Documentary
Code
722011046
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Ciências da Comunicação
Credits
10
Teacher in charge
José Manuel Costa
Weekly hours
3 letivas + 1 tutorial
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
Generally speaking, the student must become acquainted with the discussion of documentary as a component of film art, developing both the capacity to analyse it and the capacity to elaborate creative projects.
In particular, one aims the student:
1. to understand the origin and the evolution of the idea of documentary in the context of cinema and other arts throughout the Twentieth Century;
2. to learn how to relate important documentary steps with turning points in film history and with paradigmatic models of film theory;
3. to improve the capacity to raise interpretation frameworks in order to read the history of film art;
4. to get the capacity to analyse theoretical questions in relation to the ontological realism of film;
5. to acquire competence to analyse documentary films and, more generally, moving images;
6. to understand the specific nature of creative documentary projects and to be able to raise and develop projects in that area.
Prerequisites
None. 20 vacancies: 15 (for students of Master in Science Communication); 5 (for students of Master in Anthropology).
Subject matter
a) The questioning of identity: documentary as an art movement and as an anti-conventional agent; documentary as metonymy (the confrontation with reality as an intrinsic aspect of the cinematographic image).
b) Steps of evolution: the problem of the beginnings; forerunners; documentary and avant-garde at the end of the 20s; the documentary of the 30s; relations with the formative theoretical paradigm; the revolution of the direct cinema; documentary trends in the 60s; the exploration of time and its effect on the treatment of space; relations with the realistic paradigm; documentary after the 60s (language shifts, the new role of montage); modern contemporary paths.
c) Rethinking film history according to the previous perspective: documentary, realism and the building of modern cinema; documentary at the frontiers of cinema and at the new crossroads of the arts.
d) Conceptual and methodological questions in the development of a documentary project (practical exercise).
Bibliography
ROSENTHAL, Alan (ed) / CORNER,John (ed), New Challenges for Documentary, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2005, 507 p
NICHOLS, Bill (2001), Introduction to Documentary, Indiana Univ. Press
NICHOLS, Bill (1991), Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary, Bloomington, Indianapolis: Indiana Univ. Press
MARSOLAIS, Gilles (1997), LAventure du Cinéma Direct Revisité, Laval-Québec: Les 400 Coups
GRANT, Barry Keith (1992), Voyages of Discovery: the Cinema of Frederick Wiseman, Urbana: University of Illinois Press
Teaching method
Classes include a theoretical and a practical approach (50%/50%)
All classes include oral presentation of the syllabus and examples of film analysis done by the teacher and followed by collective discussion.
Along the semester each student does a film 5 minutes long, shown and discussed in class.
Evaluation method
Evaluation is done upon the individual practical work, including three different steps, each with a specific weight in the final classification: presentation of a written project (20%); presentation and discussion of the first version of the film (20%); presentation and discussion of the final version (60%).