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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "CMS 340"
COURSE NAME: "Documentary Film"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Fall 2025
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Anthony Stagliano
EMAIL: [email protected]
 HOURS: TTH 11:30 AM 12:45 AM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: Prerequisite: COM 210
OFFICE HOURS:
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course aims to provide a theoretical and historical introduction to the modes and styles of documentary film and video. The theoretical and historical focus will consider the forms and functions of non-fiction film from early Lumiere Brothers shorts to contemporary successful theatrical documentaries such as Bowling for Columbine up to the on-line distributed post-9/11 conspiracy films and YouTube. During the first half of the course, the documentary ‘canon’—a set of historically important films and established discourses—will be approached. Over the second half, discrete forms of non-fiction production and reception will be analyzed: the diary mode, the film/video essay, the use of documentary film for social and political movements, the issue of re-enactments and the effects of digital media.
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
This course aims to provide a theoretical and historical introduction to the modes and styles of documentary film and video. The theoretical and historical focus will consider the forms and functions of non-fiction film from early Lumiere Brothers shorts to contemporary successful theatrical documentaries such as Bowling for Columbine up to the on-line distributed post-9/11 conspiracy films and YouTube. During the first half of the course, the documentary ‘canon’—a set of historically important films and established discourses—will be approached. Over the second half, discrete forms of non-fiction production and reception will be analyzed: the diary mode, the film/video essay, the use of documentary film for social and political movements, the issue of re-enactments and the effects of digital media.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
This course offers critical survey of documentary film theory and criticism including considerations of the epistemological assumptions, rhetorical choices, aesthetic approaches, political circumstances of nonfiction filmmaking. To get at all of this, we will study two forms of nonfiction film, traditional documentaries, and “essay films,” which are more exploratory, personal, or even philosophical than the documentary tradition. We will be especially interested in the different itineraries of nonfiction film in social, political, and art-institutional spheres. We will compare classic documentaries and film-essays with contemporary works (including experiments that expand greatly the defining term “film”), and we will become versed in a number of theories that attempt to make sense of the nonfiction film as “visible evidence.”
TEXTBOOK:
NONE
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
NONE
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
Weekly Posts on MoodleEach week you will post a 250-300 word response to/summary of that week’s readings, concluding with a question or two it raises in your mind for class discussion. These will be posted 24 hours before our class meeting for the week. I will draw these together, and use them to start our class discussions. These posts serve several purposes. First, in having to articulate your understanding of the readings, and the questions they raise for you, you deepen and sharpen that understanding. Second, in having these posted before class, we have already before us a map of the class’s possible discussion terrain (while always knowing that travels into uncharted or barely charted territory are often most valuable). Third is an element of social knowledge. If there are texts which you have struggled with, or doubt your understanding of, a quick survey of what your classmates have made of these might help dissolve difficult problems. 10
Research ProposalIn the 10th week of class, you will submit a brief (1-2 pages, including short bibliography) prospectus for the paper. In this, you will articulate the importance of your intervention, preview the movement of the argument you expect to make, and relate the theories/texts/objects/technologies you will engage in that argument.15
Final PaperThe final paper will reflect high-level argument, writing skill, and engagement with other scholarship. Length: 7-9 pages The paper will engage the course theme in some way. It does not, however, need to cite the readings we discussed this semester. You are free to mobilize other perspectives, conversations, controversies, and so on, as you feel desire or need to. You are welcome and encouraged to do some or all of your seminar research in a medium that is not (only) prose, such as a video essay, if you are inclined to do so. You will, however, still need to produce work that reflects rigorous engagement with complex questions, and itself advances some novel intervention. If you choose to follow such a path, let me know, and I will discuss with you the form you work will take (including the prospectus, final presentation, and submitted project). 50
Presentation of ResearchIn the last week of class, you will present your work in progress on your seminar paper. This will be 5-7 minutes, relatively informal, and serves mainly as an opportunity for you (collectively) to hear what each other is working on, and to get feedback from each other on possible directions for the future of that work.10
Attendance and ParticipationYou are expected to be in class, and be prepared, and to participate in class discussions in a way that demonstrates you have done the readings and screenings.15

