Journalism 286; History Of Documentary, 3 units, M 3:10-6, TV Lab, Spring, 2004
Prof. Jon Else
Phone (510) 642-7392 UCB or home office (650) 851-5659 (no voice mail)
Office hours, Tuesday 10 - 12, North Gate Hall, Rm. 125A
else@uclink.berkeley.edu
This course covers the evolution of American documentary film from 1920 to the present,
with special attention to independent theatrical documentaries and long form nonfiction
for network television. In the works of Barbara Kopple, Fred Wiseman, Errol Morris,
Marlon Riggs, The Maysles, Henry Hampton, Lourdes Portillo, Orlando Bagwell,
Michael Moore, and numerous other producers, we will look at the practical problems of
making documentaries in the real world for a mass audience. The course is required for
graduate students who are considering specializing in documentary.
Required Viewing is roughly three hours per week (occasionally a much as five hours),
with an additional hour of clips in each class session. The list includes war horses from
the still-emerging documentary canon, as well as documentaries in popular culture, with
an emphasis on films produced for a mass audience. Video cassettes are available on
reserve at the Media Resources Center of Moffitt Library (642-8197). Le Video at 9th
and Irving in San Francisco (415) 566-3606, Movie Image on Shattuck in Berkeley (510)
649-0296, and Reel Video (510) 548-1118 all have fairly good documentary collections
for rental. Many of the assigned films are available at public libraries in the Bay Area.
Always screen the week's films before you do the week's reading, since it is important
that you first experience the documentary as a naive viewer would. Watch the films on a
good sized screen with good sound. Keep concise but coherent notes from film
screenings. Each week I will call on a student in class to describe either the structure or
materials used in the assigned films.
Required Reading of about 100 pages per week will be assigned from either the text,
Documentary, A History Of Non-Fiction Film, 2nd Edition, by Erik Barnouw (available
at Signal Books bookstore on Euclid), or from the class reader (available at Copy
Central). The readings tend to be more concrete than theoretical, and are not wildly
taxing. Note that the first week's reading from Barnouw is longer than usual. Please note
that some of the readings in the syllabus are optional.
Optional Reading Bill Nichols new book Introduction To Documentary (Indiana
University Press, available at Signal) is an excellent overview of documentary, organized
not around chronology but around questions of documentary practice. Plan also to read
the monthly magazines International Documentary and Release Print.
Guests Several guest producer/directors will join us, TBA as available, to discuss their
work.
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Papers A five page midterm paper will be due Wednesday March 18, and a final five
page paper is due Thursday, May 13. In addition, students wishing to do documentary in
their second year are required to write a one page concept paper for a proposed
documentary project.
Exams, class participation There will be no exams, but forthright and collegial class
participation is essential.
Frontline If you are serious about documentary, you are strongly encouraged to take
Sharon Tiller' and Steve Talbot’s course, "Inside Frontline."
Week 1, January 26, Introduction
• Introduction to documentary in mass culture.
• Introduction to the work of documentary, with excerpts from various uncut
rushes, as well as Lumiere Studios Films, Cadillac Desert, Satya, Eyes On The
Prize, The Day After Trinity, Thin Blue Line, Complaints Of A Dutiful Daughter,
The Great Depression, The Roots Of Resistance, Bowling for Columbine, The Fog
Of War, and Crumb.
