Today, we'll start with a little brainstorming:
If we divide cinema into real and fiction, Documentary is the most realistic film style. Narrative, while attempting to be realistic, usually includes camera shots and angles that are most unnatural. Originally, documentary films started off as just "home movies" or simple scenes of ordinary life (without actors or scripts). They were capturing real life on film for the purpose of sharing reality with its audience. Filmmakers today use documentary to "document" important social, political, and popular cultural events.
What sort of topics might you come up with if you were going to make a documentary? Take some time to discuss this with your group and make a list to share with the class.
After our class discussions, we will screen the documentary film: The End of Poverty (2008). The film "explor[es] the history of poverty in developing countries. [Director] Philippe Diaz contends that today's economic inequities arose as a result of colonization, military conquest and slavery, with wealthier countries seizing the resources of the poor. The film is narrated by Martin Sheen. As factual information it includes interviews with numerous historians, economists and sociologists who shed light on the ongoing conditions that contribute to poverty."
HOMEWORK: Please read about documentaries (see link above) and complete the graphic organizer, grasping at key important concepts in the article. Due next class.
- What are some key issues in American culture that you feel are relevant or important?
If we divide cinema into real and fiction, Documentary is the most realistic film style. Narrative, while attempting to be realistic, usually includes camera shots and angles that are most unnatural. Originally, documentary films started off as just "home movies" or simple scenes of ordinary life (without actors or scripts). They were capturing real life on film for the purpose of sharing reality with its audience. Filmmakers today use documentary to "document" important social, political, and popular cultural events.
What sort of topics might you come up with if you were going to make a documentary? Take some time to discuss this with your group and make a list to share with the class.
After our class discussions, we will screen the documentary film: The End of Poverty (2008). The film "explor[es] the history of poverty in developing countries. [Director] Philippe Diaz contends that today's economic inequities arose as a result of colonization, military conquest and slavery, with wealthier countries seizing the resources of the poor. The film is narrated by Martin Sheen. As factual information it includes interviews with numerous historians, economists and sociologists who shed light on the ongoing conditions that contribute to poverty."
HOMEWORK: Please read about documentaries (see link above) and complete the graphic organizer, grasping at key important concepts in the article. Due next class.
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