University of Newcastle Australia program

Documentary Cinema: Rendering the Real

This program, SCRN3200, offers a critical, historical, and theoretical survey of documentary film.

Explore documentary film as a reportorial, experiential, persuasive, educational, and innovative form of global cinema spanning diverse cultures and political contexts.

This program comprises an examination of the different styles, aims, and methods characterising documentary approaches to filmmaking via historical and more recent examples, and informed by a range of scholarly work dedicated to this form of cinema. In the process, the special status and claims of documentary filmmaking are identified, interrogated, and explored.

Courses

4 courses

The University of Newcastle, Australia

The University of Newcastle stands as a global leader distinguished by a commitment to equity and excellence. Our degree programs are internationally recognised. Our research is world-class and diverse and our partnerships and collaborations drive innovation. UON is ranked 207th in the prestigious 2020 QS World University Rankings and is consistently in the top 10 Australian universities for research.

  • The University of Newcastle Australia

Who will you learn with?

I am a senior lecturer in Film, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Newcastle, and the program convenor for the Bachelor of Arts. My research specialises in European and modernist cinema.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the course students will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of documentary cinema's informative and educational role in how we understand social, political, cultural and historical contexts and realities.

  2. Effectively apply and adapt major theoretical cinema studies models to documentary filmmaking.

  3. Evaluate and critique ethical questions arising in documentary filmmaking.

  4. Analyse, at advanced undergraduate level, documentary cinema’s contribution to audio-visual media's technological, formal and aesthetic development.