FMST 031. Documentary Filmmaking as Cultural Work

This course is grounded in a conceptualization of non-fiction filmmaking as a type of "cultural work" - a creative activity with the political goal of making our society better, more humane, more equitable, more sustainable. We will explore how non-fiction filmmaking (ethnography, the documentary, essay films) can provide an understanding of large-scale social structures that shape our present reality (including economic class, racial, ethnic, gender and sexuality hierarchies); as well as offer a vision of and pathway to a better future. A particular focus of our examination will be the use of the archive (of sound, image and document) to this mode of cultural work. We will look at the relationship of the craft of non-fiction filmmaking (image choices, motion, editing, venues for exhibition/sharing) to the intended message and intended audience. How these productions are created, the organization of production teams, decisions about audience, will be some of the processes we try to understand as we look at media works created by participatory community media makers in North America (including Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY, New Orleans Video Access Center, Visual Communications in Los Angeles, Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia), and by auteur image/audio essayist including John Akomfrah, Jill Godmilow, Renée Green, Isaac Julien, Chris Marker, Raoul Peck, Raúl Ruiz, Rea Tajiri, and Yvonne Welbon.
This course will provide an opportunity to share research and analysis through the creation of short non-fiction works.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/film-media-studies

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