Week 2, February 2 Documentary As A Social Instrument
Read Barnouw Pg. 3 - 172
"Documentary Structures: Theory, Shape, and Form" Alan Rosenthal (optional)
Screen before class
Triumph Of The Will, Leni Rieffenstahl (first 90 minutes only) DVD
Know Your Enemy, Japan, Frank Capra (optional)
Screen in class
Harvest Of Shame, CBS, Edward R. Murrow
The Mercy Of Nature, 1997, Else
Football America, 1988, Phil Tuckett, NFL Films
The Wonderful, Horrible Life Of Leni Rieffenstahl, 1991, Ray Mueller
Olympiad, 1937, Leni Rieffenstahl
Harry Potter, 2001, Chris Columbus
Additional Films Of Interest
Das Blaue Licht, Leni Riefenstahl
Common Threads: Stories From The Quilt, Epstein / Friedman
The Plow That Broke The Plains, Pare Lorentz
The River, Pare Lorentz
Listen To Britain, Humphery Jennings, 1943
Bowling For Columbine, Michael Moore, 2002
The Battle Of Britain (Why We Fight series) (optional)
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Additional Reading of Interest
Fascinating Fascism, Susan Sontag
Week 3, Feb 9, Ethnographic Film and Early Cinema Verite
Read Barnouw 172 - 182, 198- 228
Useful Documentary Terms
Screen before class
Nanook Of The North, Robert Flaherty
Chronique d'un ete (The Chronicle Of A Summer) Jean Rouch
Screen in class
Dead Birds, Robert Gardner, Part I
Nanook Revisited, National Film Board Of Canada
Taking Pictures , 1996, Les McClaren and Annie Stiven
Unzipped, 1988, Douglas Keeve
Primary, 1960 Robert Drew, Richard Leacock
Coming To Light, Edward S. Curtis, 2001, Anne Makepeace
Dead Birds Revisited, web site, 2002 Robert Gardner, Susan Meiselas
Additional films of interest
Forest Of Bliss, Robert Gardner
In And Out Of Africa, Ilisa Barbach
The Ax Fight, Timothy Asch, Napoleon Chagnon
Les Mairtes Fous, Jean Rouch
Who Killed Vincent Chin? Christina Choy, Renee Tajima
Surname Viet, Given Name Nam, Trinh T. Minh-ha
Imagining Indians, 1995, Victor Masayesva
Stranger With A Camera, 2000, Elizabeth Barrett
Coming To Light, 2000, Ann Makepeace
Well Founded Fear, 2000, Michael Camerini and Shari Robertson
Additional optional reading
Victor Masayesva, Jr. and the politics of Imagining Indians,
Film Quarterly, vol 48, #2, Winter '94-95
The Ethnogropher's Tale, Bill Nichols, Visual Anthropology Review , vol
7/2
Week 4, Feb. 23, Cinema Verite and Direct Cinema
Read Barnouw 229 - 262
"Observational Cinema," Colin Young (optional)
"Fictions and Other Realities" interview with Frederick Wiseman in
International Documentary
Screen before class
Salesman, Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin
Soldier Girls, Joan Churchill and Nick Broomfield
The Dark End Of The Street: Black Tar Heroin, Steven Okazaki (optional)
Screen in class
Titicut Follies, Fred Wiseman
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Nightline piece on Titicut Follies
The Farmer's Wife , David Sutherland / Frontline
The Human Sexes, BBC, Discovery, Bonni Cohen
Additional films of interest
Don't Look Back, 1967, D. A. Pennebaker
An American Family , 1976, series by Craig Gilbert
American Love Story, 1999, Jennifer Fox
High School, 1969, Fred Wiseman
Happy Mother's Day Richard Leacock and Joyce Chopra
Grey Gardens , Ellen Hovde, David and Albert Maysles
Tattooed Tears, 1981, Joan Churchill
Sound And Fury, 2000 Josh Aronson
Dark Days, 2000, Mark Singer
Cinema Verite: Defining The Moment, 2002 Peter Wintonick, NFB
Startup.com, 2001, Chris Hegedus and Jehane Noujaim
Lalee's Kin: The Legacy Of Cotton, 2001 Susan Fromke, Albert Maysles
Southern Comfort, 2001
The Lost Boys Of Sudan, 2003 Jon Shenk and Megan Mylan
Week 5, March 1, Diary Films and Science Films
Reading Barnouw 213 – 228
"Speaking For, Speaking About, Speaking With, Or Speaking Alongside"
Jay Ruby in Visual Anthropology Review.
