Postgraduate Course: Introduction to Documentary Cinema: Exploring the Interface of Theory and Practice (DESI11173)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Over a century since its inception, documentary cinema remains a dynamic, youthful medium, with many questions of form and content still to be explored.
This course explores how perspectives from film theory and film practice can, both separately and together, develop our understandings of the history of documentary cinema.
A course that caters equally for documentary filmmaking students on the MA Film Directing whilst also being open as an elective to students interested in documentary cinema from across the University, this course serves as an interdisciplinary forum in which filmmakers, film theorists and those interested in film can come together to explore some of the fundamental questions of documentary film history. |
| Course description |
The history of cinema began with documentary film, through the short films of the Lumière brothers at the turn of the 20th century. Over a hundred years later, documentary cinema remains a dynamic, youthful medium, with many questions of form and content still to be explored.
Since cinema's inception, however, the practice of making films and how we seek to understand film through theory have largely become separate activities within global film culture: filmmakers working within industry contexts rarely engage with theoretical perspectives on their work, whilst those writing about film in both academic and non-academic contexts tend to have little engagement with the concrete practice of making a film.
This course therefore seeks to open up a new space in which to explore the fruitful interface between film theory and film practice within documentary film history, asking what understandings of theory can contribute to documentary film practice, and what understandings of practice can contribute to documentary film theory.
Adopting this dual perspective, the course will explore a series of key moments throughout the global history of documentary filmmaking, seeking to illuminate new insights from the consideration of key works of documentary cinema within the intersecting frames of film theory and film practice.
In doing so, the course encourages students with either a background or interest in documentary film practice and/or documentary film theory to come together in order to explore the fruitful intersection between the social, cultural, political and aesthetic perspectives of film theory and the granular, on-the-ground practice of making films.
Teaching will include weekly lectures and a series of complimentary film screenings, and seminars in which students will be able to practice key critical and analytical skills pertaining to the course learning outcomes.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Contexualise documentary films within a critical consideration of the existing discourses around documentary cinema, both scholarly and otherwise.
- Analyse decisions made by documentary filmmakers through fine-grained, 'shot-by-shot' consideration of their work.
- Generate new critical insights about documentary cinema through bringing together these dual, complimentary perspectives on documentary practice and documentary theory.
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Reading List
Macdonald, Kevin et al, 1996, Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of Documentary (London and Boston: Faber & Faber)
Myer, Clive (ed), 2001, Critical Cinema: Beyond The Theory of Practice, (London and New York: Wallflower Press)
Nichols, Bill, 2017, Introduction to Documentary (Third Edition) (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press). |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
This course aligns to SCQF level 11.
Learning Outcome 1 (¿Contexualise documentary films within a critical consideration of the existing discourses around documentary cinema, both scholarly and otherwise¿) correlates to the SCQF level 11 descriptor that students gain ¿a critical understanding of the principal theories, concepts and principles¿ (Characteristic 1: Knowledge and Understanding) that pertain to documentary cinema from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Students will gain a knowledge of documentary film history through both in-depth studies of particular films alongside discussion of some of the broader theoretical, cultural and political issues within documentary film studies.
Learning Outcome 2 (¿Analyse decisions made by documentary filmmakers through fine-grained, ¿shot-by-shot¿ consideration of their work¿) correlates to the SCQF level 11 descriptor that students ¿apply knowledge, skills and understanding¿ in both using and applying a range of specialised skills, techniques and practices that are at the forefront of, or informed by forefront developments¿ in the critical consideration of documentary cinema (Characteristic 2: Practice: Applied Knowledge, Skills and Understanding). Students will apply a Bergalian ¿creative analysis¿, to ¿swim upstream¿ in the creative process, in reconstructing key decisions of documentary filmmakers.
Learning Outcome 3 (¿Generate new critical insights about documentary cinema through bringing together these dual, complimentary perspectives on documentary practice and documentary theory¿.) correlates to the SCQF level 11 descriptor that students will be required to ¿apply critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis to forefront issues, or issues that are informed by forefront developments in the subject/discipline/sector¿ (Characteristic 3: Generic Cognitive Skills) in reconciling questions of theory and practice within a consideration of documentary film history. |
| Keywords | Documentary,Film,Cinema,Film Theory,Film Practice |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jamie Chambers
Tel:
Email: jamie.chambers@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Jane Thomson
Tel: (0131 6)51 5713
Email: jane.thomson@ed.ac.uk |
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