FAVKz041 Human Rights Documentaries

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2010
Extent and Intensity
2/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Maša Hilčišin, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
PhDr. Jaromír Blažejovský, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Sat 13:20–16:35 C34
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course ‘Human Rights Issues in Documentary Cinema – Activism for Social Changes’ is dealing with human rights documentaries through historical presentation of significant documentary films as well as presentation of basic concepts and definitions of human rights.
At the end of the course students should have better understanding of documentaries dealing with human rights issues and their discourses, to be able to discuss different approaches on various thematics, and to articulate specific issues that documentaries are dealing with.
Syllabus
  • • Basic principles, definitions, and conventions • Brief history of human rights documentaries: documentaries produced during 1910s, 1950s, 1980s, documentaries today, specific subjects of human rights documentaries, their focuses, discourses, and ethical considerations, changes in documentary filmmaking, phenomenon of human rights documentary film festivals • Presentations of documentaries and authors (Guernica – Alain Resnais, France 1950; Shoah – Claude Lanzmann, France 1985; Risk Free Pleasure – Helena Trestikova, Czech Republic 2001; Three Rooms of Melancholia - Pirjo Honkasalo, Finland 2004; Sex Slaves – Ric Esther Bienstock, UK 2005; Albanian Divorce Style - Adela Peeva, Albania-Russia-Poland 2008; and other documentary films and authors) • Documentary film and human rights activism: war issues, human trafficking, domestic violence • Discussion.
Literature
  • The cinema of the Balkans. Edited by Dina Jordanova. 1st pub. London: Wallflower, 2006, xvi, 291. ISBN 1904764819. info
  • Feminism meets queer theory. Edited by Elizabeth Weed - Naomi Schor. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1997, xiii, 341. ISBN 0253211182. info
  • Theorizing documentary. Edited by Michael Renov. New York: Routledge, 1993, ix, 261. ISBN 0415903823. info
Teaching methods
The course ‘Human Rights Issues in Documentary Cinema – Activism for Social Changes ’ will be organized within eight (8) working hours of classes divided into two days, each day four hours long. The first part of the course is historical introduction into the human rights principles, conventions, human rights documentary filmmaking as well as the state of human rights, screening of selected documentary films, analysis of selected documentary films, and discussion.
Assessment methods
Students will receive their tasks through emails, after the first part of the course. Students will write an essay on subject dealing with human rights issues in documentary cinema. They can eathier cover some of the period in human rights documentary cinema, or documentary film stressing its cultural, political and social surrounding.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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