"The Mirror Framed" Carl Plantinga in Wide Angle (optional)
"Life Beyond Earth" call sheet
Screen before class
AKA Don Bonus,1992, Spencer Nakasako
Blue Vinyl, 2002, Judith Helfand and Daniel Gold
Additional film TBA
Screen In Class
Sadie BenningVideoworks, 1990, Sadie Benning
On Our Own Land, 1987, Appalshop
Films from the Scribe Project in Philadelphia, Louis Massiah
VTR St. Jacques, National Film Board Of Canada
Mystery Of The Loch Ness Monster, Nova, Kirk Wolfinger
Life Beyond Earth, Linda Fefferman, Tim Ferris
Powers Of Ten , Charles and Ray Eames, Phillip Morrison
Fire Wars, Nova, Kirk Wolfinger, Judith Vecchione
Natural History Of The Chicken, 2000 Mark Lewis
Coma, 1996 Nova, Linda Garman
Big Thinkers: Kaku Michio, 2001, Jon Halperin
Additional Films Of Interest
The Nobel, 2002, Bonni Cohen, Camille Servan-Schreiber
`
Kelly Loves Tony, Spencer Nakasako
The Love Tapes, Wendy Clark
The Proof, Nova, John Lynch, Simon Singh
5
Cosmos, Carl Sagan, Adrian Malone
The Ascent Of Man, Adrian Malone
Chain Camera, 2001, Kirby Dick
Lost At Sea Nova, David Axelrod, Peter Jones
Week 6, March 8, Documentary Portraits
Read "Crumb" review in Sight and Sound
"When Comics Aren't Funny" The New Yorker
“Head For The Hills” A. & R. Crumb, The New Yorker
"Crumb" review by Felicia Feaster, Film Quarterly
"Burden Of Dreams" Production Diary", Les Blank and Maurine Gosling,
North Atlantic Press, 1985 (available from Jon)
Screen before class
Burden of Dreams, Les Blank
Crumb, Terry Zwigoff
Wild Man Blues, Barbara Kopple (optional)
Maya Lin, Frieda Lee Mock (optional)
Screen in class
Jesse's Gone, Michael Smith
J-School Thesis Films TBA
Jules At Eight, Mark Becker
The Blues According to Lighting Hopkins, Les Blank
My Best Fiend, Werner Herzog
Additional films of interest
Wild Man Blues, Barbara Kopple
42 Up, 35 Up, etc, Michael Apted
Antonia, Jill Godmillow
Fitzcarraldo, Werner Herzog
Hoop Dreams, The Cartemquin Film Collective
The Ecstasy Of Sculptor Steiner Werner Herzog
The Cruse, 1998, Bennet Miller
The Ballad Of Ramblin' Jack, 2000, Aiyana Elliot
The Eyes Of Tammy Faye, 2000, Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey
Ghost World, 2001, Terry Zwigoff
Derrida, 2002, Amy Ziering Kofman and Kirby Dick
Lost In La Mancha, 2002
Stevie, 2003, Steve James
The Agronomist, 2003 Jonathan Demme
American Exile, 2001, Cassandra Hermann and Katy Shrout
Week 7, March 15, Autobiography
Read
"True Trailblazer, Lourdes Portillo"
Screen before class
El Diablo Nunca Duerma (The Devil Never Sleeps) Lourdes Portillo
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Complaints Of A Dutiful Daughter, Deborah Hoffmann
Time Indefinite, Ross McElwee (optional)
Secret Daughter, June Cross / Frontline (optional)
Screen in class
Sherman's March, Ross McElwee
Man With A Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov
Columbus On Trial, Lourdes Portillo
Seniorita Extraviada, Lourdes Portillo
The Wolf, Peter Nicks
Guest
Deborah Hoffman
Additional films of interest
An Acquired Taste, 1981, Ralph Arylick
Demon Lover Diary, Joel DeMott
Poto & Cabengo, Jean Pierre Gorin
Waiting For Fidel , Michael Rubbo
Greetings From Out Here, Ellen Spiro
Time Indefinite, Ross McElwee, c/6065
Regret To Inform 1999, Barbara Sonneborn
Corpus, 2000, Lourdes Portillo
Six O'clock News, Frontline, 1996, Ross McElwee
First Person Plural, 2000, Deanne Borshay Liem
My McQueen, 2003, Lourdes Portillo,
My Architect, 2004 Nathaniel Kahn
Heir To An Execution, 2004 Jennifer Meerapol
Additional Reading of interest
"Lourdes Portillo: The Devil Never Sleeps and other Films" edited by
Rosa Linda Fregoso, University Of Texas Press, 2001
Paper/exercise due Wed, March 18, 5PM
Week 8, March 29, Historical Documentary Essay
Read Barnouw 297 - 328
"Telling The Story: The Media, the Public, and American History" Daniel
J. Walkowitz in American Historical Association Newsletter
"The Camera Never Lies," Jerome Kuehl in CILECT
