Topics in American Cinema: Hollywood Through a Documentary Lens

FILM S3300D
3 points
Mon & Wed, 6:00-9:50 pm
May 21 - June 27
Instructor: Leon Falk

Spend part of your summer behind the scenes, watching the best (and coolest) documentaries ever made about filmmaking, and the Hollywood way. Learn what life is like in the belly of the beast ... who tamed it, and who was tamed by it.  Studying the working process of such artists as Francis Coppola, Werner Herzog, Terry Gilliam, John Ford, and Orson Welles, we will learn to appreciate the myriad documentary techniques that tell these often larger-than-life tales. In-class screenings include "Hearts of Darkness," "The Kid Stays in the Picture," "Burden of Dreams," and "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies"--masterworks of documentary in and of themselves, exploring the nature and vision of narrative cinema in spellbinding ways.  The first commandment of documentary filmmaking is finding a great subject. For film lovers, what can be more fascinating than Hollywood, from its allure to its limitations?

Materials Fee: $30

Please note that this fee is in addition to the tuition rate and standard enrollment fees for the course. For more information, please see School of Continuing Education Summer Sessions Tuition & Fees.