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the course.
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
This course aims to provide a theoretical and historical introduction to the modes and styles of documentary film and video. The theoretical and historical focus will consider the forms and functions of non-fiction film from early Lumiere Brothers shorts to contemporary successful theatrical documentaries such as Bowling for Columbine up to the on-line distributed post-9/11 conspiracy films and YouTube. During the first half of the course, the documentary ‘canon’—a set of historically important films and established discourses—will be approached. Over the second half, discrete forms of non-fiction production and reception will be analyzed: the diary mode, the film/video essay, the use of documentary film for social and political movements, the issue of re-enactments and the effects of digital media.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
SCHEDULE

Schedule

Week 1: Course Intro / Thinking and Writing about Audiovisual Media

Read: Syllabus!

Watch: Smith, The Girl Chewing Gum (http://www.ubu.com/film/smith-john_girl.html)

Week 2: What is a Documentary?

Read: Winston, “The Filmed Documentary,” Chevrier, “Documentary, Document, Testimony”; Grierson, “Postwar Patterns”; Plantinga, “What a Documentary Is, After All”

Watch: Lorentz, The Plow that Broke the Plains; Renais, Night and Fog

Week 3: Indexing Reality

Read: Doane, “Indexicality: Trace and Sign”; Freud, “A Note Upon the Mystic Writing-Pad”; Bazin, “Ontology of the Photographic Image”; Ranciere, “Naked Image, Ostensive Image, Metamorphic Image”

Watch: Welles, F for Fake

Week 4: Representing “Truth”

Read: Vertov, Kino-Eye, excerpts; Nichols, Representing Reality, excerpts; Rogers, “Music, Sound, and the Nonfiction Aesthetic”

Watch: Rouch and Morin, Chronicle of a Summer; Wiseman, Titicut Follies

Week 5: Phenomenology of the Documentary Image

Read: Sobchack, The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of the Film Experience, excerpts; Merleau-Ponty, selections; Butler, “Torture and the Ethics of Photography”

Watch: Morris, Standard Operating Procedure

Week 6: Circuits of Production

Read: Adorno, “Culture Industry Reconsidered”; Sekula, “The Traffic in Photographs”; Sontag, “On Photography”; Farocki, “Reality would have to Begin”

Watch: Poitras, Citizenfour

Week 7: Visual and Sensory Ethnography

Read: Trinh, “Documentary Is/Not A Name”; Nakamura, “Making Sense of Sensory Ethnography”; MacDonald, Avant-Doc, excerpts

Watch: Castaing-Taylor and Paravel, Leviathan; Trinh, Reassemblage

Week 8: Documenting The Social

Read: Kahana, Intelligence Work, excerpts; Solanas and Getino “Toward a Third Cinema”

Watch: Gomez, De Cierta Manera; Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera 

Week 9: Documenting Memory Public and Private

Read: Mining the Home Movie, excerpts; Sekula, “The Body and the Archive”

Watch: Peck, Lumumba: Death of a Prophet; Forgacs, Maelstrom; Morrison, Decasia; Frampton, Nostalgia

Week 10: Essay Film as Documentary Form (Proposals Due)

Read: Rascaroli, “Essay Film”; Corrigan, Essay Film: from Montaigne after Marker, excerpts

Watch: Marker, Sans Soleil; Thompson, Universal Hotel & Universal Citizen; Akerman, News From Home

Week 11: Experiments in Documentary Form  

Read: Schamberg, Guerrilla Television, excerpts; Lovink, ABCs of Tactical Media; https://www.doclab.org/

Watch: TVTV, VideoFreex, excerpts; DocLab projects, various

Week 12: Useful Media 

Read: Useful Cinema, excerpts

Watch: Selected educational films/institutional films

Week 13: Nonfiction Graphic Novels / Serious Games as Documentary Form

Read/Look/Play: Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg 

Week 14: Course Wrap-Up / Presentations


Week 15: Exam Week / Papers Due on _________ (by email)