History of Documentary Film 3700-AL-HFD-qTM
The course aims at a possibly comprehensive presentations of a specific field, namely the world history of documentary film since its beginnings in late 19th century till now. Cinema, as a cultural and social phenomenon, begins with documentary forms (such as the shorts by Lumiere brothers), and then evolves towards development of the form, until it reaches the present richness of documentary forms in cinema, television and online. The course will inculde the following themes:
- The beginnings of Cinema and of documentary registration of reality
- First newsreels
- British School of Documentary (e.g. John Grierson and „Drifters”, 1929)
- Film avant-gardde and documentary (Joris Ivens)
- Soviet school of montage and documentary film (Dziga Vertov)
- The beginnings of epic and antropological documentart (Robert Flaherty)
- British WW2 documentary film (Humphrey Jennings)
- Polish School of Documentary (Karabasz/Kieślowski/Hoffman/Skórzewski)
- Free Cinema and New British Documentary (Anderson/Richardson/Reisz)
- Cinema Verite in France (Jean Rouch)
- Direct Cinema in the United States (Drew/Wiseman/Pennebaker)
- Psychological documentary (“Grey Gardens”, the Maysles Brothers)
- Investigative Documentary (Errol Morris)
- Reality show / TV documentaries
- Experimental documentary / MTV (Godfrey Reggio)
- Persuasive documentary after /11 (Michael Moore)
The form of the class is a lecture with elements of participatory discussion. The lecture will be richly illustrated by film examples, which will serve as discussion points.
The students will be expected to devote a couple of hours of extra time to watch several documentaries given to them as home work.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Assessment criteria
The basic criteria is the assesment of student’s ability to learn key information about history of documentary film (film titles, artists’ names, names and characteristics of trends, etc.) This knowledge should be displayed in the final paper, which will contain an analysis of a chosen documentary film and will provide the basis of the final grade.
Bibliography
Literatura zalecana:
BARSAM R.M., Non-Fiction Film: A Critical History, Bloomington–Indianapolis 1992.
GRANT B. K, HILLIER J., 100 Documentary Films, London 2009.
HELMAN A., Film faktów i film fikcji: dialektyka postaw i poetyk twórczych, Katowice 1977.
KOŁODYŃSKI A., Tropami filmowej prawdy, Warszawa 1981.
OSTHERR K., Medical Visions: Producing the Patient Through Film, Television and Imaging Technologies, Oxford 2013.
PRZYLIPIAK M., Kino bezpośrednie 1960–1963, Gdańsk 2007.
– Kino bezpośrednie 1963–1970: Czas autorów, Gdańsk 2014.
– Kino bezpośrednie 1963–1970: Między obserwacją a ideologią, Gdańsk 2013.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: