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SOCIAL DOCUMENTARY
COMM 512.001
Instructors: Pat Aufderheide
and Robin Smith
Spring 2004, American University School of Communication
This is a class to familiarize you with audio-visual
production for social action, including nonprofit, advocacy, institutional,
and museum display. You’ll analyze case studies of successful
work, map the economic and social environment for media, meet professional
media producers, and develop a proposal.
This kind of audiovisual production is distinctive.
It is produced for instrumental purposes--teaching, triggering debate,
motivating political actions, fostering group identity. Such work
to be compelling must be artful, engaging, and within the expectations
of your viewers for an audiovisual experience.
But it also is special because such work participates
in a relationship with viewers as members of the public, as citizens,
as people who can and will make choices about not just their own
lives but about their government, school system, environment, immigration
policy, and so on. In that sense, especially, this work is critical
to shaping public life.
PROFESSORS:
The lead professor for this class is Prof. Pat Aufderheide,
a full-time and senior faculty member since 1989, and the codirector
of the Center for Social Media (where there is a full bio at http://centerforsocialmedia.org/staff.html).
Prof. Aufderheide is responsible for the course as a whole and for
the majority of the evaluation.
Team-teaching is Prof. Robin Smith, the founder
and president of Video/Action, a leading national producer of strategic
media in conjunction with nonprofits. Kindly consult Staff Information
on Blackboard for more biographical information, for an extensive
bio and filmography please check Course Documents in Blackboard.
Prof. Smith will be responsible for evaluation of her portion of
the course.
REQUIRED READING:
Pat Aufderheide, In
the Battle for Reality
Karen Hirsch, ed., Making
Television Matter
Karen Hirsch, ed. Why
Fund Media
And assigned weekly readings (on Blackboard, either within the e-reserves
file in Course Documents or as a document within Course Documents)
SCHEDULE
Jan. 14: Introductions and viewing
Speaker: Christof Blackman Putzel, filmmaker of Left
Behind
WORKING WITH PROGRAMMERS
Jan. 21: Producing for US Television
READING FOR TODAY:
• Aufderheide, In the Battle for
Reality, Introduction AND Squeezing through the Gates
• http://www.benton.org/publibrary/mtm/Pages/two.html
• Patricia Thomson, “The Documentary in Action”
and “The Catalytic Role of Documentary Outreach,” Chaps.
6 & 7 of Why Fund Media pp. 37-47 (http://fundfilm.org/for_grant/for_grant_fund.htm)
• Interview
with Gordon Quinn
• Visit the website for New
Americans enter and check out the different sections
VIEWING FOR TODAY: New Americans: Episode I
DUE FOR TODAY: Summary paper
Jan. 21, CSM Event: Citizen King, with Orlando Bagwell,
5:30 Wechsler Theater
Jan. 28: International development and television
READ FOR TODAY:
• Nashe Maalo: http://www.sfcg.org/actdetail.cfm?locus=CGP&programid=163
• Visit the website for Steps for the Future: http://dayzero.co.za/steps/;
read in the different sections, including interviews with producers
and international mentors
VIEWING FOR TODAY:
• Local Voter on Prime Time South Africa (VHS 5950)
• Steps for the Future TBA;
• Nashe Maalo
DUE FOR TODAY: Summary paper
Feb. 4: Nonprofits and Television
READING FOR TODAY:
• Aufderheide, In
the Battle for Reality, In the Toolkit: Nonprofit Production
• Aufderheide, “Blood Lines” (http://centerforsocialmedia.org/documents/bloodlines.pdf)
• Conciatore, “Take This Heart: A Coalition Model,”
in Hirsch, ed. Making Television Matter, pp. 28-35 (http://www.benton.org/publibrary/mtm/Pages/three.html)
• “Reaching the MTV Generation,” http://www.kff.org/entmedia/Reaching-the-MTV-Generation.cfm
(and then click on the report)
VIEWING FOR TODAY:
• Take This Heart (VHS 6876);
• sample in Blood Lines
DUE FOR TODAY: Summary paper
GUEST LECTURER: Ellen Spiro, independent filmmaker
Feb. 4, CSM Event: Photographer Leonard Freed,
5:30 Wechsler Theater
WORKING WITH NONPROFITS
A PRACTICUM WITH PROF. ROBIN SMITH
Feb. 11 Video/Action: Partnering with Nonprofits
(Case Study: Women of Substance)
VIEWING FOR TODAY: Women of Substance (30-min and 10-min versions)
(VHS 7376)
DUE FOR TODAY: Screening summary
Feb. 18 Video/Action: Providing a forum for stories rarely heard
(Case Study: We Are Not)
VIEWING FOR TODAY:
• We Are Not Who You Think We Are
• Que Pasa
DUE on MONDAY before CLASS: E-mailed draft of pre-meeting background
memo
DUE FOR TODAY:
• Screening summary
• Research memo on client
IN-CLASS ACTIVITY: Role play meeting with nonprofit client in need
of a video
Feb. 21-22: National Gallery of Art, “The
Flaherty” screenings
Feb. 25 Video/Action: Special Event Video Productions
(Case Study: Through My Eyes)
VIEWING FOR TODAY:
• Through My Eyes (VHS 7373)
• Angie’s Story
• Louis Martin Tribute
DUE FOR TODAY:
• Screening summary
• Post-meeting letter
IN-CLASS ACTIVITY: Role play pre-production brainstorm meeting
March 3 Video/Action: Gov’t-funded Opportunities
(Case Study: Terrorism and Hate Crime)
VIEWING FOR TODAY:
• Extraordinary Response to International Terrorism
• Special Courage in the face of Hate Crime
• A Balance to Maintain
DUE FOR TODAY:
• Screening Summary
• Three-page Proposal (initial draft)
IN-CLASS ACTIVITY: Students will present proposals to each other
for feedback
March 17: Video/Action: Presenting proposals to clients
VIEWING FOR TODAY: Why Walk When You Can Fly?
