Module overview
This module will introduce you to some of the principal realist and documentary movements, asking how the simple aim to ‘show things as they really are’ has resulted in a range of creative and wildly different cinematic forms. It will consider the issue as one of film aesthetics, and will trace its development historically, ranging from early cinema to reality TV, and as a global question of film movements. It will discuss the different political purposes of different types of realist and documentary cinemas, their relationship to industrial questions and state institutions, and ask how their social aims produce different artistic and formal outcomes, each of which expresses an idea about how cinema functions as a way of knowing the world and of changing it – or of keeping it as it is.
Linked modules
FILM1020 or FILM1001 or FILM2006 or FILM1027 or FILM1020
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Apply the module’s concepts and themes to other aspects of film aesthetics, and expand knowledge of these themes into other areas
- Engage critically with a range of theories, films, and cultural products
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- the social, political, historical, economic, and cultural contexts of the various forms of realism and documentary
- realism and documentary historically
- the range of realist and documentary cinemas
- the ways in which the themes explored in this module connect to other international contexts
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Independently research appropriate resources
- Communicate effectively in writing
- Critical analyse
- Organise time effectively
Syllabus
This module will focus on film, but will regard realism as a broad cultural project and make reference to other forms including television, photography, poetry and drama. It will be structured so as to discuss some of the principal realist and documentary movements. It will analyse how their various claims to represent truth can be understood as social or political issues which have aesthetic consequences. The screenings and readings will be designed to convey these questions via global, formal and historical perspectives.
At the start of the module, we will begin by establishing the reasons why realism is an issue in artistic representation, and some of the theory and history of its application to cinema. The module will proceed through discussion of different moments in realism and will include mention of early actualities, British documentary, European realist movements, Third cinema, Direct Cinema, Cinéma vérité and reality television. Topics will include a split between documentary (broadly defined), and fiction. Running across the discussion of the different forms will be a developing application of broad theoretical concerns around realism, knowledge, film form and aesthetics, including the seminal realist theories of Kracauer and Bazin, amongst others. The choice of films are chosen for a wide historical and geographical scope and films might include Battle of Algiers (Italy/Algeria, 1966), Boyz n the Hood (USA, 1991), Stories We Tell (Canada 2012), Berlin Symphony of a Great City (Germany, 1926).
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- Lectures, used to introduce key issues and themes
- Seminars, incorporating small group work and larger group discussion
- Screenings of selected films
- Individual consultations with tutor
Learning activities include
- Independent study, research, and viewing
- Critical thinking, reading, and writing
- Engagement in seminar discussions as both speaker and listener
- Preparation of written assignments
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Completion of assessment task | 75 |
Lecture | 10 |
Preparation for scheduled sessions | 35 |
Practical classes and workshops | 20 |
Seminar | 10 |
Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
General Resources
Chronicle of a Summer/Chronique d’un été (Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, France, 1961). Film
Textbooks
Christopher Williams (1980). Realism and the Cinema: A Reader. London: BFI.
Bill Nichols (2010). Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
André Bazin (2005). What is Cinema? vol II. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Anna Jerslev (ed.) (2002). Realism and ‘Reality’ in Film and Media. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Siegfried Kracauer (1997). Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lúcia Nagib and Cecilia Mello (eds) (2013). Realism and the Audio-visual Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Essay | 60% |
Analysis | 40% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Resubmit assessments | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Repeat of module | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External