Cinema Studies, Innis College, University of Toronto

INI 325Y: DOCUMENTARY FILM
Course Description - 2006-2007

Professor Kay Armatage, Innis College Rm 224
Tel. 416-978-8572; Fax 416-946-0168; kay.armatage@utoronto.ca

Screenings Mondays 4:00-6:00 pm, Innis College Rm 222
Lectures Tuesdays 4:00-6:00 pm, Innis College Rm 312
Office Hours Wednesdays 4:00-6:00 pm, Room 224, Innis College


This course is suitable for Cinema Studies students, as well as for students with a background in Sociology, History, Politics and Twentieth Century Studies. It may also be of interest to general arts students.

INI 325Y counts towards Specialist, Major or Minor programmes in Cinema Studies.


Course Description

The course will chart in broad outline the history of the development of documentary (non-fiction film) from the Lumiere brothers to the present day. Classic documentary, direct cinema, cinema verite, concerned cinema, women's cinema and diasporic hybridity will be discussed, in addition to the films of influential individual filmmakers such as Dziga Vertov, Robert Flaherty, John Grierson, Alanis Obomsawin and Trinh, T. Minh-Ha.

Films will be screened every week. Attendance at screenings, keeping up with assigned readings, and participating in class discussions are essential.


Purpose of the Course

Introduction to the history and theory of documentary film.

Texts to Buy

Course Reader - available at Quality Control Copy, 333 Bloor St. W., 416-971-9188.

Barry Keith Grant & Jeannette Sloniowski, eds. Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998).


Assignments and Evaluation

Bibliography Assignment (1st term) 25%; Xmas Test 15%; Term Paper (2nd term) 30%; Term Test (2nd term) 15%; Participation 15%.

There will be no final examination.


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