Unbiased Camera: A Digital Documentary Workshop
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Documentary film is the opposite of fiction film. Or is it? Are the stories told in documentary film more 'real' or 'true' than fictional stories? Do documentarians have a moral imperative to tell the 'truth'? Can cinema's eye ever be unbiased?
Course Dates:
May 13 - May 31, 2013
course times
9:00 AM - 2:00 PMFREN/FRTR/MDST 3559: Unbiased Camera: A dIGITAL DOCUMENTARY WORKSHOP
3-Credits
This practical - theoretical workshop is aimed at exploring documentary cinema from France and the French-speaking world as well as discovering a range of documentary strategies through hands-on production activities. Working in small groups and alternating practice and theory, students and instructors will engage in:
- a series of audiovisual exercises using various types of digital cameras;
- a study of the documentary modes;
- discussion of some major French and international documentaries;
- the production of an original digital documentary short.
As we work progressively towards effective documentary approaches, we will also ask questions about film, communication, truth, and reality in the broadest sense. If they wish, students can choose to work with a local nonprofit organization for their final projects. The course will be offered in English (readings, discussion, and final project in English; all films assigned will have English subtitles), but French majors may opt to take it for French credit (readings, discussion and final project in French). The course is team-taught by Jean-Luc Lioult, visiting filmmaker and film scholar from the University of Aix-Marseille, France, and Alison Levine, documentary film scholar in the UVA French department. Both instructors are bilingual.
Jean-Luc Lioult is chair of documentary film studies at the Université d’Aix-Marseille (France). He has long run the section of film studies and more recently the Department of Performing Arts. He was, until the mid-eighties, a photographer, a video activist, and a trainer for social workers using audiovisual media. He then joined the university to reinforce film studies, especially in the field of documentary theory, history and practice, and to elaborate teaching methods for practical workshops. From 1995 on, he has written extensively on documentary film and video and given public lectures on the history of documentary. He was deeply involved in creating a Masters degree in documentary (Master professionnel "Métiers du film documentaire") back in 2004. He keeps occasionally involved in video production and is specifically concerned with the practice / theory relationship.
Alison Levine is associate professor of French at the University of Virginia. She teaches courses on French and Francophone cinema, documentary film, and the relationship between film and history. She learned video production at Images Virtuelles in Monteux, France, and at Two Rivers Video in Williamsburg, Virginia before completing her graduate degree in French. Recently, she has been working to introduce media production workshops into her graduate and undergraduate courses, in the interest of exploring the interrelationship between analysis and creative practice. She published a book on documentary film history, Framing the Nation: Documentary Film in Interwar France, soon to appear in French translation, as well as a number of articles on contemporary French and African film, film history, and French colonial history.
For questions, contact Alison Levine alevine@virginia.edu.
To see one of Levine's seminars in action, click here for a video.
UVA Today: Students to Hone Skills in Documentary Filmmaking, French in New Course
Tuition and Fees:
Virginia Resident |
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| Tuition | $321 per Credit | $963.00 |
| Summer Fee | $338.00 |
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| Virginia Resident Total | $1,301.00 |
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Non Virginia Resident |
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| Tuition | $1,119.00 per Credit | $3,357.00 |
| Summer Fee | $397.00 |
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| Non-Virginia Total Costs | $3,754.00 |
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Faculty:
Alison Levine, Horace W. Goldsmith Distinguished Teaching Professor, UVa
Jean-Luc Lioult, Chair of documentary film studies at the Université d’Aix-Marseille
