UC Berkeley - Film Studies Dept.
Gary Handman
Week One
Class 1 (Jan 18): Introduction to course: Course overview, class mechanics
Discussion Sections (Wednesday January 19): will meet in Moffitt Library Room 350C (on the
main floor of the library -- ask at the reference desk if you get lost). Section will be devoted to
logging on to BlackBoard accounts and discussing BlackBoard features.
Read for next class:
Nichols: chapters 2 and 6;
Barbash & Taylor. "Documentary Styles" (available online)
Eitzen, Dirk. "When Is a Documentary?" (available online - via UCB proxy or in the library)
Godmilow and Shapiro. "How Real is the Reality in Documentary Film? (available online)
Screening:
Real to Reel compilation tape: You can review the clips we'll be discussing in class online
(you'll need Real Player installed on your machine.
Clips 1-14
Clips 15-17
Clips 18-19
Class 2 (Jan 20): From Real to Reel: What and Why is Documentary Film?
Read for next class:
Barnow, 3-30
Nichols, 82-87
Week Two
Class 3 (Jan 25): Cinema sur le Vif (Real Life Cinema): The Beginnings of Motion Pictures and the
Prehistory of Documentary Film
Screening:
Muybridge sequence photograhy,
Lumiere Brothers (First Films)
Edison shorts
Read for next class:
Barnow, 33-50;
Rothman. "The Filmmaker as Hunter" (Documenting the Documentary) (reader)
Ruby, "Re-examinition of the Early Career of Robert J. Flaherty" (Quarterly Review of Film
Studies, Fall 1980) (available online)
Class 4 (Jan 27): A Lens on World: Documentary and the Romance of Exploration and Travel
Screening:
Clips: Melies, Porter
Clips: Dawn of the Eye (about early newsreels) (10 min.)
Clips: Savage Acts (1904 St. Louis World's Fair) (5 min.)
Clips: The Shadow Catcher : Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian (12 min.)
Clips from: 90 Degrees South (Herbert Ponting, 1916-1933) (5 min.)
Clips: Congorilla (Martin and Asa Johnson, 1932) (8 min.)
Nanook of the North (Robert J. Flaherty, 1922) (69 min.)
View in discussion section (Jan 26):
Nanook Revisited (55 min.)
Read for next class:
Ruby, "Speaking for, Speaking About, Speaking With, or Speaking Alongside: An
Anthropological and Documentary Dilemma." (Quarterly Review of Film Studies, Fall 1980
-- available online)
Nichols, chapter 1
Week Three
Class 5 (Feb 1): A Lens on World: Films of Exploration and Travel (continued)
Screening
Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty) (continued)
Discussion Lead by Group 1 (Nanook)
Class 6 (Feb 3): Researching Documentary Film
Part I: Researching Documentary Film/Discussion of Assignment 1
(To prepare for your forthcoming assignments, read Nichols, chapter 8)
Part II: Kino Pravda (Cinema Truth): Early Soviet Documentary
Screening:
Clips: Constructivism/Soviet Avant Garde (Shock of the New)(6 min.)
Clips: Kino Pravda (Dziga Vertov, 1922-1925)
Read for next class:
Feldman, "Peace Between Man and Machine" (Documenting the Documentary) (reader)
Barnow, 51-71
"Kino Eyes and Agit Trains" (Imagining Reality) (reader)
Nichols, 94-98
Week Four
Class 7 (Feb 8): Kino Pravda (Cinema Truth): Early Soviet Documentary (guest lecturer: Professor
Ann Nesbit)
Screening:
Man with a Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom) (Dziga Vertov, 1929) (68 min.)
