Listed below are documentaries produced, directed, and shot by students in the yearlong seminar on ethnographic documentary video production, the capstone of the Program in Culture and Media. The first portion of the course is dedicated to instruction, exercises, and reading familiarizing students with fundamentals of video production and their application to a broad conception of ethnographic and documentary approaches. Assignments undertaken in the fall raise representational, methodological, and ethical issues in approaching and working through an ethnographic and documentary project. Students develop a topic and field site for their project early in the fall term, begin their shooting, and complete a short edited preview by the end of the first semester. This work should demonstrate competence in shooting and editing using HD digital video cameras, professional audio equipment, and Premiere Pro editing systems. Students devote the spring semester to intensive work on the project, continuing to shoot and edit, presenting work to the class and completing their ethnographic documentaries.
Every year new documentaries from the video production seminar are presented in a public screening called "Docs On the Edge: A Documentary Showcase." Many of these works have been featured at film festivals and picked up for distribution, as noted in the information on each piece.
