Life As It Really Is
Documentary Film Study Group
organized by Diego Leclery
ADDS DONNA
Chicago, USA
January 14 - July 29, 2012



Introduction: We Understand Documentaries
Loose Change, 2nd Edition (Recut), 2007, 89min, Dylan Avery

Part 1: The Informational Eye
3 early films of the Lumière Brothers
Coal Face, 1935, 11min, Alberto Cavalcanti
Night Mail, 1936, 25min, Harry Watt & Basil Wright
Les Maîtres Fous, 1955, 36min, Jean Rouch
Momma Don't Allow, 1956, 22min, Karel Reisz
Nice Time, 1957, 17min, Claude Goretta and Alain Tanner
Primary, 1960, 60min, Robert Drew
High School, 1968, 75min, Frederick Wiseman
Welfare, 1975, 167min, Frederick Wiseman
Chronique d'un été, 1961, 85min, Edgar Morin et Jean Rouch

Part 2: Truer Than Truth
Nanook of the North, 1922, 79min, Robert Flaherty
Little Dieter Needs to Fly, 1998, 74min, Werner Herzog
On the Bowery, 1957, 65min, Lionel Rogosin
Berlin, Symphony of a a Metropolis, 1927, 65min, Walther Ruttman
Man With a Movie Camera, 1929, 68min, Dziga Vertov
Salaam Cinema, 1995, 75min, Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Part 3: Narratives and Counternarratives Pt. 1: How to Make History
Triumph of the Will, 1935, 114min, Leni Riefenstahl
Seeds of Destiny, 1946, 20min, David Miller
The Battle of Chile, pts. 1 - 3, 1975 - 78, 267min, Patricio Gúzman
News of a Private War, 1999, 57min, João Moreira Salles
Roger & Me, 1989, 91min, Michael Moore
In the Year of the Pig, 1968, 101min, Emile De Antonio

Part 4: Narratives and Counternarratives Pt. 2: Existing Footage
When We Were Kings, 1996, 89min, Leon Gast
Point of Order, 1964, 97min, Emile De Antonio
The Atomic Cafe, 1982, 86min, Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, and Pierce Rafferty
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaucescu, 2010, 180min, Andrei Ujica
Shoah, 1985, 631min, Claude Lanzmann
And Everything is Going Fine, 2010, 89min, Steven Soderbergh

Part 5: Being There and Longitudinal Filmmaking, or:
Learning to Accept Being a Bloodthirsty Vulture and
Sometimes Feeding Them the Very Rope With Which They Hang Themselves
Gimme Shelter, 1970, 91min, Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin
Burden of Dreams, 1982, 95min, Les Blank
Chung Kuo, Cina, 1972, 207min, Michelangelo Antonioni
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Reifenstahl, 1993, 180min, Ray Müller
Portrait of Jason, 1967, 105min, Shirley Clarke