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schedule:::AUTOBIOGRAPHY
AND OTHER EXCAVATIONS •••• Tues. 10-12 IN
SEM 2 C1105 •Week 1 Jan.
10: Investigating
the Self: The Films of Su Friedrich sc
>
FILMS: Gently
Down the Stream (1981, 13 min.)
The Ties That Bind (1984, 55 min.) Sink or Swim (1990, 48 min.)
Afternoon screening
>READING:
1. “Su Friedrich: The Ties That Bind” by Scott MacDonald
(reprint)
2.
Peter Thompson, “Self-Portrayal” (reprint) >FURTHER VIEWING:
http://www.sufriedrich.com
••Week 2
Jan. 17: Hybrid Families: The Videos of Richard Fung jz
>FILMS: Sea in the Blood (Canada, 2000, 26 min.); Islands (Canada,
2002, 9 min.)
My Mother’s Place (Canada, 1990, 50
min.) Afternoon Screening
>READING: <Dossier
on the work of Richard Fung>
1. “History, Memory, and the Politics of Programming: The Video Work of
Richard Fung” by Keith Beattie 2. ”Agency,
Affect, and Activism in the Lifework of Richard Fung” by
Monika Kin Gagnon
3. “Dirty Dozen: Playing 12 Questions with Richard Fung” by
Helen Lee
[2.] and [3.] from Like Mangoes in July: The Work of Richard Fung,
ed. Helen Lee and Kerri Sakamoto, 2002.
4. Practices of Looking, pp. 58-71
•••Week
3 Jan. 24: Confessional Theory: The Video Essays of Vanalyne Green jz
>VIDEOS: A Spy in the House that Ruth Built (1989, 30 min.);
Saddle Sores: A Blue Western (1998,
20 min.)
The Love Tapes (Wendy Clarke, 1978-94, 58 min.) Afternoon
screening
>READING:
1. Interview with Vanalyne
Green in Women of Vision: Histories
of Feminist Film and Video, ed. Alexandra
Juhasz, 2001.
2. ”Video Confessions” by Michael
Renov from Resolutions: Contemporary
Video Practices,
1996.
••••Week 4
Jan. 31 Interrogating, Race, Family and Identity: The Films of Ngozi
Onwurah sc
>FILMS: Coffee Coloured Children (UK, 1988, 15 min.); The
Body Beautiful (UK, 1990, 22 min.)
And
Still I Rise (UK, 1993,
30 min.) Afternoon
screening
>READING:
1. Ch. 3
in Practices of Looking
2. “Ngozi Onwurah: A different concept and agenda” in Women Filmmakers of the African and Asian
Diaspora by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, 1997.
•••••Week
5 Feb. 7 "Found" Stories:
Recombinant Masculinity: The Films of Jay Rosenblatt jz
>FILMS: The Smell of Burning Ants (1994,
21 min.); Phantom Limb (2005,
28 min.)
>READING:
1. "The 10-Minute Masterpiece" Mark
Athitakis SF Weekly Dec
12, 2000.
2. Ch. 6 in Practices of
Looking
>FURTHER
VIEWING: http://www.jayrosenblattfilms.com
••••••Week
6 Feb. 14 The Camera-Pen: Video Diaries of Sadie Benning jz
>VIDEOS: Me and Rubyfruit (1990, 6 min.)
Jollies (1990, 11
min.) It
Wasn't Love (1992,
20 min.) A
Place Called Lovely (1991,
14 min.)
>READING:
1. “When Autobiography Meets Ethnography and Girl Meets Girl: The
'Dyke Docs' of Sadie Benning and Su Friedrich” by Chris Holmlund,
in Chris Holmlund and Cynthia Fuchs (eds), Between
the Sheets, In the Streets,
1994.
2. “Autoethnography:
Journeys of the Self” Experimental
Ethnography, Catherine
Russell 1999. {FILE IS LARGE}
>FURTHER VIEWING:
Pixelvision Website: http://jm3.net/pxl/
•••••••Week
7 Feb. 21 Journeys: History and Autobiography: The Videos of Soon-Mi
Yoo sc
>VIDEOS: Faith (1999, 12 min); Ssitkim:
Talking to the Dead (2004,
34 min); Isahn (2003, 17 min)
>READING:
1. “History
and/as Autobiography: The Essayistic in Film and Video” Michael
Renov, Frame/Work 2:3
(1989) pp. 6-13.
2. "Theses
on the Philosophy of
History" (1940) Walter
Benjamin. Illuminations,
Harry Zohn,
trans. New York: Schocken,
1968.
• Another
translation (2005)
of Benjamin's essay can be found here: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/benjamin/1940/history.htm
••••••••Week
8 Feb. 28 The Films of Tony Buba ••TONY
BUBA VISIT••
>READING:
1. Jim Lane, “Autobiographical
Portraiture: Family and Self” in
The Autobiographical Documentary in America. Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press, 2002, pp. 134-144.
•
Also download these ENDNOTES
•••••••••Week
9 March 7 Recombinant Ethnography and Magic: The Films of Chick Strand sc
>FILMS: Cosas de Mi Vida (1976, 25 min.); Elasticity (1976,
16 min.)
>READING:
1. “Notes
on Ethnographic Film by a Film Artist” Chick
Strand. Wide Angle Vol
2, No 2 (1978) pp. 45-51.
2. "An Interview
with Chick Strand" Kate Haug. Wide Angle Vol 20,
No 1 (January 1998) pp. 106-137
>FURTHER VIEWING: Loose Ends (1979, 25 min.)
TESC VHS
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Weekly Writing Assignment: “Notes
for a Film”
Each Tuesday a short piece
of writing is due to your
seminar leader.
Titled, “Notes
for a Film” these essays are in a sense response papers to the films and
assigned reading of the previous week with one different twist. Because Mediaworks
is about applying theory to practice (i.e., praxis), we ask you to reflect on
each week’s material and document at least one idea or image or concept
from it that you would like to apply to your own film work. You will need to
describe the concepts from the texts that inspire you, summarizing the ideas
fully and referencing the author or originator of the concept(s). Your writing
might be directly related to a design problem you are working on or may indeed
involve some speculation about future work (during or even after Mediaworks).
Nonetheless, your short essay should contain specific reference to the written
and visual texts we are working with that week (if you quote from the source,
please use proper citations). Essays should be typed, 1-2 pages in length. This
quarter we will be instituting a Production Blog for the entire program so by
the end of the quarter you will be publishing these “Notes for a Film” on
your blog. During
Weeks 1-7 you will
be sharing
these
notes with
your faculty
and your peer
group only.
Peer Groups
You will be involved with a small group
of peers from your seminar during this
quarter. You may
collaborate with members of this group
on your design problems but that is
not required. Instead,
you will be using this group to help
you develop your spring quarter proposal
and for additional
discussion of program themes and materials.
We also recommend that you arrange
for some extra
screenings of the additional and suggested
film texts with your group. You will
be affiliating with this
peer group by the beginning of Week
2. At this time you will need to agree
on a 1 hour weekly meeting time outside
of
class that you
all can make.
At minimum
you will be sharing your weekly writing
assignments with
your peer group. Later in the quarter
you will add proposal development
and
research to
your weekly
meetings.
Spring Quarter Proposal
During winter quarter you will be researching
and designing a project in non-fiction
media that you
will complete in spring. We will introduce
you to some additional pre-production
elements during the
quarter. During Weeks 9 and 10 you
will be finalizing your proposal and
preparing an oral
presentation that
you will share with
the
entire program
during
Week 11 (AKA “Evaluation
Week”).
We will be conducting “Production-readiness” conferences
with you during Week 10. |