Contemporary Documentary

Lecturer: Pascal Vandelanoitte

As a follow-up to ‘History, Theory, and Aesthetics’ (1st semester) & ‘Ethics in Documentary’ (2nd semester), this course introduces students to a selection of contemporary films in different styles of documentary filmmaking.

This course introduces students to a selection of contemporary documentary films, covering different formats and hybrid works between documentary and art film and installation. Further analysis intends to provide an understanding of the context of the periods in which the films were produced by examining correlated cultural, social, artistic and technical influences.

Throughout the different lectures, attention will be also paid to different filmic characteristics as narration, montage, camera, etc. Attention is paid to a wide area of topics, styles and formats. The cycle starts with relative traditional documentaries and slowly evolves into more and more experimental formats. Each lesson has a central (but not exclusive) film and theme. As such, this course aims to broaden the students' scope on documentary formats, topics and environments.