I had the good fortune of being one of ten applicants selected to attend a workshop with Ernesto Bazan hosted by the Duke Center for Documentary Studies on Thursday, February 18. I’ve been to CDS many times to see exhibits and listen to lectures and for a long time, I’ve wanted to take a class there. For one reason or another, I’ve held off on signing up for a class, that is until yesterday. I was able to get one of the last remaining spots in the Seminar in Documentary Studies class, which meets Tuesday nights for eight weeks.

The course description states that “through short readings, close examination of several documentary projects, and guest speakers who will present their own projects and perspectives on the documentary experience, you will gain a broad introduction to the diverse fields that comprise documentary studies. We emphasize not only methodologies, but also philosophies and ethics of fieldwork in different settings. Throughout the term, students will explore fieldwork examples and, at the final meeting, will present preliminary projects of their own. These projects may be the beginning of long-term documentary initiatives, or simply a means of helping decide directions for future projects.” I’m also excited that we’re going to learn how to write a proposal for a viable documentary project.

So, last night was the first night of class. We were introduced to our instructor, Joy Salyers, and spent some time introducing ourselves, talking about our backgrounds, and our individual goals for the course. The class (15 students plus instructor) meets in the library at CDS (left image). We went through the syllabus and the administrative housekeeping before breaking for 20 minutes to go downstairs and view Pac McLaurin’s work entitled “Walls That Speak” (center image). I had an opportunity the previous week to view Pac’s work and was happy that the class, as a whole, got to view it as well. I was impressed not only with the work, but by the care for which he clearly had for his subjects (you can read more at the link). (On the way back to the library, I saw Dr. Tim Tyson, author of Blood Done Sign My Name and Senior Research Scholar at the CDS and Visiting Professor of American Christianity and Southern Culture in the Divinity School at Duke, in the hallway. I had just taken Katlyn and Cameron to see the film adaptation of the book Friday night and I wanted to tell him that we enjoyed the film and to thank him again for writing such an amazing book.) The class rejoined in the library and Joy asked us to first talk about what we noticed about the work, then to talk about how we felt about it. I had never stopped to think about the difference, but a light bulb went off for me when she said that and went on to explain. Later, we watched a three-minute clip of Spike Lee’s “When the Levees Broke” (right image) and discussed framing. We received a handout that outlined some key concepts of framing and worked as a group to answer some questions about the framing from the clip we watched, which we’ll share during next week’s class.

I’m very excited about this class and, dare I say, even excited about the homework.

I have to read the following:
James Curtis, “Making Sense of Documentary Photography”
Josh Braun, “A Brief History and Primer [of Documentary Film]”
Stephen Smith, “What the Hell is a Radio Documentary?”
bell hooks, “Talking Back”
James Agee, Preface, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Bruce Jackson, “The Deceptive Anarchy of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men”

In addition to the reading, I have to answer the questions on the “Who Are You?” worksheet. I’ll try to provide updates from week to week and share some insights from the class. I’m looking forward to this journey!

(Apologies to James Pomerantz at A Photography Student for borrowing the idea to blog about photography, art, and school.)