ETS 154 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Propaganda Films, Direct Cinema

• School: Syracuse University
• Department: English Textual Studies
• Course: ETS 154
• Professor: L.Scheibel

Document Summary

Documentary filmmakers employ 4 rhetorical strategies: voice-authority. Filmmakers combine voice-over narration with images (which function as evidence) in order to convince the audience of a particular claim about the work. Propaganda films: advertise single view w/o allowing for competing perspectives. Ethnographic films: anthropological studies of individual peoples and cultures: talking heads and director participation. Filmmakers combat images with verbal testimony from individuals affected by or interested in the subject matter of the documentary (we hear voices of real people rather the voice of authority) Although these films rely of interviews, filmmakers may call into question statements made by sources and include their own commentary on the subject (sometimes participating in events they are documenting: self reflexive. Filmmakers include the progress of filming as part of the subject matter of the film, exposing the way the medium constructs reality rather than treating reality as a given.