Admission requirements
Enrolled in Film and Literary Studies BA program, or completion of one previous film related course.
Description
Cinema, and in particular documentary film, has provoked a host of questions surrounding our understanding of authenticity, of truthfulness, of objectivity, and of reality. We wonder: can a documentary film depict its object of representation in a transparent, factual, and accurate way? In other words, we wonder about the nature of documentary representation in its relationship to evidence, truth, and fact.
It is sometimes assumed that documentary film is capable of representing socio- historical events, people, places, and phenomena, without manipulation or distortion. When that happens, it is taken for granted that cinema can present the facts as they exist out there. That audiovisual depiction may relay a world to us that pre-exists the act of representation. But what does it mean to say that documentaries present us with objective accounts of their subject matter? What does it mean to suggest that cinema has the ability to generate presumably undistorted representations of the world we live in?
This course investigates how documentary film attempts to convince us of its accuracy, truthfulness, and authenticity. The course will look, not only at documentary film, but at other modes of visual representation that rely on mimetic assumptions of filmic registrations of truth, like surveillance footage and contemporary video art. Examining various case studies, we will address the ways in which film convinces us of its objectivity, and persuades the viewer to believe a certain version of the truth. We will not merely analyze the films from the perspective of theory, but allow our objects of analysis to help theorize what it means to speak of authenticity and truth in the first place.
Which rhetorical strategies do these films use? What are the political, ethical, and aesthetic implications of those strategies? On which conventions does their mode of representation rely? How do the representations of reality that are produced by means of stylistic and narrative techniques, become legible in our socio- political context? And under which material and cultural conditions does this imagery become meaningful?
This course examines issues surrounding the ambiguous relationship between fact and fiction, between what counts as real, and what counts as imaginary. Looking at a range of different objects, from traditional documentary film, to more experimental work, and from GoPro to CCTV footage, this course investigates the politics of audiovisual evidence in cinema.
Course objectives
On completion of this course:
The student has knowledge of the most important developments in the field of documentary film;
The student has gained insight into the dominant theoretical frameworks, the reflections on them as well as on the approaches to historical developments;
The student has gained knowledge of the most important theoretical, artistic and socio-political debates regarding the functions and the effection of documartary strategies in cinematic media;
The student is able to identify the differences and the intersections between documentary and fiction film and to reflection on these;
The student has the capacity to independently analyse documentary films using the concepts and ideas that we have processed in our study of theoretical texts.
Timetable
The timetables are available through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Assessment method
Assessment
Essay
Word count: 2000 words
IndividualBrightspace Discussion Board contribution
Weighing
Essay (100%)
Brightspace Discussion Board contribution (Pass/Fail)
Resit
Resit will be available for the essay and will be due one week after the gardes are published.
Inspection and feedback
Comprehensive feedback will be provided via an assessment form.
Reading list
Literature will be announced on Brightspace before the beginning of the course. Texts will be made available on Brightspace. Literature should be studied before each class.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Registration Exchange
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal.
Remarks
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