Discussion Lead by Group 2 (Man with a Movie Camera)
Read for next class:s
Barnow, 71-81;
Nichols, chapter 3; pp. 88-90; review pp. 102-105 (Poetic Mode)
Gaughan. "Ruttmann's Berlin: Filming in a "Hollow Space." (Screening the City) (reader)
Filmnotes to Berlin, Symphomy of a Great City (available online)
Class 8 (Feb 10): The Poetics of Modernity: City Films and other Documentary Experiments of the
1920's
Screening:
Clips: Shock of the New (Dada and Surrealism)(4 min.)
Clips from: Rhythmus 21 (Hans Richer, 1921); Ghosts Before Breakfast (Vormitagsspuk)
(Hans Richer, 1928); Emak Bakia (Man Ray, 1926); Ballet Mechanique (Ferdnand Leger,
1924) (6 min.)
Berlin, Symphony of a Great City (Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grossstadt) (Walter Ruttmann,
1927) (72 min.)
Discussion Lead by: Group 3 (Berlin)
View in discussion section (Feb 9):
Manhatta (Ralph Steiner, Charles Sheeler, 1921) (10 min.)
Rain (Regen) (Joris Ivens, Mannus Franken,1929) (12 min.)
Required individual viewing before the end of next week:
Grierson (Media Resources Center Video/C 9412)
Read for next class:
John Grierson: First Principle of Documentary) (Grierson on Documentary) (reader)
Barnow, 85-100
Nichols, pp: 13-19; 139-148; review pp. 105-109 (Expository Mode)
Corner, John. "Coalface and Housing Problems" (Art of Record) (reader)
Week 5:
Class 9 (Feb 15): The World on the Doorstep: John Grierson and the British Documentary
Movement
Screening:
Clips: The Drifters (John Grierson, 1929)
Coalface (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1935) (12 min.)
Night Mail (Harry Watt, Basil Wright, 1939) (24 min.)
Housing Problems (Edgar Anstey, 1935) (15 min.)
Discussion Lead by Group 4 (Night Mail)
Read for next class:
Barnow, 112-126
Nichols, 61-81
Davidson. "Depression America and the Rise of the Social Documentary Film." (Chicago
Review, 34 no. 1, Summer 1983) (reader)
Surf for next class:
"New Frontiers in American Documentary Film" (available online)
Class 10 (Feb 17): American Documentary and the Great Depression
Screening:
Great Depression overview (11 min.)
Plow That Broke the Plains (Pare Lorentz, 1936) (26 min.)
Clips: Dawn of the Eye (1930's newsreels) (9 min.)
Clips: Native Land (Leo Hurwitz, Paul Strand, 1942) (14 min.)
Discussion Lead by Group 5 (Plow that Broke the Plains)
Read for next class:
"Reaping the Golden Harvest: Pare Lorentz, Poet and Filmmaker" (available online)
Waugh. "Men Cannot Act Before the Camera in the Presence of Death" (Documenting
the Documentary) (reader)
Week Six:
Class 11 (Feb 22): Hard Times: American Documentary and the Great Depression
Screening:
The River (Pare Lorentz, 1938) (30 min.)
Spanish Civil War newsreel/doc (5 min.)
Spanish Earth (Joris Ivens, 1937) (52 min.)
Discussion Lead by Group 6 (The Spanish Earth)
Read for next class:
Barnow, 134-136; 144-149; 154-164
Austin. "A Battle of Wills" (Artistic Strategy and the Rhetoric of Power) (reader)
Class 12 (Feb. 24): Documentary Goes to War
Screening:
Listen to Britain (Humphrey Jennings, Stewart McAllister, 1942) (19 min.)
Clips: Target for Tonight (Harry Watt, 1941) (15 min.)
Clips: Why We Fight (Prelude to War) (Frank Capra, 1943) (40 min.)
Clip: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939)
Discussion Lead by Group 7 (Why We Fight)
Required individual viewing before the end of next week:
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstal (Media Resources Center DVD 176)
Read for next class:
Sontag. "Fascinating Fascism" (available online)
Tomasulo. "Mass Psychology of Fascist Cinema" (Documenting the Documentary)
(reader)
Week Seven:
Class 13 (March 1): Documentary Goes to War (Guest Lecturer: Professor Anton Kaes)
Screening:
Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens) (Leni Rienfenstahl, 1934) (120 min.)
