Film Theory: Experimental Ethnographic and Documentary Films

On this eight-week evening course you'll watch and discuss classic and experimental ethnographic and documentary films.
This will enable you to critically engage with the politics of image making.
You'll study how the genre of ethnographic film has changed from 1920s to now - from seemingly scientific accounts to staged authenticity, and from experimental modes to collage made out of found footage.
Films you'll consider include:
the silent cinema of Robert Flaherty
the use of montage of Russian filmmakers in the 1920s
visual video diaries in New York by Jonas Mekas
French cinéma vérité
indigenous filmmaking in Brazil