Your final paper for this class asks you thoroughly investigate and analyze a documentary using the ideas discussed this quarter. This paper requires a lot of outside research and proper MLA documentation of your research using MLA in-text citation, quotes, paraphrases, and a Works Cited page. This assignment prepares you for writing longer papers and studying Film and Social Issues.

Pages 9-12, double-spaced, MLA format.

Assignment:

Watch a Documentary of your choice (not one we have watched this quarter) of at least one hour in length that deals with Social Science or Social/Political/Economic Issues. Resources for Documentaries include The Holman Library (advanced search and select only video results), Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Documentarylovers.com, Vudu, and any other place where films are available.

After watching the film (probably several times to catch all the details) write a 9-12 page paper that does the following (it is OK to have each of these be separate sections in your paper, use MLA style for Section Heading formats):

A. Summarize the Film and the issue/idea that it covers.

B. Summarize info on the Director, including the titles of any other films they have made.

C. Discuss the style of the Film, does it use reconstruction? interviews? found footage? etc.?

D. Summarize at least 3 film Reviews, try to have “professional” reviews or critiques by using Holman Library to search for articles on the film.

E. Critique the film yourself, including its techniques, ethics, use of sound/music, and aesthetics (what was it like to watch).  In order to do this, you might have to look up outside information on the subject of the film, to see if there are any differences between how the documentary presents the information and other sources. If there are differences, why might that be? Make sure your outside sources are reliable and professional, not just rants online.

You need at least 9 sources (including the film itself and the 3 film reviews)

If each section is 2 pages, you will easily have a 10 page paper!

In addition, make sure you have a Works Cited page. 

This paper will be graded on your Research, your MLA style for quotes, paraphrases, and citations, your grammar and writing style, and the use of critical thinking when examining the film.

A second part of this assignment is the Annotated Bibliography, discussed on the next page.