| Course Name | History of Documentary Film |
| Code | Semester | Theory (hour/week) | Application/Lab (hour/week) | Local Credits | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDM 443 | Fall/Spring | 3 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Prerequisites | None | |||||
| Course Language | English | |||||
| Course Type | Elective | |||||
| Course Level | First Cycle | |||||
| Mode of Delivery | Online | |||||
| Teaching Methods and Techniques of the Course | ||||||
| Course Coordinator | - | |||||
| Course Lecturer(s) | ||||||
| Assistant(s) | - | |||||
| Course Objectives | This course examines the documentary through a series of questions: What defines this genre or mode? What truths can documentary claim? In addressing these questions this course considers the documentary film in relation to a wide variety of contexts: historical, political, and aesthetic. Course materials will cover the documentary canon—a set of historically important films — and examine documentary’s recent resurgence as a popular mode of entertainment and as a mechanism of discourse. |
| Learning Outcomes | The students who succeeded in this course;
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| Course Description | The course will include one mid term and one quiz. |
| Related Sustainable Development Goals | |
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| Core Courses | |
| Major Area Courses | X | |
| Supportive Courses | ||
| Media and Managment Skills Courses | ||
| Transferable Skill Courses |
| Week | Subjects | Required Materials |
| 1 | Introduction to Documentary | Bill Nichols, “Introduction” (pg. xi - xviii) and Chapter 1: How can we Define Documentary Film?” |
| 2 | Early Years of Documentary Screening: Nanook of the North, 1922, Robert Flaherty, 79 mins, Selections fromGrass and A Propos de Nice | Bill Nichols, “Chapter 5: How Did Documentary Filmmaking Get Started?” |
| 3 | Social Issues in Documentary Screening: Ekümenopolis, 2011, Imre Azem, 88 min. 4.1 Miles 2016, Daphne Matziaraki, 26 mins. | Bill Nichols, “Chapter 8: How Have Documentaries Addressed Social and Political Issues?” &“Chapter 4: What Makes Documentaries Engaging and Persuasive?” pages 212 – 253. |
| 4 | Ethics, Truth and Propaganda in Documentary Screening: Ici et Ailleurs (Here and Elsewhere) 1976, Anne-Marie-Mieville, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Jean-Luc Godard, 60 mins. Sections of Why We Fight, 1942, Frank Capra, 52 minutes | Bill Nichols, “Chapter 2: Why Are Ethical Issues Central to Documentary Filmmaking?” Sontag, S. (1975). “Fascinating Fascism”, New York Review of Books, 6 February 1975, pp. 73-105. |
| 5 | Documentary and Animals Screening: Winged Migration, 2001, Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats 98 mins., Leviathan 2012, Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, 87 mins | Anat Pick, “Animal Life in the Cinematic Umwelt,” in Animal Life and the Moving Image, (2015), Jennifer Fay, “Seeing/Loving Animals: André Bazin’s Posthumanism,” Journal of Visual Culture 7.1 (2008): 41-64. |
| 6 | Ethnographic Film & Documentary as Scientific Inquiry Screening: Nǃai, the Story of a ǃKung Woman, 1980, John Marshall, 59 mins. | Karl Heider. 2006. “Introduction,” and “A History of Ethnographic Film.” in Ethnographic Film. pp. 1-14 & 15-49. |
| 7 | Forms of Documentary: Expository Screening: Man on Wire, 2008, James Marsh, 94 min. | Bill Nichols, “Chapter 6: How Can we Differentiate Among Documentaries?” pages 167 – 172. |
| 8 | Forms of Documentary: Poetic Screening: Koyaanisqatsi, 1982 Godfrey Reggio, 87 min. and the Kuleshov Effect | Bill Nichols, “Chapter 6: How Can we Differentiate Among Documentaries?” pages 142 – 166. Bill Nichols. 2001. “Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde.” Critical Inquiry. 27:4. pp. 580-610. |
| 9 | Mid Term Exam – no class | |
| 10 | Forms of Documentary: Observational Screening İki Dil Bir Bavul, Orhan Eskiköy and Özgür Doğan, 2008, 81 mins. Sections of: Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back, 1967, D.A. Pennebaker, 96 min | Bill Nichols, “Chapter 7: How Can We Describe the Observational, Participatory, Reflexive, and Performative Modes of Documentary Film?” pages 172 – 179. |
| 11 | Forms of Documentary: Participatory Screening: Grizzly Man, 2005, Werner Herzog, 1 hr, 44 mins. Lift, 2001, Marc Isaacs, 24 mins. | Bill Nichols, Chapter 7 continued, pages 179 – 194. |
