Content Objectives
The ultimate objective within the course is for students to create a fictional or nonfiction film of their own, or a summative revision of their journals. To get there, students will write narrative, analysis, persuasion, exposition, and description in responses to films and parts of films. Students will deepen their reading skills, by practicing theme analysis, first with a flash fiction piece, then with a film, students will be encouraged to create a film around the themes of identity, culture, class, and social justice similar to the films we are watching. “Challenge for Change,” a Canadian project in 1967, trained and equipped members of Navajo and Mohawk tribes to create films that “promote citizen participation in the solution of social problems.”. In his book, Documentary, Erik Barnouw refers to this type of filmmaker as a catalyst, where documentary directors not only observe, but provoke action.11 Overall, the goal is to get students to write in complex ways daily in order to pique their interest and encourage the development of a creative final product that provokes change. Completing something this new and complex will prepare students for college because of the level of writing challenge. It also can raise social issues of concern to them and bring to their understanding and task a measure of social agency.
More directly, the unit aims to develop in students the skill of close reading of narrative and other forms of writing that they will then apply in their own writing. Flash fiction will teach narrative, description, and reflective writing. Flash fiction is the step of saying one thing quickly, a gesture of narrative that can be immediately identified and analyzed. Flash fiction pieces and theme analysis will reduce the intimidation factor of viewing the combination of factors that may make films overwhelming. Although there is much overlap, documentaries will prepare students to write analytically and persuasively.
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