After films are screened, students work in small groups to discuss techniques and themes in the context of social issues. Students will participate in classroom discussions. Students will clarify their understanding of text and films by engaging in small-group discussions with specific questions to respond to and an informal report due at the end of class. Students will gain insights into the documentary medium by engaging in the collaborative process of filmmaking. Students discuss films in a regulated discussion format in small groups, with a discussion leader, with a report by that leader, and by discussion by the class at large of some of the issues raised by the group.
Students engage in the collaborative art of filmmaking by making a video documentary.
Students will write a variety of documents. Students will become better college-level writers by experiencing multiple and diverse writing assignments. Students complete quizzes on their reading of a history of documentary film, complete analyses of films viewed in class, complete analyses of films viewed outside of class, write a prospectus for a documentary video, rate other prospectuses, and write crew reports. Students will understand quantitative problems. Not in this class.