Prof. Dr. Brigitte Weingart
Screen Tests #2: Documentaries
Seminar with Film Screenings, English, 3 SWS, 2 ECTS
Tuesdays, 17-20 h, weekly, starts 22.10.2024, Grunewaldstraße 2-5, room 10

Registration on Moodle starts 14.10.2024:
https://moodle.udk-berlin.de/moodle/course/view.php?id=2461
Moodle Enrollment Key: screen

This course is the second in a series that aims to create a common platform for viewing and discussing films under the title "Screen Tests". Following last semester’s start with Screen Tests #1: Celebrity Cultures, this term is dedicated to documentary film: Documentary films are characterized by their claim to depict a non-fictional reality. Symptomatically, this lowest common denominator leads to a broad spectrum of approaches, procedures, and results – which already makes it clear that any ideal of a 'pure' recording is thwarted by the effects of mediation: From choosing what to film and how the camera’s presence changes the scene, to editing the footage and adding texts or other sources – the concrete ways of realization always make a difference. This complexity makes documentaries perfect for practicing film analysis and understanding cinematic techniques.

The course focuses on the tipping points between supposed authenticity and staging, present not only in hybrids like scripted reality or mockumentaries but in all documentaries, even those committed to direct cinema or cinéma vérité. We will also discuss how questioning truth claims in documentaries contributes to broader skepticism of facts in today's "post-truth" society. This includes this justified criticism of objectivity tipping over into general suspicion of manipulation (e.g., "fake news") and spreading alternative factual narratives (e.g., flat earth theories and other conspiracy-driven documentaries) online.

Half of the films and audiovisual materials are pre-selected to ensure historical and cultural diversity. These include classics like MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (1929), NANOUK OF THE NORTH (1922), HIGH SCHOOL (1968), and PARIS IS BURNING (1991), as well as amateur and mobile phone films like TARNATION (2003) and FIVE BROKEN CAMERAS (2011). We will also explore the use of documentary material and found footage in artistic-activist contexts (e.g., Trinh T. Minh Hà, Harun Farocki, Forensic Architecture, John Akomfrah, Arthur Jafa). The second half will feature films suggested by participants.

Each screening will be preceded by a short introduction and followed by a discussion. After every 2-3 film sessions, we will have a discussion-only session. If there is interest, we may also visit an exhibition or go to the cinema together, such as during the Berlinale.

Fulfilment criteria for ungraded accreditation: Regular attendance, introduction to one of the films, or submission of a short written essay on one of the films.

Brigitte Weingart is professor of Media Theory at the UdK. Previously she was Professor of Media Studies at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf (2019-2020) and at the Universität zu Köln (2014-2019), and inter alia an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Columbia University in New York. She worked on the Editorial Board of Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft (ZfM) between 2013 and 2022. She is currently a principal investigator at the Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512) where she directs a study group on internet memes. Other research interests include film studies, media practices of appropriation, concepts of contagion, media aesthetics of fascination and celebrity cultures. For more information and publications, see http://www.brigitte-weingart.de.