The Documentary Experience

This course introduces creative documentary as a form of storytelling suitable for media communication, qualitative research, and cross-cultural understanding, without overlooking its potential for personal expression and self-exploration. Its multiplicity of reality-based methodologies provides endless possibilities to shed light on contemporary societal issues through compelling stories.

In this hands-on course, students will create short documentary pieces. Students are free to use any equipment that allows them to record, edit, and mix different media. Their documentary content will be a sensory exploration of reality, focused on any elements of the local culture and society. This can include such topics as families and individuals; social and political issues; and economic and cultural practices. Students will experiment with the different stages of creating a non-fictional work, while reflecting on the processes of representation through discussion of key historical moments within the evolution of documentary practice. A wide array of non-fiction works from around the globe - with a special emphasis on European, Spanish, and Catalan documentaries - will also illuminate students' own storytelling.

Class time will include lectures, technical workshops, case studies, critical review of student work, and carefully designed fieldwork. Students are encouraged to analyze their own work and the work of others in a collaborative learning environment of constructive criticism, in which cross-cultural skills, creativity, and critical thinking will be crucial.