
Olympia
2.
Teil
-
Fest
der
Schönheit
(1938)
|
234 |
33 |
7.7 |
Macht
der
Bilder:
Leni
Riefenstahl,
Die
(1993)
|
286 |
|
34 |
7.7 |
Roger
&
Me
(1989)
|
5,596 |
35 |
7.7 |
The
Compleat
Beatles
(1984)
|
294 |
36 |
7.7 |
Chelovek
s
kinoapparatom
(1929)
|
859 |
37 |
7.6 |
Koyaanisqatsi
(1983)
|
3,995 |
38 |
7.6 |
Last
Waltz,
The
(1978) |
1,725 |
39 |
7.6 |
Grey
Gardens
(1975)
|
304 |
40 |
7.6 |
Stop
Making
Sense
(1984)
|
1,777 |
41 |
7.6 |
When
We
Were
Kings
(1996) |
2,784 |
42 |
7.6 |
Backyard,
The
(2002)
|
276 |
43 |
7.6 |
Crumb
(1994)
|
2,966 |
44 |
7.6 |
Stanley
Kubrick:
A
Life
in
Pictures
(2001)
|
1,180 |
45 |
7.6 |
Woodstock
(1970)
|
2,095 |
46 |
7.5 |
Scratch
(2001/II) |
365 |
47 |
7.5 |
Visions
of Light (1992) |
424 |
48 |
7.5 |
That's
Entertainment! (1974) |
1,125 |
49 |
7.5 |
Trembling
Before G-d (2001) |
215 |
50 |
7.5 |
Microcosmos:
Le peuple de l'herbe (1996) |
1,660 |
|
For further reading on documentary:
| Aitken, I. (Ed.). (1998). The documentary film
movement. Edinburg: Edinburg University Press. | Bruzzi,
S. (2000). New documentary: A critical introduction.
New York: Routledge. | Girgus, S.
B. (2003). America on film: Modernism, documentary, and
a changing America. New York: Cambridge University Press.
| Nichols, B. (2001). Introduction
to documentary. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
| Stubbs, L. (2002). Documentary filmmakers speak. New York: Allworth Press.
| Waldman, D., & Walker, J. (Eds.) (1999). Feminism
and documentary. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
| Winston, B. (2000). Lies, damn lies
and documentaries. London: British Film Institute | | |
|
