SAMPLE SYLLABUS EN 221 – Documentary Film:
“Stranger than Fiction”
Leah Anderst
Email: LAnderst@qcc.cuny.edu
Office: H455,
Prerequisite for this course: EN102
Course Description
“But is it true?” This course will analyze the history and theory of documentary filmmaking with a
focus on the ways that filmmakers use fact and fiction to shape our perceptions of the real world.
We will watch a variety of films paying special attention to the ways that filmmakers highlight
their roles in their films. We will also spend a good deal of time discussing and practicing writing
strategies and techniques specific to audio/visual media.
Course Objectives
This course contributes to the following QCC General Education Objectives:
• Communicate effectively through reading, writing, listening and speaking
• Work collaboratively in diverse groups directed at accomplishing learning outcomes.
• Use historical or social sciences perspectives to examine formation of ideas, human
behavior, social institutions or social processes.
• Apply aesthetic and intellectual criteria in the evaluation or creation of works in the
humanities or the arts
Course Objectives specific to this course:
• Describe the development of documentary film practice and theory.
• Develop a critical awareness and vocabulary of issues and problems surrounding
documentary film with a special focus on documentary ethics and rhetoric.
• Demonstrate a proficiency in reading, writing, and speaking about nonfiction cinema.
• Demonstrate an ability to write about documentary film using textual evidence to support
an argument.
• Engage with scholarly research sources related to the primary readings and films.
Required Texts
Introduction to Documentary, by Bill Nichols (free E-book from the QCC library website)
Additional Secondary Readings provided as handouts and/or on Blackboard
Rules for Writers or another style manual of your choosing
Recommended Readings
A New History of Documentary Film, Betsy A. McLane (reserve in library)
Documenting the Documentary, Edited by Barry Keith Grant and Jeannette Sloniowski (prof copy
- in my office)
The Film Experience: An Introduction, by Tim Corrigan (reserve in library)
Films - screened during class
• Selection of Lumière Shorts
• Nanook of the North
• Las Hurdes (Land without Bread)
• Triumph of the Will
• The Plow that Broke the Plains
• Night and Fog
• High School
EN 221 Syllabus, Page 2 •
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Salesman
Harlan County USA
Tongues Untied
The Gleaners and I
Stories We Tell
The Thin Blue Line
Assignments
Class Participation 10%
This course will be taught in seminar format. Student contributions to discussions and activities
will be the key to a successful semester. Students will be graded on their preparation (bringing
readings to class, having completed assignments) as well as the amount (or lack thereof) and
quality of their voluntary discussion participation (in small groups and the larger class).
Quizzes or In-Class Informal Writing 10%
There will be frequent in class writing activities as well as quizzes testing your knowledge of the
day’s readings. These will take place right at the beginning of class, and they cannot be made up,
so be sure to arrive to class on time.
Course Blog 20%
Each student will be responsible for 10 blog posts, written weekly between weeks 2-12. Within the
wider course topic, the topics of these posts are up to you. You may write responses to our
readings (perhaps you have a question about the reading or a disagreement with it that you want to
voice) or viewings (perhaps you found one particular scene or character from a film in class
compelling, write about it!). Think of these posts as weekly response papers related to the course.
Perhaps you saw a documentary on TV, online, or in a movie that you want to share (via a
YouTube clip or other visual material) and write about, the blog is perfect for this. Each of the
posts should be 300-400 words (about one double-spaced page). And at least 4 of these 10 long
posts must be comments to your peers' posts. I encourage you to post and comment on your peers'
posts more informally whenever you want. The goal of this blog is to stimulate dialogue beyond
our classroom. Blog posts are less formal than the writing you’ll do for the individual graded
assignments in this course, but I still expect them to be thoughtful and free of errors.
Two Movie Reviews 20% (10% each)
You will write two reviews over the course of the semester:
1 of a film we watch together in class
1 of a new film you watch on your own in one of the approved NYC movie theaters
Final Project 40%
The final project for the course will be part short documentary film (made by you!) and part essay
you write reflecting on your processes and linking your work to the viewings and readings we have
completed throughout the semester. The 40% will be divided, then, between your film (screened in
class) and your analytical essay which will be 6-8 pages in length and include references to at least
two films and three secondary research sources.