FALL 2014: TCOM 3000 America’s Documentary Story To 1968

Current Students, TCOM

FALL 2014: TCOM 3000 America’s Documentary Story To 1968

Dr. Tom Mascaro, M/W 4:30-­‐5:45 p.m.(mascaro@bgsu.edu)

Click here for more information

“What we are talking about is nonfiction as opposed to fiction, in no more or less than the way the terms are understood by book writers and periodical writers as far back as we can remember. To say that a documentary means to inform rather than to entertain, which is one distinction sometimes made, is meaningless and useless because if it does not entertain it will not attract attention, and if nobody watches it, it will not inform anybody.”                                                                                    —Reuven Frank

NBC Documentary Pioneer

Program Viewings/Subjects:

  • Robert Flaherty & In the Year of the Hunter
  • John Grierson’s British Social Documentary
  • Newsreels: March of Time
  • Depression Era Documentary Photos
  • Depression Era Documentaries
  • The River, The Plow That Broke the Plains
  • WWII documentaries, Why We Fight
  • 1950s, See It Now & McCarthyism
  • ABC Close-­‐Up, CBS Reports, NBC White Paper
  • Cinéma vérité and Observational Forms
  • Documentaries in the Kennedy Years
  • David Brinkley’s Journal and magazine shows
  • The Journals of Lewis and Clark reenactment
  • Vietnam: It’s a Mad War and other Vietnam docs
  • The Undeclared War in Central America
  • Women Covering War, Judy Bird in Indonesia
  • The Documentaries of Ted Yates
  • 1968—the change year

Synopsis: America’s Documentary Story chronicles the relationship between the documentary form and American history.   Students interested in media and documentary production will find this course provides a solid foundation for understanding how directors and producers have used the documentary to serve audiences— through subject selection, artistic interpretation, writing excellence, and by tackling popular and unpopular themes.

REQUIRED FOR THE DOCUMENTARY MINOR