Discussion Lead by Group 8 (Triumph of the Will)
Read for next class:
Flitterman-Lewis. "Documenting the Ineffable: Terror and Memory in Night and Fog."
(Documenting the Documentary) (reader)
Barnow, 180-182; 221-228
Ellis. "Free Cinema." (available online)
Class 14: (March 3) Post-War Documentary
Screening:
Clip from Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karl Reisz, 1960) (6 min.)
Clip from The Bicycle Thief (Ladri di Biciclette) (Vittorio De Sica, 1949) (10 min.)
Clips from Atomic Café (10 min.)
Clips from Harvest of Shame (David Lowe, CBS TV, 1960) (15 min.)
Night and Fog (Nuit et Brouillard) (Alain Resnais, 1955) (32 min.)
Discussion lead by Group 9 (Night and Fog)
Required individual viewing before the end of next week:
Cinema Verité: Defining the Moment (Media Center VIDEO/C 7004)
Read for next class:
Barnow, 229-262
Review Nichols, pp. 109-115
Morin. "Chronicle of a Film" (Visual Communication, Winter 1985) (reader)
Callison. "Truth in Cinema: Comparing Direct Cinema and Cinema" Verite) (available
online)
Michael Renov at the Pacific Film Archives tonight (Thursday March 3rd)
Week Eight:
Class 15 (March 8): The Observers: Cinema Verité / Direct Cinema
Screening:
Chronicle of a Summer (Chronique d'un ete) (Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, 1960) (90
min.)
Discussion lead by Group 10 (Chronicle of a Summer)
Screen in Section:
Direct Cinema (interview with Al and David Maysles) (52 min.) (Media Center VIDEO/C
5966)
Read for next class:
Nichols, 148-167
"Eternal Verites" (Beyond Document) (reader)
Pryluck: "Ultimately We Are All Outsiders" (New Challenges for Documentary) (reader)
Surf for next class:
Daniel Zwerling Interviews Al Maysles
Class 16 (March 10):Cinema Verité / Direct Cinema (continued)
Screening:
Clips from Primary (Drew Associates, 1960) (10 min.)
Salesman (Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, 1968) (90 min.)
Optional but highly recommended viewing:
Don't Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967) (90 min.)
Discussion Lead by Group 11 (Salesman)
Read for next class:
Nichols, chapter 7; review pp. 115-123 (Participatory Mode)
Barnow, pp 268-293
Grosser. "We Aren't on the Wrong Side, We Are the Wrong Side." (From Hanoi to
Hollywood) (reader)
Wilder. "Hearts and Minds Redux." (available online)
Surf for next class:
Background on the Columbia University 1968 Student Uprising
Chronology of the War in Vietnam
Week Nine:
Class 17 (March 15): Up Against the Wall and On the Battlements: 60's and 70s Documentary
Activism
Screening:
Hearts and Minds (Peter Davis, 1974) (112 min.)
Discussion Lead by Group 12 (Hearts and Minds)
View in discussion section (Mar 16):
Clips: A 15 minute, 22 second tour of the 60's
Clips: Columbia Revolt (Newsreel, 1968) (15 min.)
Read for next class
Rosenthal. "Harlan County USA." (reader) (The Documentary Conscsience)
Kaplan. "Theory and Practice of the Realist Documentary Form in Harlan County U.S.A."
(Show Us Life) (reader)
Biskin. "Harlan County U.S.A." (Jump Cut no. 14, 1977, pp. 3-4) (available online)
King. "Recent 'Political' Documentary: Notes on Union Maids and Harlan County USA"
(Screen, 22, no. 2 1981) (reader)
Class 18 (March 17): Up Against the Wall and On the Battlements: The 60's and 70s Filmmaker as
Activist/Participant
Screening:
Harlan County, USA (Barbara Kopple, 1976) (103 min.)
