The contemporary tradition of American social documentary is deeply rooted in the 1960s. It arose from the convergence of two crucial factors: filmmakers and engineers were pushing the limits of technology, building the first hand-held systems for recording synchronized film and sound; at the same time, activists, organizers, students, and everyday people were pushing the limitations of society, challenging structures of political, economic, and cultural power. When the United States experienced the revolutionary upheavals of the Civil Rights movement, and of the Anti-War, Black Power, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Asian American, Native American, Feminist, Labor, and Gay Liberation movements, the new portable film cameras were there among the marchers, at the tables of activist strategy meetings, in consciousness-raising sessions, at rallies. And they were, more and more, in the hands of the protesters themselves, wielded as tools for social justice and social change.

The past decade has seen another convergence of rapid technological change and mass struggles for social justice. While the “hand-held” 16mm film cameras and audio tape recorders of the 1960s were, in fact, heavy, cumbersome, specialized pieces of equipment, the cameras of the early 2000s, built into cellphones, are ubiquitous, and high quality digital video cameras have become accessible and plentiful consumer items. While editing suites in the 1960s and 70s were tucked away in colleges and post-production studios, today anyone with a laptop and the right software can edit a film. The number of documentaries being produced has grown exponentially. And at the same time, there has been a resurgence, renewal, and updating of many of the political struggles of the past: Black Lives Matter and the Movement for Black Lives; movements for Queer and Trans rights; for the rights of undocumented immigrants, for the protection of Indigenous lands; against Islamophobic violence, gender-based violence, global warming, and environmental racism. Each one of these interconnected movements has utilized multiple forms of media and platforms of communication – and once again the recorded image – and the documentary film – have become tools in struggles for social justice.

In this course, students will watch, analyze, and discuss a sampling of recently-produced social issue documentaries, while also working in teams over the course of the semester to produce their own short documentaries using portable, high-quality cameras and digital audio recorders. Some of the films we watch are historical, documenting movements/struggles of the past, while others were made as recent and contemporary struggles were unfolding – in both cases, we will assess the filmmakers’ goals and intentions, the choices they made in terms of how to shoot, edit, and narrativize different political moments and struggles, and how their films, historical or contemporary, resonate and create meaning for audiences in the present historical moment.

For the production component of the course, students will work in teams of three or four to identify a topic for a short, 7-8 minute, social-issue documentary; then to conceptualize and “script” the film (identifying people to interview, non-interview “b-roll” footage to shoot, and an approach or angle to pursue); then to plan it, to shoot it, and ultimately to edit it. In the editing phase, each group will present their work to the rest of class in a series of steps, first presenting a few select clips from their footage, then a basic assembly of the strongest footage, then a rough cut, and then a fine cut. At the end of the semester, we will have a screening that will be open to other students, faculty, friends, and the subjects of your films.