ENGLISH CACF: Get Real: The Art of Community-Based Film

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from INAATE/SE/

I would like to make a movie

that is a handshake. 

-Luc Dardenne

Welcome.

“I’ve often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us,” the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami said, “unless it’s inside a frame.” For our communities confronting invisibility and erasure, there’s an urgent need for new frames. In this workshop, we’ll explore a community-engaged approach to documentary and fiction filmmaking, as we seek to see our world more deeply. We’ll begin with screenings, craft exercises, and discussions around authorship and social impact. Then we each will write, develop, and shoot a short film over the rest of the semester, building off of intentional community engagement. Students will end the class with written and recorded materials for a rough cut. Basic equipment and technical training will be provided.

 

 

Goals of  this Course:

1. To provide students equipment, technical training, and creative advisement to produce a short film. The film can be a narrative/fiction film, a documentary, or some mix of the two.
2. To produce a written treatment or narrative script. 
3. To practice engaging with communities in an intentional, responsible way through class discussion and field work.
4. To screen and discuss a range of documentaries, focusing on their varying approaches to form and community engagement.

 

Scheduling

Class Meetings (Wednesdays, 12-2:45)

This workshop meets at the time listed, and in order to apply/enroll, you will need to be able to participate live, due to the format of the class.

Lab (1-2 hour/week, timings TBA)

Students will meet in smaller groups for a weekly lab, to receive technical training and support, share their work, and continue to build community. These will be scheduled based on student availability and will be run by our TF.

 

Office Hours 

Students are required to meet one-on-one with me in the first few weeks of class, so we can discuss their ideas for a final project. Beyond that, I will have two drop-in blocks of office hours.

 

Grade Breakdown

Attendance, Participation & Decorum: 40%

The workshop nature of this class requires everyone’s active participation and cooperation. 

• One excused absence is allowed. 
• Participation includes in-class written assignments, as well as contribution to class discussion. 
• We are all expected to be respectful and generous when giving and receiving feedback.
• A workshop requires us to build rapport and be present with each other. 
• In an effort to further cultivate our class community, each student will be expected to make “an offering” for the class. This is a time to share activities/interests beyond our course and can include leading a stretching exercise, sharing new music or artwork, or sharing an inspiring piece of literature. Let’s have fun with this.

 

Written/Visual Exercises: 30%

• The exercises in the earlier part of the semester are meant to be low-stakes opportunities to experiment with the craft and get our technical bearings. The material from these exercises can be rolled into the final project.

 

Final Project (Treatment/Script + Rough Cut): 30%

• The final project consists of a rough cut of your film (under 15 minutes) and a written treatment (under 7 pages) or script (under 20 pages).
• Students will have the opportunity to present two drafts of a written treatment/script before submitting their final, revised version. The final treatment should include the following: a 1 paragraph synopsis, a 2-3 page project narrative, a 1 page director’s statement,  a 1 page self-assessment field report, and a 3-4 paragraph audience/impact statement. These are suggested lengths. I will also accept other written formats, but let’s hash that out first.
• Students will also have two opportunities to submit recorded material for workshop, in the form of a stringout of scenes and a rough cut.

 

Materials

Assigned films will be available via Kanopy (harvard.kanopy.com), or other free streaming platforms. 

 

Readings will be short essays by, or interviews with, working filmmakers, looking at themes of community-engaged filmmaking from a practical, rather than theoretical approach. By limiting readings, we’ll hopefully have more time to do hands-on/field work. Readings will be posted on Canvas and in our Google Folder every week.

 

The course has a modest budget for video production equipment. We will work with students to meet the needs of their projects. In most cases, we will be supplementing smart phones with lenses, cinema video apps, and/or external audio recorders. 

 

Academic Integrity & Community Engagement

All work must be your own. Each student will work on their own final project, though we will of course give each other creative feedback and support throughout the semester. However, students are encouraged to find ways of including their documentary participants in creative decision-making and may choose to co-create the film with their participants. 

 

Students are expected to conduct themselves in a professional, ethical manner with documentary participants. Students will be expected to submit a “field report” with their final project, detailing their approach to intentional community engagement. This includes documentation of  participants’ informed consent and the benefits the project affords the community. Students interacting with minors must follow the Harvard Policy for the Safety and Protection of Minors.

 

Use of archival/found footage is allowed, and may be encouraged in some cases.

 

Accessibility

Students needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a documented disability must present their Faculty Letter from the Accessible Education Office (AEO) and speak with the professor by the end of the second week of the term. Failure to do so may result in the Course Head's inability to respond in a timely manner. All discussions will remain confidential, although Faculty are invited to contact AEO to discuss appropriate implementation.

 

COVID-19 & Fieldwork

Maintaining the health and safety of ourselves and film participants is paramount. Students should follow CDC guidance as they perform work in the field. The pandemic will invariably affect our mobility and how we approach producing our films, and we will need to be creative, yet safe, in addressing those issues.

