Is there a new way of approaching the real, how has digital and transmedia transformed documentary, and what themes or movements have emerged in the 2000s? This course explores the ways in which documentary has evolved in this century, and what documentary traditions or resources have persisted or mutated. Students will be able to approach the trends that have marked documentary filmmaking in recent decades. Topics such as the filmmaker of subjectivity, gender awareness, the relevance of personal memory in historical discourse, the impact of socio-economic transformations on the landscape or the development of interactivity and transmedia have been addressed by filmmakers from different continents.
The methodology will be based on lectures – supported by film clips and texts – and class discussion based on the viewing of a documentary or the reading of a text on the subject of the session.
Assessment will consist of class participation (10%) and a final essay (90%) based on a theme, filmmaker or trend seen in class.
Baker, Maxine (2006). Documentary in the Digital Age. Oxford: Elsevier.
Bruzzi, Stella (2006). New Documentary. New York: Routledge.
Chapman, Jane (2009). Issues on Contemporary Documentary. Cambridge: Polity.
Farocki, Harun (2015). Desconfiar de las imágenes. Buenos Aires: Caja Negra.
Nichols, Bill (1997). La representación de la realidad. Barcelona: Paidós.
Rabinowitz, Paula (1994). They Must Be Represented: The Politics of Documentary. London and New York: Verso.
Renov, Michael (1993). Theorizing Documentary. New York: Routledge.
Renov, Michael (2004). The subject of Documentary. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
Tranche, Rafael R. (Ed.) 2006). De la foto al fotograma. Fotografía y cine documental: dos miradas sobre la realidad. Madrid: Ocho y medio, Ayuntamiento de Madrid.
Vinyes, Marina (2015). Usos i abusos de la imatge en l’univers audiovisual de la Shoah. Girona: Documenta universitaria.