Film, Realism and Reality: representing the world, from revolution to the everyday

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• realism and documentary historically
• the social, political, historical, economic, and cultural contexts of the various forms of realism and documentary
• the range of realist and documentary cinemas
• the ways in which the themes explored in this module connect to other international contexts

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

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Organise time effectively
• Critical analyse
• Independently research appropriate resources
• Communicate effectively in writing

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).

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

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

Chronicle of a Summer/Chronique d’un été (Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, France, 1961). Film

Textbooks

Anna Jerslev (ed.) (2002). Realism and ‘Reality’ in Film and Media. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.

Christopher Williams (1980). Realism and the Cinema: A Reader. London: BFI.

Lúcia Nagib and Cecilia Mello (eds) (2013). Realism and the Audio-visual Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

André Bazin (2005). What is Cinema? vol II. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Siegfried Kracauer (1997). Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Bill Nichols (2010). Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

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.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External