New course in documentary offered in fall '09
Aspiring documentary filmmakers have a new class they can take this fall.
Documentary 1, Comm. 355, is one of two new two new courses that have been added to the Communication Department curriculum. Documentary 2 has also been added.
Dr. Elizabeth Gailey, associate professor of communication, will teach the courses. She said she developed the ideas for the courses while trying to improve the documentary production class she had taught twice before under special topics.
“Documentary 1 would provide students with a thorough grounding in the history, function and character of documentary films. And Documentary 2 would focus solely on the making of short documentaries,” Dr. Gailey said. Documentary 2 will be listed as Comm. 455, she said.
“I was surprised by how much time and energy had to be devoted to planning Documentary 1,” Dr. Gailey said. Topics in the course include documentary history and theory, political and social history and cinematic theory, she said.
Some students may know Dr. Gailey as a professor of media theory. After more than ten years of teaching the popular course, “Race, Gender & Media,” Dr. Gailey said she became inspired to teach her first documentary course.
“Movies have always been a particular passion of mine and I am drawn to documentary films in particular because of their relationship to social change,” Dr. Gailey said. “This explains why my first two documentary courses encouraged students to make social justice documentaries.”
Dr. Gailey said there has been a lot of student interest the courses. “Documentaries are significantly more attractive to students than television news, which doesn’t allow the depth of focus or freedom of expression that documentaries afford,” Dr. Gailey said.
