Crafting the Truth / Chapter 1 “Authenticity”
This chapter from Louis Spence and Vinicius Navarro’s book looks at the nature and transparency of representation in documentary and the role of the documentarian.
Kill the Documentary • Jill Godmilow
This essay from 2001 offers Jill’s take on what is wrong and right about documentary filmmaking.
Directing the Documentary • Michael Rabiger
Chap 2 Defining Your Artistic Identity
Here is a link to the Ursula K. Le Guin essay that came up in conversation on Feb 1:
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ursula-k-le-guin-the-carrier-bag-theory-of-fiction
Here is a link to the manifesto by Alex Juhasz and Alisa Lebow “Against Story”
https://vols.worldrecordsjournal.org/05/01?index=1
WEEK 2 READING
“Dismantling Modernism” is a 1978 essay by Allan Sekula that asks for a re-think of documentary’s good intentions. He calls for an end to the “aestheticization of suffering” and documentary projects built around the plight of the victimized.
This essay by photo critic David Levi Strauss argues that maybe it is time to re-think the critique offered by Sekula and others.
NOTE: In the syllabus I put the Rabiger Chapter “Developing Story Ideas” for Week 2, but I already scanned it and placed it above.
WEEK 3 READING AND VIEWING
Želimir Žilnik is considered one of most renown directors of the Yugoslav Black Wave movement of the 1960s and 1970s, a movement that also included Dusan Makavejev. His film The Old School of Capitalism (2009) came out at a time when the 2008 crash had hit Eastern Europe. It is worth remembering that although Tito’s Yugoslavia was a Communist country, it followed its own path. Under the title “Worker’s Self-Management” the bulk of the economy consisted of firms in which workers owned shares, as opposed to the Soviet model of state ownership, and the Western model of investor/shareholders. Zilnik made three documentaries in 2008 and 2009, which played on Serbian television and were part of the national debate. According to his own remarks, he was meeting with factory workers who wanted him to show the privatization was going on in Serbian factories and he realized the only way to do it was to use a combination of documentary and fiction approaches.
The Old School of Capitalism
password: screentime2022
I am not including the Brian Massumi article that is listed in the syllabus, as the Zilnik seems more cogent right now.
Here is a link to Jill Godmilow’s film Far from Poland.
password: IMADOC2
Michael Rabiger Directing the Documentary Chapter 17 POV & Storytelling
WEEK 4 READING
Here is a short chapter from Rabiger that talks about research. Take a look and think about two things. One: What does “research” consist of for you? Do you need to go to the library, or look through film archives? Do you need to find sources for potential interviews? And what about the other elements? Note that Rabiger asks you to think about the sound carefully.
The other thing that Rabiger mentions is the hypothesis. This may seem elusive, but I want you to come up with a hypothesis for your project as part of your Research Plan. This will change as you do your research. I enclose a worksheet in the assignment section. I am also including this chapter from Barry Hempe’s Making Documentary Films and Videos: A Practical Guide.
VISUAL EVIDENCE
And here is a section from Spence and Navarro’s Crafting Truth that lays out their ideas about the multiple levels of truth that a documentary project can carry:
FILM AS RESEARCH
Rabiger uses Darwin’s Nightmare as an example of a documentary project where the film is the research. Here is a link to the film. The password is IMADOC2
Rabiger Advanced Research
“From Fieldwork to Filming” Barbash and Taylor. This chapter comes from their classic text on “Cross-cultural filmmaking.” This kind of ethnographic filmmaking is a near neighbor of visual anthropology, and shares social scientific concerns with the ethics of ‘subject relations’ with the folks in front of the camera.
WEEK 6 READING
This chapter deals with film grammar and the creation of a filmic space:
WEEK 8 READING
This week we are taking a close look at video technology. Here is a chapter from Documentary Voice & Vision by Kelly Anderson and Marty Lucas
WEEK 11 READING
Lavalier Placement
https://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138795433/videos.php
RESISTING PARADISE
READING AND SLIDES FOR WEEK 12
EXPOSURE AND GAMMA
IMA Doc II Spring 2022 