Screen before class
Night And Fog, 1955, Alain Raisnais DVD
Riding The Tiger, 1999, Kristine Samuelson and John Haptas
Ethnic Notions, 1988, Marlon Riggs
Satya, 1990, Ellen Bruno (optional)
World At War Episode 26, 1978, Jeremy Issacs, Jerome Kuehl (optional)
Screen In Class
Eyes On The Prize, Orlando Bagwell, Henry Hampton
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Mississippi Burning, Alan Parker
Freedom On My Mind, Connie Field
Cadillac Desert: An American Nile, Else
City Of Gold, Tom Daley
Additional films of interest
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall Of Fred A. Leuchter ,2000, Errol Morris
Paragraph 175, 2000, Rob Epstein and Jeffery Friedman
Berkeley In the 60s, Mark Kitchell
With Babies And Banners, Lynn Goldgarb
American Lost And Found, Lance Bird and Tom Johnson
Statue Of Liberty, Ken Burns
Seeing Red, Julia Reichert and Jim Klein
Hiroshima-Nagasaki, August 1945, Eric Barnouw
The Sorrow And The Pity, 1971, Marcel Ophuls
Shoah, 1986, Claude Lanzman
Rabbit In The Moon, 2000, Emiko Omori
History Lessons, 2001, Barbara Hammer
Same River Twice, Robb Mass, 2003
The Two Towns Of Jasper, 2001 Marco Williams and Whitney Downs
My McQueen, 2003, Lourdes Portillo
Week 9, April 5, The Dustbin of History / Historical Biography
Read
"The State Of Documentary", 2000 Sundance Catalogue
"Standards and Practices for The Great Depression"
"Judy Richardson" from Telling The Story (optional)
Screen before class Note that these two films together last four hours
The Times Of Harvey Milk, Rob Epstein and Richard Schmiechen
Malcolm X: Make It Plain, Orlando Bagwell
Screen in class
A Job At Ford's, Else
Volcano, An Inquiry Into The Life And Death Of Malcolm Lowery,
Donald Britain
Mulholland's Dream, Else
What If?, Discovery Channel
George Wallace: Setting The Woods On Fire, 2000, Paul Stekler and Dan
McCabe
Tupac: Resurrection, 2003 Lauren Lazin, NTV
Additional films of interest
Prisoner In Paradise, 2003
Days of Waiting, Steven Okasaki
Huey Long, 1990, Ken Burns
Day After Trinity CD-ROM or Laser Disc, Else
The Price Of A Ticket, Yvonne Smith
Round Eyes In The Middle Kingdom, 1995, Ron Lovacco
LBJ, David Grubin
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Millhouse, Emile De Antonio
Fight In The Fields, 1998, Rick Tejada Flores and Ray Tellas
Marcus Garvey, 2001, Stanley Nelson
"The Endurance", Shackelton's Legendary Expedition 2001, George
Butler
Ralph Ellison, 2002, Avon Kirkland
The Cockettes, 2002, Bill Weber and David Weisman
Brother Outsider: Bayard Rustin, 2003, Bennett Singer & Nancy Kates
The Weather Underground, 2003, Sam Green
The Kid Stays In the Picture, Nanette Burstein
Biggie & Tupac, 2002, Nick Broomfield
Bukowski: Born Into This, 2003, John Dullaghan
Week 10, April 12, Money and Truth / Documentary Funding
Read
Barnouw Pg. 329 - 349
"New Agendas in Black Filmmaking: an interview with Marlon Riggs"
Cineaste
"Why Watch It Anyway?", Robert Hughes, New York Review Of Books
"Hard Times For TV Documentaries" NYT
"Dazed In The Halls Of Public Television", Sharon Black in Release
Print. (optional)
Screen before class
Tongues Untied, Marlon Riggs
The Civil War, The West, or Jazz, Ken Burns (Episode of Your Choice)
I Shall Not Be Removed, Karen Everett (Optional)
Screen In Class
American Dream excerpt, Kopple
The Best of Taxicab Confessions, Joe and Harry Gantz, HBO
History Of Rock & Roll, David Espar, WGBH
Matters Of Race, 2002 Orlando Bagwell, PBS
Add'l Films Of Interest
Capturing The Friedmans, 2003, Andrew Jarecki
The Blues, Martin Scorsese, Charles Burnett, Mike Figgis, Marc Levin,
Richard Pierce, Wim Wenders
Week 11, April 19, Chronicles of Social Upheaval
Read
"Documentary Film and the Power of Interrogation" Miles Orvell in Film
Quarterly (optional)
"Harlan County USA" interview with Barbara Kopple and Hart Perry
“Documentary” Sundance Catalogue 2001 (optional)
