Music and Documentary Filmmaking (Winter 2011)
Classes: Tuesday and Thursday 2:00PM – 3:20PM
Location: HC 2-26
Instructor: Federico Spinetti www.ualberta.ca/~spinetti
Office: 3-34A Arts & Convocation Hall; office hours: Tuesday 11:00AM – 1:00PM; tel. 492-7534; email: spinetti@ualberta.ca
Contents
Course description
This course examines a variety of experiences, techniques, philosophies and understandings of documentary filmmaking through the specific lens of music. It considers both documentaries about music and the use of music in documentary films on other subjects. Spanning TV productions, art films and film ethnographies, the course draws on film studies, visual anthropology and ethnomusicology to provide an interpretive frame and a critical forum for students to engage thoughtfully with documentary filmmaking. In particular, music will be taken as the vantage point to look at issues of representation in audiovisual media as well as to explore documentary filmmaking as both a creative and a research process. Class instruction will include discussion of assigned readings, and in-class viewings and analyses.
Prerequisites
This course is for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. No previous knowledge of music notation, ethnomusicology, music scholarship in general, film studies or visual anthropology is required to take this course and to effectively complete its assignments/requirements.
Objectives
- To familiarize students with the technical and creative process of documentary filmmaking, with an emphasis on issues of representation of real life.
- To encourage students to take up a critical understanding of documentary filmmaking.
- To consider the socio-political, cultural and technological contexts of the production of documentary films, and to appreciate their significance for the making, direction and philosophical approach of specific documentary films.
- To examine the representation of musical life, music making and musicians in documentary films from a variety of periods and artistic/research perspectives.
- To explore documentary filmmaking as a research process, research output and art form, and to assess its significance for the ethnographic study of music.
- To address the role of music soundtrack in the representational and narrative strategies of documentary film.
