Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

This module will introduce students to the genre of non-fiction film known as the documentary. This screening-based module will examine the development of the documentary from the origins of the form through to contemporary documentary practice. The historical and theoretical engagement with the documentary will be developed from the perspective of film practice – thus attention will be paid to the ethical relationship between filmmaker and subject, and between subject matter and politics, as well as story construction, and cinematographic and editing approaches.

This modules aims to:
1. Trace the origins of documentary as a form of non-fiction film.
2. Assess the contribution of early documentary makers from USSR, UK and Europe in the inter-war period.
3. Assess the contribution of documentary cinema in the post-war period, including Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite.
4. Reflect on the ethical dimension of documentary filmmaking, on notions of truth and representation.
5. Examine the relationship of documentaries to the ‘discourse of sobriety’ and as constitutive of wider relations of power.

Outline Of Syllabus

Weekly themes covered may include:
- From document to documentary – overview of definitional debates
- Actualities and narrative – the arrival of the documentary form
- Grierson and the British Documentary Movement
- Alternative traditions – Vertov and documentary in the USSR
- The arrival of the cinematic documentary – the non-fiction feature film
- Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite – critique, storytelling, truth.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

Students successfully completing the module will have knowledge of:
1. The different and competing ways that documentary as a form of non-fiction film has been defined (aim 1).
2. The historical context in which the antecedents of documentary, in the form of actualities, emerged (aim 2).
3. The films produced by the British Documentary Film Movement and parallel developments in the USSR and Europe (aims 2).
4. Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite documentary movements in developing the post-war cinematic documentary (aim 3).
5. Critical reflection on the ethical and political dimensions of film practice (aims 4 & 5).

Intended Skill Outcomes

Students successfully completing the module will have skills in:
- using appropriate oral, visual and audio techniques to make a group presentation.
- writing and researching an essay.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

This module will be delivered through a combination of lectures and screening-based seminars that set out historical context for the emergence of the documentary, and its subsequent development in different parts of the world. The combination of illustrated lectures to give a structure and context for learning, and screening- and reading-based discussion in seminars will enable students to have both the breadth and depth of understanding of the documentary in its social and historical context

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The rationale for the assessments is to enable the students to demonstrate their intellectual grasp of the development of the documentary form and to illustrate this through a group presentation and the writing of a scholarly 2500-word essay. The group presentation will also assess their ability to work as part of a team, which will stand them in good stead for productions tasks at levels 5 and 6.

General Notes

N/A