Alternatives in documentary film - an Australian focus
Proposed to be offered next in 1996
D Williams
8 points * 4 hours per week * Second semester * Clayton * Prerequisite: At least one of VSA1040, VSA1050, VSA2190 or VA103.06
The subject will investigate a range of key issues in documentary and `non-fiction' film production, from the inception of the cinema to the present day, using recent Australian documentary and `non-fiction' film as a point of reference. Australian films examined will include feminist films, television documentaries, deconstructive `essay' films, documentary-fiction mix experiments, ethnographic films and films made collectively by minority groups. The theoretical and practical issues discussed in relation to the Australian films will provide a framework for the examination of a number of important phases in the historical development of documentary. These will be studied in the context of political, technological and institutional change in the twentieth century. Areas to be studied here will include the Soviet montage documentary in the 1920s, the British documentary movement in the 1930s and 1940s, propaganda films in the Nazi cinema and documentaries made by the left in Europe in the prewar period. Postwar developments examined will include Wiseman's series of indirect address documentaries about American institutions, Rouch's participatory anthropological films made in Paris and Africa, Godard's experiments with sound and image in his `Dziga Vertov' films and the emergence of a third world political documentary cinema in Latin America. Issues of funding, distribution, exhibition and censorship, as well as access to the means of production, will be raised throughout the subject.
Assessment
First essay (2000 words): 35% * Second essay (3000 words): 45% * Visual test (1 hour): 20%
Recommended reading
Barnouw E A History of the non fiction film OUP, 1979
Beilby P The documentary film in Australia Cinema Papers, 1983
Blonski A and others Don't shoot darling: Women's independent film in Australia Greenhouse, 1987
Corner J (ed.) Documentary and the mass media Arnold, 1986
Delmar R Joris Ivens British Film Inst, 1980