DUE FOR TODAY:
• Screening summary
• Proposal (final draft)
• Exec Summary
IN-CLASS ACTIVITY: Students will present proposals to nonprofit
client
WAY BEYOND BROADCAST
March 24: Media in Museums
READ FOR TODAY:
• Thomas and Mintz, The Virtual and the Real: Media in the
Museum, 1-35, 57-70
• Wallace, “The virtual past: media and history museums,”
in Mickey Mouse history and other essays on American memory, 101-113
VIEW FOR TODAY:
• Something Strong Within
• Refugees: The Last Resort
VISIT FOR TODAY: One museum using audio-visual media within exhibits
rather than as a movie (any of the Smithsonian complex, for example)
DUE FOR TODAY:
• Summary paper
• Museum visit paper
March 24-27: Environmental
Film Festival at the Center for Social Media! Check website
for details, including the Saturday panel with filmmakers and industry
leaders!
March 31: Documentary and human rights
READ FOR TODAY:
• Aufderheide, In
the Battle for Reality, In the Toolkit: Nonprofit Production
• “Calling the Ghosts,” http://centerforsocialmedia.org/documents/callingtheghosts.pdf
• Visit the witness.org
website and view Rule of the Gun in Sugarland, noting different
sections of the website
• TBA, by Ronit Avni
VIEW FOR TODAY:
• Books not Bars
• Trembling before G-D
GUEST LECTURER: Ronit Avni, formerly associate producer, WITNESS
DUE FOR TODAY: Summary paper
March 31: CSM, Ronit Avni and the Just Vision project,
5:30 Wechsler Theater
April 7: Video Activism
READ FOR TODAY:
• Aufderheide, In
the Battle for Reality, No Gatekeepers: Alternative Media
• Harding, The video activist handbook, 1-28
VIEW FOR TODAY:
• Breaking the Bank (VHS 7319)
• Oneworld
TV; watch a film to be assigned in class
• Five trailers in Big
Noise Media
• Copwatch, Mediarights
Film Festival DVD
DUE FOR TODAY: Summary paper
April 14: Broadcast Outreach and Strategic Campaigns
READING FOR TODAY:
• Pam
Calvert, “Media and Metanoia”
• Ashkinaze, “The Television Race Initiative: Sparking
dialogue that can lead to action,” in Hirsch, ed., Making
Television Matter, 21-28
• Robert West, Report
from the Road: Two Towns of Jasper
• “Not
in Our Town,” Communications Initiative:
VIEWING FOR TODAY:
• Not in Our Town II (VHS 4364) plus discussion guide and
website (http://www.pbs.org/niot/)
• Uprising of ’34 (VHS 3524) (sample in this!)
• sample in Two Towns of Jasper (VHS 7330)
DUE FOR TODAY: Summary paper
April 14: CSM, The Impact of Outreach: The Not In
Our Town Project, 5:30 Wechsler
April 21: Participatory media
READ FOR TODAY:
• Aufderheide, “Videomaking by and with Brazilian Indians,”
on Blackboard Course Documents
• Aufderheide, In
the Battle for Reality, Build It and They Will Come: Public
Platforms for New Speakers
• Hunt, A Voice of Their Own: Youth Media, in Hirsch, ed.
Why Fund Media (http://fundfilm.org/for_grant/for_grant_article8_all.htm)
• Alfonso Gumucio Dagron, “Making Waves,” pp.
1-8, starting at http://www.comminit.com/pdsMakingWaves/sld-5085.html
(several more clicks through to end of p. 8)
• Teen Video in Nigeria: (http://www.comminit.com/pdsMakingWaves/sld-6387.html)
• Video and Community Dreams: Egypt (http://www.comminit.com/pdsMakingWaves/sld-6564.html)
• Orton, Lights, camera, community video : engaging citizens
in creating a community documentary and vision, pp. 1-15
VIEW FOR TODAY:
• Lipstick (VHS 7280)
• Nightmare on AIDS Street on scenariosusa.org website
• Black Georgetown Remembered (VHS 1579)
• Spirit of TV (VHS 1825)
DUE FOR TODAY: Summary paper
Take home final handed out today!
April 29: Finals due by 11 am (or beginning
of class time as later determined!); final discussion and feedback
session
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