The Nonfiction Narrative or the Documentary Storytelling course is a basic exploration of the documentary cinema genre and the nonfiction narrative process, through the acquisition of skills, knowledge, and insights to develop and pitch a documentary production.
With a balance of theory and creative treatment, the course is designed to allow the students to understand the elements, variety, history, and processes of the realist tradition of filmmaking. Even though this is not a production class, the course also allows the students to unravel their documentary ideas and find their unique cinematic voice in the process of developing and presenting their documentary treatment.
The goals of this course include the following:
- to explore the depths of various documentary films as the students explore their creative nonfiction voice
- to prepare for a documentary production by developing a creative documentary treatment and a 3 to 5-minute video pitch and an oral presentation at the end of the semester.
- to learn the different styles, tones, and subject matter as the students dig deeper into underlying contexts and issues of aesthetics, purpose, and meaning in their documentary story idea.
- and to understand and imbibe the ethical implications of documentary cinema, and the filmmakers' responsibilities in the field of documentary.
- to explore the depths of various documentary films as the students explore their creative nonfiction voice
- to prepare for a documentary production by developing a creative documentary treatment and a 3 to 5-minute video pitch and an oral presentation at the end of the semester.
- to learn the different styles, tones, and subject matter as the students dig deeper into underlying contexts and issues of aesthetics, purpose, and meaning in their documentary story idea.
- and to understand and imbibe the ethical implications of documentary cinema, and the filmmakers' responsibilities in the field of documentary.
During an interview session at the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana with student Teresa Querciagrossa
Summer Internship with students Kiefer Zumlas, Khiry Hollowell, and Michael Shults, filming the feature-length documentary,
BRO: Men with Hope to Bring, Summer of 2013.