| 12 | Forms of Documentary: Reflexive Screening: Stories We Tell, 2012, Sarah Polley, 108 mins. | Bill Nichols, Chapter 7 continued, pages 194 – 199. |
| 13 | The Reenactment Screening: The Act of Killing, 2012, Joshua Oppenheimer. 1 hr 57 mins., sections of The Thin Blue Line, Errol Morris, 1988. | Bill Nichols, Chapter 7 continued, pages 159-172, 199 – 212. |
| 14 | The Mockumentary Screening: Land without Bread, Luis Buñuel. 1933, 27 mins. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, 2006, Larry Charles, 86 mins. | F is for Phony: Fake Documentary and Truth's Undoing. Alexandra Juhasz and Jesse Lerner, Eds. University of Minnesota Press, 2006. |
| 15 | Semester review | |
| 16 | Semester review |
| Course Notes/Textbooks | Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, Indiana University Press, 2017 (3rd Edition). |
| Suggested Readings/Materials | Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press, 1996. |
| Semester Activities | Number | Weigthing |
| Participation | 1 | 10 |
| Laboratory / Application | ||
| Field Work | ||
| Quizzes / Studio Critiques | 1 | 45 |
| Portfolio | ||
| Homework / Assignments | ||
| Presentation / Jury | ||
| Project | ||
| Seminar / Workshop | ||
| Oral Exam | ||
| Midterm | 1 | 45 |
| Final Exam | - | |
| Total |
| Weighting of Semester Activities on the Final Grade | 3 | 100 |
| Weighting of End-of-Semester Activities on the Final Grade | ||
| Total |
| Semester Activities | Number | Duration (Hours) | Workload |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course Hours (Including exam week: 16 x total hours) | 16 | 3 | 48 |
| Laboratory / Application Hours (Including exam week: 16 x total hours) | 16 | ||
| Study Hours Out of Class | 14 | 2 | 28 |
| Field Work | |||
| Quizzes / Studio Critiques | 1 | 22 | |
| Portfolio | |||
| Homework / Assignments | |||
| Presentation / Jury | |||
| Project | |||
| Seminar / Workshop | |||
| Oral Exam | |||
| Midterms | 1 | 22 | |
| Final Exams | - | ||
| Total | 120 |
| # | Program Competencies/Outcomes | * Contribution Level | ||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 1 | To be able to have fundamental knowledge about narrative forms in cinema, digital and interactive media, and the foundational concepts relevant to these forms. | X | ||||
| 2 | To be able to create narratives based on creative and critical thinking skills, by using the forms and tools of expression specific to cinema and digital media arts. | X | ||||
| 3 | To be able to use the technical equipment and software required for becoming a specialist/expert in cinema and digital media. | |||||
| 4 | To be able to perform skills such as scriptwriting, production planning, use of the camera, sound recording, lighting and editing, at the basic level necessary for pre-production, production and post-production phases of an audio-visual work; and to perform at least one of them at an advanced level. | |||||
| 5 | To be able to discuss how meaning is made in cinema and digital media; how economy, politics and culture affect regimes of representation; and how processes of production, consumption, distribution and meaning-making shape narratives. | |||||
| 6 | To be able to perform the special technical and aesthetic skills at the basic level necessary to create digital media narratives in the fields of interactive film, video installation, experimental cinema and virtual reality. | |||||
| 7 | To be able to critically analyze a film or digital media artwork from technical, intellectual and artistic perspectives. | X | ||||
| 8 | To be able to participate in the production of a film or digital media artwork as a member or leader of a team, following the principles of work safety and norms of ethical behavior. | |||||
| 9 | To be able to stay informed about global scientific, social, economic, cultural, political, institutional and industrial developments. | |||||
| 10 | To be able to develop solutions to legal, scientific and professional problems surrounding the field of cinema and digital media. | |||||
| 11 | To be able to use a foreign language to communicate with colleagues and collect data in the field of cinema and digital media. ("European Language Portfolio Global Scale", Level B1). | |||||
| 12 | To be able to use a second foreign language at the medium level. | |||||
| 13 | To be able to connect the knowledge accumulated throughout human history to the field of expertise. | |||||
*1 Lowest, 2 Low, 3 Average, 4 High, 5 Highest
