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FS5533: DOCUMENTARY THEORY AND PRACTICE (2023-2024)

Last modified: 23 Jul 2024 10:43


Course Overview

The module offers a comprehensive look at how documentary has interrogated, and in some rare cases even influenced, politics, social values, and even popular culture. Students will be expected to look at how documentary filmmakers have built upon the famous Griersonian quote – ‘the creative treatment of actuality’ – to evolve the form’s style and scope as well as to challenge the very notion of filmic truth and reality. Attendees to the module will also learn how to identify the key documentary modes and be expected to analyse and understand how the movement’s use of transgressive visual images, no matter how apparently ‘genuine’, is frequently presented through a cinematic perspective that is not always objective. Furthermore, the module will require students to produce a short documentary or individual video essay (in documentary form) and, in doing so, explore the challenges of objective presentations.

Course Details

Study Type Postgraduate Level 5
Term Second Term Credit Points 30 credits (15 ECTS credits)
Campus Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Dr Calum Waddell

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • Any Postgraduate Programme
  • Film And Visual Culture (FS)

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

This module will introduce some of the major debates that have surrounded documentary filmmaking, using classic and established theory approaches (Grierson, Winston) alongside more contemporary course reading appropriate to the form’s evolution and newfound popularity. Students can expect to reflect on key documentary topics such as objectivity, reality, naturalism, performance, and truth. The course will also ask students to engage with several areas of documentary production including early works such as Nanook of the North (1922), the ‘new wave’, instigated by American filmmakers Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine and Sicko) and Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me), political filmmaking (Hearts and Minds, Mugabe and the White African), direct approaches (with the Oscar winning Scared Straight) and such controversial texts as Jacopetti, Cavara and Prosperi’s Mondo Cane (1962) through to the more recent trend in reality-based ‘mockumentary’ (i.e. Borat and Jackass). In each instance, students will be asked to compare and contrast how the documentary format has changed and how this has impacted on contentious, and widely debated, elements of ‘reality’ and ‘truth’. At the conclusion of this semester, students will be able to identify documentary modes and recognise how the unique aesthetic appearance of the form can be exploited for manipulation. Such study will lead to an informed critical essay and the production of a short documentary film project (between three and five minutes long), which will draw on at least one particular stylistic mode explored in the course viewing and learning.


Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 30 August 2024 for 1st term courses and 20 December 2024 for 2nd term courses.

Summative Assessments

Documentary project

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 40
Assessment Weeks 35 Feedback Weeks 37

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Documentary project – 40%, practice output, to produce and direct a short documentary feature as a team of three or four or an individual video essay featuring expository commentary and the use of clips from the texts explored in the module, discussing some of the key movement trends. This will be of a longer running time than the UG option, comprising at least 10-15 mins.

Written feedback

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualUnderstandCritically evaluate documentary representations of ‘truth’ and ‘reality’ through both written and practical assessments.
FactualAnalyseCritically analyse and debate the ways documentary has changed, both formally and theoretically - from the earliest examples of the form through the performative style that has defined the ‘new wave’
FactualApplyDevelop expertise in different documentary modes of representation through a critical awareness of current and historic research in the field

Tutorial/Seminar Participation

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 10
Assessment Weeks 39 Feedback Weeks 42

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Written feedback

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualUnderstandCritically evaluate documentary representations of ‘truth’ and ‘reality’ through both written and practical assessments.
FactualAnalyseCritically analyse and debate the ways documentary has changed, both formally and theoretically - from the earliest examples of the form through the performative style that has defined the ‘new wave’
FactualApplyDevelop expertise in different documentary modes of representation through a critical awareness of current and historic research in the field

Essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 50
Assessment Weeks 33 Feedback Weeks 35

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Essay – 50%, theory-based question regarding documentary, 3500 words

Written feedback

Word Count 3500
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualUnderstandCritically evaluate documentary representations of ‘truth’ and ‘reality’ through both written and practical assessments.
FactualAnalyseCritically analyse and debate the ways documentary has changed, both formally and theoretically - from the earliest examples of the form through the performative style that has defined the ‘new wave’
FactualApplyDevelop expertise in different documentary modes of representation through a critical awareness of current and historic research in the field

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Resit Assessments

Tutorial/Seminar Participation

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 10
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Tutorial/Seminar Participation mark carried forward from first sitting.

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Resubmission of essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 50
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Written feedback

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Proposal for an un-filmed documentary project

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 40
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
FactualApplyDevelop expertise in different documentary modes of representation through a critical awareness of current and historic research in the field
ConceptualUnderstandCritically evaluate documentary representations of ‘truth’ and ‘reality’ through both written and practical assessments.
FactualAnalyseCritically analyse and debate the ways documentary has changed, both formally and theoretically - from the earliest examples of the form through the performative style that has defined the ‘new wave’
ProceduralCreateCreate a short team documentary project or related video essay that demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of applicable techniques and a level of conceptual originality
ReflectionEvaluateStudents will use their time in class and on the discussion board as part of their SAM to reflect on the nature of documentary and to critically consider weekly screenings.
ReflectionRememberModule participants will conclude the programme with a knowledge of documentary history and how the form has continued to evolve and provoke to the present day.

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