June 30-July 11, 2008
MSU Catalogue Description: Courses will explore various specialized topics in film. May be repeated as topics change.
Note: This course requires extensive online work. Expertise in keyboarding, e-mail communication, world wide web exploration, along with daily access to computer (including broadband, DSL, and/or dial-in capacity) are prerequisites. Each participant must have access to the internet as well as a computer system capable of handling film viewing, electronic resources, D2L discussions and asynchronous online participation.Participants use "Desire to Learn" (D2L) as the delivery system to analyze and assess ways in which selected documentary films shape and reflect experiences of survivors of wars, family violence, abuse, catastrophes, illness, and other subjects. "The word documentary has its root in the Latin word docere, which meant to teach or instruct. We also know the more modern and common phrase that something is 'a document' (e.g. an important piece of paper presented in court) and we may ask someone 'to document' one's identity or statements." --From "Defining Documentary Film" by Henrik Juel, in P.O.V., No. 22 (2006): http://pov.imv.au.dk/Issue_22/POV_22cnt.html
Selected Characteristics to be analyzed:
1) Emphasis on the cinéma-vérité style of documentary film-making, which aims to capture events raw and unmediated, and which uses unobtrusive equipment and filming methods that do not interfere with the events being recorded.
2) Emphasis on documentary as film that is intended to present a version of events that viewers are intended to take not as a work of imagination but primarily as fact. Documentaries may or may not involve a narrative and may or may not present an argument explicitly (e.g. voice-over commentary). Materials may comprise newsreel, historical footage, interviews with witnesses or other "authoritative" figures, or even dramatised re-enactments. Documentary is often presented or seen as the opposite of fiction.
3) Emphasis on representation, a term that describes the cinematic presentation of ideological constructs such as gender, race, age, class and sexuality.
Note: Online discussion forums analyze such issues as survivor's guilt, reparations, reconciliation, and resiliency. Each participant makes a contract for the grade that she or he wishes to earn in the course. Scroll down to read contract terms. In addition, a participant must complete all viewing, online reading, and writing assignments.
Films: THE SOLDIER'S HEART; THE ORPHAN TRAINS, THE LOST BOYS OF SUDAN, RABBIT IN THE MOON, BE GOOD SMILE PRETTY, WEAPONS OF THE SPIRIT, and others. All films can be viewed on our D2L site. Basic terminology for film analysis is available at Screen Online: Terminology Information on selected documentary films is available at Documentary Film Network To gain background on documentary film, you can read Henrik Juel's article entitled Defining Documentary Film (published in the film journal "p.o.v.", A Danish Journal of Film Studies, Number 22, December 2006).
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CONTRACT GRADING: How it works--click on Contract &
Syllabus at left for details. |
The learning outcomes for this course are interwoven with the skills required to succeed in this course:
Ability to click on and follow links and ability to understand relationships among links and main material.
Ability to type (preferably with more than two fingers) with a minimum of typos (i.e., keyboarding skills).
Ability to use computer efficiently (hand/eye/body coordination) without many operational errors.
Ability to interpret values and beliefs that underlie information presentation on www.
Ability to take one's own perspective and comprehend others' perspectives (tolerance, acceptance, respect).
Reflective listening/reading of others' comments in chat rooms, threaded discussions, etc.
Willingness to express values and beliefs in ways that do not dismiss nor denigrate others' values and beliefs.