MAC 242 Projects in Documentary Media

In our dynamic digital moment, the question, “What is a documentary?” can be answered with ever-increasing complexity. Works professing truth claims about our historical and present “realities” are just as much constructs as any fiction film, a realization that presents both creative opportunities and ethical responsibilities for documentary practitioners. This hands-on course will explore and develop a poetics of documentary, underscoring that the politics and meaning of documentary works come, not simply through their content, but through their aesthetic strategies and processes of production and distribution. A series of collaborative, hands-on media projects will be supplemented by discussions of theoretical readings, screenings, and technical workshops.