NON FICTION FILMS

NON FICTION FILM	FILM DEPARTMENT	BROOKLYN COLLEGE
JOHN BEATTY	SYLLABUS	SPRING 2013

Non Fiction Film TQ8 meets Tuesdays from 8:25 am until 12:15 pm. The final is from 8 am -10 am Tuesday May 21. Do not make plans to leave for the summer on or before this date. (You can leave after 10 a.m. on Tuesday May 21)

The course takes the position that classificatory category “non-fiction films”, like “fiction films”, constitutes a major division of films that contains many genres within it. The course will look at various types of non-fiction films (documentary, educational, propaganda and so on) with an emphasis on the purposes and goals of the various film types. Starting with some of the older films which act as a kind of “documentary” of certain events (including performances) and continuing through films which are more like essays than documentary and those which attempt to make points through what might be called “pure film”

TEXT BOOKS

Required

Barnouw, Erik; 1993 (orig. 1974); Documentary: A History of the Non Fiction Film; Oxford Paperbacks; NY; 400pp.

Recommended

Barsam, Richard Meran; 1973; Non Fiction Film: A Critical History; E.P.Dutton and Co., Inc.; NY; 332pp

Additional

Baddeley, W. Hugh; 1981 (orig. 1963); Documentary Film Production Focal Press; London and Boston; 283pp

Crawford, Peter Ian and David Turton (eds.); 1992; Film as Ethnography; Manchester University Press Manchester NY 322pp.

Cunningham, Megan; 2003; The Art of the Documentary; New Riders; Berkeley; 351pp

Kahana, Jonathan; 2008; Intelligence Work: The Politics of American Documentary; Columbia University Press; NY 439pp

Rosenthal, Alan; !973 (orig. 1971); The New Documentary in Action: A Case Book for Film Making; University of California Press; Berkeley; 287pp

Rosenthal, Alan 1980; The Documentary Conscience: A Casebook in Film Making; University of California Press; Berkeley; 436pp

Rosenthal, Alan (ed); 1999; Why Docudrama? Fact-Fiction on Film and TV; Southern Illinois University Press; Carbondale; 387pp

There is a paper, two book reports (any two of the books in the “Recommended” list above), and a final.

If you contact me by e-mail (Profbeatty@hotmail.com) put your full name and course number on the e-mail . Names like “sexy dancer” are not on my roster. If they are not there I will not respond to the e-mail. Do NOT e-mail me asking me questions that are answered in the syllabus or the schedule of classes (e.g. "When is the final?")

Web Site

There is a web site for the course – http://Johnbeatty.name and from there, follow the links, or go directly to:

http://userhome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/anthro/jbeatty/COURSES/FILM1/fall_2012/main1.html

Attendance and Lateness

Departmental policy allows you two absences a term. Since classes meet only once a week, each absence means you have missed more than three hours of class time. Students who miss more than two classes for whatever reason will fail the course. Students are considered absent if they come more than 15 minutes late.

Cell Phones

If you have one, turn the damned thing off! If the phone goes off during class it is an automatic “F” in the course, plus expulsion from the college and a slow painful death. Your cell phone will also be destroyed. No joke.

TENTATIVE FILMS

1 Jan 29 Classics: Early films (Lumiere Brothers; Nanook of the North)

2 Feb. 5 In the Land of the Head Huntersaka In the Land of the War Canoes,Louisiana Story,

3 Feb.12 NO CLASSES Classes meet Feb. 14 instead) Song of Ceylon; Drifters; Plow that Broke the Plains; Night Mail

4 Feb.19 Disney Wild Life: The Living Desert;The Vanishing Prairie

5 Feb.26 The Farm: Angola USA; Paris is Burning; Riding the Rails

6 March 5 Conflicting documentaries: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed; Flock of Dodos

7 March 12 Mocumentary: The Hellstrom Chronicles

8 March 19 Aesthetic: Baraka, Koyaatsqatsi

March 26 SPRING RECESS - NO CLASSES SCHEDULED

April 2 SPRING RECESS - NO CLASSES SCHEDULED

9 April 9 Ballet Russes

10 April 16 Biographical: Bananas are My Business; The Photographer

11 April 23 Educational: Acting for Films (Michael Caine)

12 April 30 Propaganda: Olympiad/Triumph of the Will; Why We Fight

13 May 7 Censorship problems: Titcut Follies; This Film Is not Yet Rated

14 May 14 Historical: Ric Burns Coney Island

May 21 FINAL EXAM