 

Additional Resources

Virtual Media Lab: the team at Lamont Library is offering support on mediamaking, including video editing. Connect with them via their Zoom Office Hours, M-F, 9-4:30.

Free Short Film Platforms: You’re encouraged to seek out short docs, in addition to the ones we’ll be watching for class. Check out these free sites: Short of the Week, New World Cinema (requires Harvard Key Login), Field of Vision, and Kanopy (you can access through Harvard, though accessing through your local library may give you a better selection). 

 Ten Percent Happier: A mindfulness app freely available to anyone with a Harvard email.

Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Services: Workshops and Groups; Patient Portal; Urgent Care Consultation, (617) 495-5711

 

Course Schedule

Sept. 4	We’re in this Together We’ll discuss why community-engaged media is important now and look at different models of co-creation.   Watch In-Class:  “The Rabbit Hunt”, Patrick Bresnan “Ryan”, Chris Landreth “Strong Island”, Yance Ford “The Trap”, Adam Curtis   Craft Talk:  Introduction to Documentary Forms and Tools   Readings: -“Collective Wisdom”, MIT Open Doc Lab & Co-Creation Studio -Co-Creation Dossier, After Image -“From Reflection to Release: A Framework for Values, Ethics, and Accountability in Non-Fiction Filmmaking”, Documentary Accountability Working Group  -“Viewers Like Us” Podcast   Assignment: Final Project Pitches: come up with 2-3 stories ideas for your final project.
Sept. 11	Places/Spaces How do we interpret the physical spaces of a community as a “setting” for a film?   Watch & Read for Class:   City of Ghosts, ep. “Koreatown” (on Netflix) “How City of Ghosts Crafted an Inclusive Ode to Los Angeles’s Overlooked Past” - Vulture “A Too Perfect Picture,” Teju Cole   Craft Talk: Shot-making: Light, composition, focal length   Assignment: Location Scout: in 3-10 images, with captions, explore a community space you might want to include in your final project.
Sept. 18	Face-to-Face We’ll turn our observational skills towards people and discuss choosing a documentary participant, characterization, and crafting an arc.   Watch & Read for Class: “Baby Brother”, Kamau Bilal (available on Vimeo) “Ghosts of Sugarland”, Bassam Tariq (available on Netflix) “Ethics and Infinity”, Emmanuel Levinas (suggested) Craft Talk: Scene-making and Coverage   Assignment:  Character Portrait: create a video portrait of a person, using only observed action/speech. No interview. Under 3 minutes.
Sept. 25	Asking Questions Moving beyond observation, we’ll discuss the art of interviewing.   Watch for Class: “A Love Song for Latasha”, Sophia Nahli Allison (available on Netflix) “A Love Song for Latasha Urges You to Remember Black Lives, Not Just Death”, Vice   Craft Talk: Dialogue and sound design   Assignment:  Tell Me About the Time: Conduct and edit an interview, asking the participant to recall a memory/story. Edit the responses into a cohesive narrative. Under 3 minutes.
Oct. 2	Shaping the Story  Documentaries can unfold in unpredictable ways. It’s important to have a roadmap. We will look at ways to structure and plot a story.   Watch and Read for Class: “INAATE/SE”, Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil Interview with directors from “Lucid Dreaming”   Craft Talk: Editing   Assignment:  Write a synopsis and outline for your film/treatment.
Oct. 9	Impact & Action As we think about how our films fit into the larger world, we’ll discuss planning for audience engagement and social change.  Watch and Read for Class:  -“The Feeling of Being Watched”, Assia Boundaoui -“What It’s Like to Undergo and Uncover Government Surveillance”, WTTW -The Impact Field Guide and Toolkit -Selected essays from “Creative Futures”   Assignment:  Write a first draft of a documentary treatment and create a stringout of scenes. Group A submits Oct. 18 by 10AM.
Oct. 16	Group A - First Draft + Stringout We will workshop first drafts of treatments and a stringout. Watch for Class:  “Alone”, Garrett Bradley “Tearing, Stitching, Quilting: The Abolition Poetics of Garrett Bradley”, Film Quarterly
Oct. 23	Group B - First Draft + Stringout   Watch for Class:  “Tongues Untied,” Marlon Riggs
Oct. 30	Group C - First Draft + Stringout   Watch & Read for Class: “Black Mother”, Khalik Allah “Interview with Khalik Allah”, Film Comment
Nov. 6	Group A - Treatment Revision + Rough Cut   Watch & Read for Class: “Down a Dark Stairwell,” Ursula Liang “Citing Solidarity in Asian American Documentary”, Film Quarterly
Nov. 13	Group B - Treatment Revision + Rough Cut   Watch for Class: “5 Broken Cameras”, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Nov. 20	Group C - Treatment Revision + Rough Cut   Watch for Class:  “Hale Country This Morning, This Evening”, RaMell Ross
Dec. 4	The Get Real Film Festival! Our final screening of works in progress. No critique—it’s all love.