Art & History of Documentary
Schools of Public Engagement: Media
CRN: 10684
Credits: 3
In recent years, documentary films have undergone a remarkable renaissance. Directors like Errol Morris, Werner Herzog, Laura Poitras, Johan Grimonprez have made headlines, garnered critical acclaim, and also reached mass audiences. But behind their successes stands a long tradition of the non-fiction moving image as well as very different histories of documentary film. These histories go back to the very beginning of cinema, to the Lumiere Brothers in France, Thomas Edison in the US, and include often anonymous cinematographers recording the world before their lens, or arranging reality for better effect. Documentary film therefore raises important questions about the ethics of representations, about truth, reference and artifice. Documentary film has variously been used for propaganda purposes, to promote political militancy, to further civic values and social causes, but also to legitimate particular constructions of the past or simply to reveal the poetry of the everyday. Documentary film intersects with the history of photography and historical memory, with anthropology and ethnography, it serves to make us aware of environmental issues and human rights, and it can act as a corrective medium of reflection countering the ceaseless flow of information that passes for news. In this course, television features, dramatized documentary, cinéma vérité and documentary reconstructions will be explored, in order to understand how documentary filmmakers have, over the decades, deployed the emotional impact of the moving image to celebrate nature and human achievement, to investigate injustices, to give a human face to natural and man-made disasters, to protest and to rally, and finally to endow with the dignity of the singular story and the unique voice the common elements of the human condition.
College: Schools of Public Engagement (NS)
Department: Media (MED)
Campus: New York City (GV)
Course Format: Seminar (R)
Modality: Online - Synchronous
Max Enrollment: 15
Add/Drop Deadline: February 3, 2026 (Tuesday)
Online Withdrawal Deadline: April 14, 2026 (Tuesday)
Seats Available: Yes
Status: Open*
* Status information is updated every few minutes. The status of this course may have changed since the last update. Open seats may have restrictions that will prevent some students from registering. Updated: 5:50pm EDT 10/13/2025