Comp Lit 497

This capstone course is designed for CMS majors (but is now open to anybody who has taken film classes) who are familiar with the history and theory of film, but it does not require previous coursework on either documentary or the avant-garde.
We will explore each film together, in depth, and in the spirit of what the great American filmmaker Stan Brakhage called an “adventure of perception.” Documentary and the avant-garde represent different filmmaking practices, each with a range of agendas and approaches, and each with a different history. But they are also interconnected. This course will survey the historical and contemporary intersections of documentary and the avant-garde through films by Brakhage, Luis Buñuel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, Bruce Conner, Robert Flaherty, Georges Franju, Robert Gardner, Werner Herzog, Claude Lanzmann, Jonas Mekas, Ross McElwee, D. A. Pennebaker, and Andy Warhol, among others.
My hope is that their films will alter how you think about the moving image, especially in relation to the act of seeing. Indeed, the goal of this course is to see better, or at least to see differently. What that means for each of us will vary, but that’s the goal. Each week we’ll discuss at least two films and two readings, all available either online or through our Canvas site. Students will write three short essays and participate in class discussions and other activities. The capstone piece will be a reflective essay on the CMS major through the lens of documentary and the avant-garde.