Discussion Lead by Group 13 (Harlan County)
Read for next class:
Waugh. "Walking on Tippy Toes: Lesbian and Gay Liberation Documentary of the Post
Stonewall Period, 1969-84 (Between the Sheets, In the Streets) (reader)
Atwell. "Word Is Out and Gay U.S.A." (New Challenges for Documentary) (reader)
Silver. "Dear Video Diary." (re: Aka Don Bonus) U.S. News & World Report, July 1, 1996
v121 (available online - via UCB proxy or in the library)
"One Big Life": Asian American Documentarists Carve Out A Niche." Colorlines, April 20,
2000, issue 1 (available online - via UCB proxy or in the library)
Proposal
for documentary video final project due (March 17)(for those opting for
this type of project)
Week Ten:
Spring Break!!!
Week Eleven:
Class 19 (March 29): Voices from the Margins: "We Speak to You About Us"
Screening:
Clips: Word Is Out (Peter Adair, 1977)
A.k.a. Don Bonus (Spencer Nakasako, Sokly Ny, 1995) (55 min)
Discussion Lead by Group 14 (A.k.a. Don Bonus)
View in discussion section (March 30):
Clips: Eyes on the Prize (No Easy Walk, 1962-66)(Blackside Productions, 1986)
Read for next class:
Ding. "Strategies of an Asian American Filmmaker" (Moving the Image: Independent
Asian Pacific American Media Arts) (available online)
Surf for next class:
Center for Educational Telecommunications (Loni Ding) web site
Paradigm Productions (Ray Telles) web site

Proposal for final paper due (March 29)(for those opting for this type of project)
Class 20 (March 31): Voices from the Margins: "We Speak to You About Us"
Guests: Ray Telles; Loni Ding
 Read for next class:
Grant. "Man with a Movie Camera."(Fred Wiseman) (Voyages of Discovery) (reader)
Grant. "Ethnography in the First Person." (Titicut Follies) (Documenting the Documentary)
(reader)
Rapfogel. "The Birth, Life, and Death of a Nation: A Portrait by Frederick Wiseman."
(available online)

Assignment 1 due (March 31)
Class 21 (April 5): Reality Fictions: Frederick Wiseman
Screening:
Titicut Follies (Frederick Wiseman, 1967) (84 min.)
Read for next class:
Discussion with Frederick Wiseman - part I (IndieWire) (available online)
Discussion with Frederick Wiseman - part II (IndieWire) (available online)
Class 22 (April 7): Reality Fictions: Frederick Wiseman
Guest speaker: Frederick Wiseman
Read for next class:
Erens. "Women's Documentary Filmmaking: the Personal Is Political" (New
Challenges for Documentary) (reader)
Lesage. "The Political Aesthetics of the Feminist Documentary Film" (Issues in
Feminist film Criticism) (reader)
Fred Wiseman at the Pacific Film Archives tomorrow night (Friday April 8th)
Week Thirteen:
Class 23: (April 12): Feminist Documentary Comes of Age: Reclaiming History
Screening:
Clips: Women in the defense industry newsreel footage (3 min.)
The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (Connie Field, 1980) (65 min.)
Discussion Lead by: Group 15 (Rosie)
Discussion Sections (April 6): Guest speaker: B. Ruby Rich
Read for next class:
Citron. "Fleeing from Documentary: Autobiographical Film/Video and the "Ethics of
Responsibility." (Feminism and Documentary) (reader)
Williams and Rich. "The Right of Re-Vision: Michelle Citron's Daughter Rite." (Movies
and Methods) (reader)
Class 24: (April 14): Feminist Documentary Comes of Age: Identity and Power
Screening:
Clips: Interviews with Julie Reichert and Michelle Citron (Women of Vision) (12 min.)
