In this module you will learn a lot about the different kinds of Documentary films,
specifically:
Explorer or Nature Documentaries: from the early work of Robert Flaherty to today's
films like 'Winged Migration' and 'March of the Penguins'
Advocate and Propaganda Documentaries: these include everything from Leni
Riefenstahl's film about Hitler and Frank Capra's World War 2 series, to many other
documentaries that use this form to try to change the way people think about certain
topics
Historical Documentaries -- we focus particularly on the work of Ken Burns, who
creates these wonderful, epic series for PBS on themes like The Civil War, Jazz,
Baseball, World War 2, and many others
The Mockumentary -- we focus on the work of Michael Moore and Robert
Greenwald, who produced documentaries that have a strong bias and who often stage
scenes to reinforce that bias
And there are other kinds of documentaries as well -- biographies, music festivals,
"The Making of ..." short documentaries about films that you find on the DVD
releases, and many more.
Paper # 3 asks you to analyze a documentary film of your choosing.
DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING
We are currently in what many people are calling the Golden Age of Documentary
filmmaking. The proliferation of cable and satellite channels have helped create new
audiences for documentaries, as well as the need for supplemental materials on DVD
releases of Hollywood and other films from around the world.
So what is a Documentary? Many of you saw lots of documentaries in your
elementary and high school classes and may even have a predisposition to believe that
all documentaries are boring.
This module will expose you to some of the different kinds of documentaries, a genre
includes everything from nature and “National Geographic” style films to history
docs, biographies, strongly political and social issue docs, newsmagazine shows,
concert and music festival docs, and even some forms of “reality TV”.
The first films ever made were a form of documentary. The Lumiere Brothers in
France had a company that was the European equivalent of the Kodak company in
America.
Film was in essence a series of still photographs, 24 per second in fact, that give the
illusion of motion when played back at that speed in front of a projection bulb. At that
number of frames per second, our eyes can no longer distinguish the frame lines
between the pictures and what we see appears to be actual motion. The Lumiere
Brothers’ success was in large part due to their hand wound camera; Thomas Edison’s
early film camera depended on electricity and thus could not operate outside of the
few studios with electricity. The Lumiere camera used one minute reels of film, and
the camera could be converted to a projector with a flip of an internal switch.
