From: web-form@Oswego.EDU
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Subject: Web Form: Course Submission

IP Address: 129.3.36.211
Department Chair: Bennet Schaber
Department Chair Email: schaber@oswego.edu 
Additional Contact: Amy Shore Additional 
Contact Email: shore@oswego.edu 
Course Number: ENG 389 
Course Type: New Course 
Course Title: Documentary Traditions 
Catalog Description: Intensive study of documentary traditions in film, video and new media. The course will examine different approaches to documentary, including ethnographic film, the social documentary and guerrilla media. It will also provide historical and geopolitical frames for examining the politics of documentary.
Prerequisites: ENG 286
Fl - irregular basis: Yes
Semester Hours: 3

justificationforcourse: Student population: Targeted to Cinema and Screen Studies, English/Creative Writing, Art, Broadcast communications, Anthropology, Journalism and other majors with elements of documentary in their field. Open to all students who have taken ENG 286.

Class size: This course will have a cap of 35 students. At this size, the class can have meaningful conversations about the films and issues in documentary practices including ethics, form, style and mode of production.

Elective status: This is a specialty topic that can be pursued as an elective within several majors at the University.

Level: At the 300 level, students should have some sophistication with theoretical and historical approaches to texts that can be mobilized for the study of documentary film and video.
course Objectives: - Apply fundamentals of documentary theory to the analysis of individual films and the practice of documentary production in general.
- Integrate historical contexts with the analysis of individual films and the practice of documentary production in general.
- Differentiate among approaches to documentary filmmaking such as personal documentary, guerilla filmmaking, cinema verite, etc.
- Discuss ethical issues in documentary filmmaking.

Course Description: This course will examine traditions in documentary film, video and new media from the dual perspectives of the viewer and the filmmaker. It will provide historical and geopolitical frames for understanding various documentary approaches, including ethnographic film, cinema verite, observational cinema, the personal documentary, the social documentary, experimental documentary, guerrilla media and video blogs. While the course will focus on documentary trends, it will also examine theoretical and culturally powerful issues such as the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity in the documentary mode, the impact of technological innovations on documentary practices, and the role of documentary in social movements. 

The course satisfies requirements in the Electives Group of the Cinema and Screen Studies major and the Theory Group of the English major.
Resources: No additional resources are needed for the course, although further strengthening of the holdings at Penfield and the Learning Resource Center in Cinema Studies would be an ongoing process handled through the standard procedures for placing orders. The department must continue to expand its video library. The department has faculty resources and expertise to offer this course. We have verified with computing resources and the library that we have sufficient resources to offer this course. 
Bibliography: Baker, Maxine. Documentary in the Digital Age. Focal Press, 2005.

Beattie, Keith.  Documentary Screens. Palgrave-McMillan 2004.

Bernard, Sheila Curran. Documentary Storytelling For Video and Filmmakers. Focal Press, 2004

Bruzzi, Stella.  New Documentary: A Critical Introduction.  New York: Routledge, 2000.

Dixon, Wheeler. Experimental Cinema, The Film Reader. Routledge, 2002.

Ellis, Jack and Betsy A. Mclane. A New History of Documentary Film. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005.

Gaines, Jane and Michael Renov, Eds. Collecting Visible Evidence. University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

Ginsburg, Faye, Lila Abu-Lughod and Brian Larkin, Eds. Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. University of California Press, 2002.

Keith, Barry and Jeannette Sloniowski, Eds. Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video. Wayne State UP, 1998.

Klotman, Phyllis and Janet K. Cutler, Eds. Struggles for Representation: African American Documentary Film and Video. Indiana UP, 1999.

MacDougall, David. Transcultural Cinema. Princeton UP, 1998.

MacDougall, David. The Corporeal Image: Film, Ethnography, and the Senses. Princeton UP, 2005.

Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary. Indiana University Press, 2001.

Renov, Michael. The Subject of Documentary. University of Minnesota Press, 2004.

Rouch, Jean. Cine-Ethnography. Steven Feld (Translator). University of Minnesota Press, 2003.

Russell, Catherine. Experimental Ethnography: The Work of Film in the Age of Video. Duke UP, 1999.
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