Clips: Growing Up Female (Julie Reichert, James Klein, 1971) (15 min.)
Daughter Rite (Michelle Citron, 1979) (53 min.)
Discussion Lead by: Group 16 (Daughter Rite)
Read for next class:
Aufderheide. "Public Intimacy: The Development of First-person Documentary"
Afterimage July-August 1997 v25 n1 p16 (available online - via UCB proxy or in the
library)
Lucia. "When the Personal Becomes Political: An Interview with Ross McElwee"
Cineaste, Spring 1993 v20 n2 p32 (available online - via UCB proxy or in the library)
Fischer. "Documentary Film and the Discourse of Hysterical/Historical Narrative."
(Sherman's March) (Documenting the Documentary) (reader)
Week Fourteen:
Class 25 (April 19): The Camera I: First-person Narratives, Family Narratives, and the Performance
of Self
Screening:
Sherman's March (Ross McElwee, 1986) (155 min.)
Discussion Lead by: Group 17 (Sherman's March)
Read for next class:
Interview with Marlon Riggs (from Jump Cut, no 3. 1991) (available online)
Petty. "Silence and Its Opposite" (Documenting the Documentary) (reader)
Review Nichols, pp: 130-137 (Performative Mode)
Class 26 (April 21): The Camera I: First-person Narratives, Family Narratives, and the Performance
of Self
Screening:
Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs, 1989) (55 min.)
Films of Sadie Benning
Discussion Lead by: Group 18 (Tongues Untied)
Read for next class:
Renov. "New Subjectivities: Documentary and Self-Representation in the Post-Verite
Age." (available online)
Week Fifteen:
Class 27 (April 26): The Camera I: First-person Narratives, Family Narratives, and the Performance
of Self
Screening:
Intimate Stranger (Alan Berliner, 1991) (60 min.)
Discussion Lead by: Group 19 (Intimate Stranger)
Read for next class:
Ruby. "The Image Mirrored" (New Challenges for Documentry) (reader)
Williams. "Mirrors without Memories: Truth, History, and the New Documentary" (Film
Quarterly, 46 no 3, Spring 1993) (reader)
Review Nichols, pp. 125-130 (Reflexive Mode)
Class 28 (April 28): The Image Mirrored: The Reflexive Documentary
Screening:
Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988) (101 min.)
Discussion Lead by: Group 20 (Thin Blue Line)
Read for next class:
Bernstein, Matthew. "'Roger and Me': Documentaphobia and Mixed Modes." (Journal
of Film and Video v46, n1 Spring, 1994) (Documenting the Documentary)
"Michael & Me." (Film Comment v25, n6 Nov-Dec, 1989) (reader)
Week Sixteen:
Class 29 (May 3): The Image Mirrored: The Reflexive Documentary
Screening:
Roger and Me (Michael Moore, 1989) (90 min.)
Class 30 (May 5): Mixed Messages: The Mixed Mode Documentary
Screening:
Halving the Bones (Ruth Ozeki, 1995) (72 min.)
Read for next class:
Roscoe and Hight. "A Cousin for the Drama-Documentary: Situating the MockDocumentary"(excerpt) (Faking It) (reader)
Roscoe and Hight. "Building a Mock-Documentary Schema." (Faking It) (reader)
Doherty. "The Sincerest Form of Flattery: A Brief History of the Mockumentary"
(Cineaste, Fall 2003) (available online - via UCB proxy or in the library)
Surf for next class:
Mock-Documentary: The Subversion of Reality (available online)
Week Seventeen:
Class 30 (May 7): Mock-Docs, Docudramas, & Other Appropriations
Screening:
Clips: David Holzman's Diary (Jim McBride, 1967)
Clips: Homicide: Life on the Streets: The Documentary (Barbara Kopple)
Mao, The Real Man (Szilveszter Siklosi, 1994) (54 min.)