LT930-7-SP-CO:
Documentary and the Avant-garde: Film, Video, Digital

The details
2024/25
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Current
Monday 13 January 2025
Friday 21 March 2025
20
24 March 2022

 

Requisites for this module
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Key module for

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Module description

Our main aim will be to re-examine two presumed opposites: non-fiction film (which came to be known after 1926 as `documentary`) and the avant-garde, starting with classics of the form and moving towards hybrid or mixed genres. Intersections between documentary and avant-garde strategies will be foregrounded as we examine ways of perceiving (and questioning) reality and creating enhanced and even altered states of perception.

Along the way we interrogate the role of representation in conveying images received as `authentic`, `immediate`, or `real` and consider the theoretical and practical implications of 'accurately' representing real situations and events. Topics include: ethnography and ethnocentrism, cinema verite, war and propaganda, postmodern narratives, autobiography and personal `voice`.

Filmmakers include: The Edison Company, Dziga Vertov, Errol Morris, Samira Makhmalbaf, Ari Folman, Jean Rouch, The Maysles Brothers. In addition to the research project there is a practical film exercise, screened and discussed in class.

Module aims

1. To re-examine two presumed opposites: non-fiction cinema and the avant-garde
2. To re-view classics of the documentary form while moving towards hybrid or mixed sub-genres
3. To engage intersections between documentary and avant-garde approaches, foregrounding ways of perceiving reality on screen and how cinema creates enhanced and even altered states of perception
4. To interrogate the role of representation in conveying images received as `authentic`, `immediate`, or `real`
5. To reconsider theoretical and practical implications of ‘accurately’ representing real situations and events
6. To study a range of cinematic texts across different genres and sub-genres
7. To engage with concepts relating to ethnography, cinema verite, war and propaganda, postmodernity, autobiography and personal `voice`, and other modes of cinematic expression

Module learning outcomes

1. Enhanced understanding of documentary and avant-garde histories and approaches
2. Increased awareness of intersections between practices and cultures of documentary and the avant-garde
3. Enhanced understanding of a range of cinematic modes and sub-genres
4. Improved skills in preforming research related to documentary and avant-garde cinemas
5. Basic understanding of film practice as it relates to documentary and avant-garde
6. Increased awareness of the stakes and complexities behind doing practice-based work
7. Some understanding of the ethical implications of filming subjects

Module information

Aitken, Ian, ed., The Documentary Film Movement (Edinburgh University Press, 1998)
Barbash, Ilisa, Cross-Cultural Filmmaking: A Handbook (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997)
Barnouw, Erik, Documentary: A History of the Non-fiction Film (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1992)
Barsam, Richard Meran, Non Fiction Film: A Critical History (Allen and Unwin, 1974)
Beattie, Keith. Documentary Screens: Nonfiction Film and Television (New York: Palgrave, 2004)
Beattie, Keith. Documentary Display: Re-viewing Nonfiction Film and Video (London: Wallflower, 2008)
Bruzzi, Stella, New Documentary: A Critical Introduction (Routledge, 2000)
Corner, John, Art of Record: A Critical Introduction to Documentary (New York: St Martin's, 1996)
De Bromhead, Toni, Looking Two Ways (Intervention Press, 1998)
Leslie Deveraux and Roger Hillman, eds., Fields of Vision (Los Angeles: U of California Press, 1995)
Ellis, Jack C., The Documentary Idea (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1989)
Ellis, Jack C. and Betsy McLane, A New History of Documentary Film (London: Continuum, 2005)
Gaines, Jane and Michael Renov, eds., Collecting Visible Evidence (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999)
Geiger, Jeffrey, Facing the Pacific: Polynesia and the US Imperial Imagination (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007)
Geiger, Jeffrey, American Documentary Film: Projecting the Nation (Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2011)
Grant, Barry Keith and Jeannette Sloniowski, eds., Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings (Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1998)
Grierson, John, "Flaherty's Poetic Moana", all in Lewis Jacobs (ed), The Documentary Tradition (New York: W.W. Norton, 1979), pp. 25-27
Hight, Craig, Faking It: Mock Documentary and the Subversion of Factuality (Manchester UP, 2002)
Horak, Jan-Christopher, ed., Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-Garde, 1919-1945 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998)
James, David E., The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005)
Klotman, Phyllis and Janet K. Cutler eds., Struggles for Representation: African American Film and Video (Indiana University Press, 1999)
Mamber, Stephen, Cinema Verite in America: Studies in Uncontrolled Documentary (Boston: MIT Press, 1974)
McEnteer, James, Shooting the Truth: The Rise of American Political Documentaries (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006)
Nichols, Bill, Representing Reality (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1991)
Nichols, Bill, Blurred Boundaries (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1994)
Nichols, Bill, Introduction to Documentary (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2001)
Orbanz, Eva, ed., Filming Robert Flaherty's Louisiana Story: The Helen Van Dongen Diary (New York: Harry Abrams, 1998)
Ponech, Trevor, What Is Non-Fiction Cinema: On the Very Idea of Motion Picture Communication (Westview Press, 1999)
Rabinowitz, Paula, They Must Be Represented: the Politics of Documentary (London: Verso, 1994)
Renov, Michael, ed., Theorizing Documentary (London: Routledge, 1993)
Renov, Michael, and Erika Suderburg (eds), Resolutions: Contemporary Video Practices (University of Minnesota Press, 1996)
Rony, Fatimah Tobing, The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle (Durham: Duke UP, 1996)
Rosenthal, Alan, ed., New Challenges for Documentary (Berkeley: U of California Press, 1988)
Rothman, William, Documentary Film Classics (Cambridge UP, 1997)
Rouch, Jean, Ciné-Ethnography (University of Minnesota Press, 2003)
Ruby, Jay, Picturing Culture: Explorations in Film and Anthropology (University of Chicago Press, 2000)
Stoller, Paul, The Cinematic Griot: The Ethnography of Jean Rouch (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992)
Sussex, Elizabeth, The Rise and Fall of British Documentary (Berkeley: U of California P, 1975)
Ten Brink, Joram, ed., Building Bridges: The Cinema of Jean Rouch (London, Wallflower, 2006)
Vaughan, Dai, For Documentary: Twelve Essays (Berkeley: U of California Press, 1999)
Vogels, Jonathan, The Direct Cinema of David and Albert Maysles (
Williams, Christopher, ed., Realism and the Cinema, A Reader (London: Routledge, 1980)
Winston, Brian, Claiming the Real: The Documentary Film Revisited (London: BFI, 1995)
Winston, Brian, Claiming the Real II (London: BFI, 2008)
Winston, Brian, Lies, Damn Lies and Documentary (Berkeley: U of California Press, 2000)

Learning and teaching methods

Anticipated teaching delivery: 2-hour weekly seminar.

Bibliography*

The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam Description Deadline Coursework weighting
Coursework   Assignment 2 (Essay 3500 words)    70% 
Practical   Assignment 1 (Practical Project with Short Reflective Commentary)    30% 

Exam format definitions

  • Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
  • In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%

Reassessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Jeffrey Geiger, email: j.geiger@essex.ac.uk.
Professor Jeffrey Geiger
LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk. Telephone 01206 872626

 

Availability
No
No
No

External examiner

Dr Andrew Birtwistle
Canterbury Christ Church University
Reader in Film and Sound
Resources
Available via Moodle
Of 396 hours, 0 (0%) hours available to students:
396 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).

 

Further information
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies

* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.

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