Andi Gustavson's Courses

Course Description

“While photographs may not lie, liars may photograph." -Lewis Hine

“The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.” – Oscar Wilde

This course asks whether documentary expression—narrative non-fiction, photojournalism, and film—can serve as a medium for social change.  We will analyze documentary works that construct arguments about issues relevant to today, address power dynamics in today’s world, and attempt to effect some change in society.  This class will be organized around six central controversial topics that have been focal points for many documentary writers, photojournalists, and filmmakers—environmental change, the healthcare system, poverty and homelessness, unionization, urban development, and war. The foundation for this analysis will be a grounding in rhetorical principles.  In addition to identifying and summarizing various positions within each controversial topic, you will learn to analyze the types of arguments, the rhetorical appeals and rhetorical strategies that documentarians use to persuade their audiences.  This course will also contain a substantial amount of analysis of visual rhetoric.  Over the course of the semester, we will move from analyzing arguments to crafting our own arguments as we learn to apply rhetorical appeals and strategies in the creation of a brief documentary film. 

By the third week of class you will select a controversial topic that you will use to focus your research and writing in this class.  In Unit 1 you will map out various positions in within your controversy and you will analyze the rhetorical strategies at work in documentary films and photography. In Unit 2 you will compile a collection of images, background information, and arguments that support your own position within the controversy. From this point on in the semester you will be working collaboratively.  You will meet with your peers working on the same topic, read one another’s arguments, and determine the argument you collectively want to construct in a final documentary film.  The final project will include both the film, the presentation of the film to the class, and a written reflection on the process.