“Milestones in the History Of Documentary”3rd Int’l Documentary
Screen before class (note that these films together last nearly five hours)
Harlan County, USA, Barbara Kopple
Long Night's Journey Into Day, 2000, Deborah Hoffmann, Francis Reid
9
American Dream, Barbara Kopple (optional)
Screen in class
ABC Evening News for the night of April 18
Ambush In Mogadishu, Frontline
Satya, Ellen Bruno
Gate Of Heavenly Peace, Gordon, Hinton, Schell, Yasui
Additional films of interest
Peasants of the Second Fortress Shinsuke Ogawa
Hearts & Minds, Peter Davis
Battle of Chile; Patricio Guzman
Witness To War Deborah Shaffer
El Salvador, Another Vietnam , 1980, Glen Silber
Westray 2001, Paul Cowan, National Film Board Of Canada
Take Over, 1999, Pam Yates
When The Storm Came, 2003, Shilpi Gupta
Week 12, April 26, The Blur: Appropriation and Epistemology
Read
"Mirrors Without Memories: Truth, History, and the New Documentary"
Linda Williams, in Film Quarterly
"Profiles: Predilections, Errol Morris" New Yorker
"Truth Not Guaranteed: an interview with Errol Morris" Peter Bates in
Cineaste (optional)
Screen Before Class
Thin Blue Line, Errol Morris
The Battle Of Algiers, Pontacorvo
Screen in class
Nike Commercials Else
Primus Video, Else
Top Gun, Tony Scott
Dr. Strangelove Stanley Kubrick
Citizen Kane Orson Wells
The Algerian Wars, BBC/ORTF
Additional films of interest
JFK, 1993, Oliver Stone
Being John Malkevich, Spike Jonze
Fast, Cheap, and Out Of Control, 1998, Errol Morris
Senioriata Extraviada, 2002 Lourdes Portillo
Week 13, May 3, The War Over Documentary Ethics
Read
"Michael & Me" Harlan Jacobson in Film Comment
"Reflections on Roger & Me, Michael Moore, And His Critics" Cineaste
"Roger and Me: Redefining the Limits" Richard Bernstein, NYT
"Ultimately We Are All Outsiders" Calvin Pryluck CILECT
Screen Before Class
10
Roger and Me, Michael Moore
Shoah, Claude Lanzman (optional)
Daughter Rite, Michelle Citron (optional)
Screen In Class
TV Nation episode directed by Pam Yates
No Lies, Mitchell Block
The Civil War, Ken Burns (excerpt from Episode 1)
Eyes On The Prize II, Henry Hampton, Louis Massiah
With Babies And Banners, Lynn Goldfarb
Fire Wars, Kirk Wolfinger
Sing Faster, Else
Additional films of interest
Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons And Our
Environment, Deborah Chasnoff
Stranger With A Camera, Elizabeth Barret, Appalshop
An American Family series, final episode, Craig Gilbert
Man Of Aran, Robert Flaherty
In The Year Of The Pig, Emile De Antonio
Frat House, 1997, HBO
Just, Melvin, 2000, Ronald Whitney
Raw Deal, Billy Corben 2001
Kurt & Courtney, Nick Broomfield
Little Dieter Wants To Fly, Werner Herzog
Week 14, May 10, Music Documentaries
Read
Gimme Shelter sample sequence outline
Screen Before Class
Gimme Shelter, David and Albert Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin,, DVD
Arrested Development, Joan Churchill (optional)
Screen In Class
Chulas Fronteras or Always For Pleasure Les Blank
Lonely Boy, Wolf Koenig, NFB
History Of Rock and Roll, Altamont sequence, David Espar & Elizabeth
Deane, WGBH/BBC
My Generation, 2001, Barbara Kopple
Additional Films Of Interest
Don't Look Back, 1967, D. A. Pennebaker
Cocksucker Blues, 1972, Robert Frank
Genghis Blues, 1999, Adrian and Roko Belic
Kurt And Courtney , 1998, Nick Broomfield
Always For Pleasure, Les Blank
Jazz, 2000, Ken Burns & Lynn Novick
The Blues According To Lightening Hopkins, Les Blank
Let's Get Lost, Bruce Weber
11
Ella Fitzgerald: Something to Live For, Karen Bernstein, Charlotte
Zwerin
Lou Reed: Rock & Roll Heart Tim Greenfield-Sanders, Karen Bernstein
Toro Takemitsu, Charlotte Zwerin
The Buena Vista Social Club, 1999, Wim Wenders
Thelonious Monk, Straight No Chaser, Bruce Riker, Charlotte Zwerin
Amandla, Lee Hirsch, 2002
Wattstax, 1973 (restored 2003) Mel Stuart
Final five page paper and concept due Wednesday May 12, PM
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