This course explores the relationship between film, media, and political power, with a particular focus on the documentary film tradition. At a moment when documentary filmmaking has become an increasingly urgent form of political expression and public engagement, we will examine how films represent political realities, shape our understanding of human rights, and challenge existing structures of power. Rather than viewing political film as a distinct category, we begin with the premise that all films are political. From the earliest days of cinema, film has been used as a tool of propaganda and mass education. Even as entertainment, cinema operates within larger systems of cultural, economic, and institutional power. We will also explore the history of political filmmaking through the emergence of Third Cinema in the 1960s, a movement that challenged the dominant conventions of Hollywood (First Cinema) and the independent art-house tradition (Second Cinema). Finally, we will examine how contemporary documentary filmmakers and media workers engage with global human rights issues, social movements, and political struggles. We will also examine the strategies we use to make documentary films, the history of documentary practice, participatory modes, the emerging web-doc movement, the ethics of representation, and audience engagement components. Our online class is set up as a cinema studies format whereby students will watch films, engage in collective dialogue, and journal about the class themes.