A video production course for students interested in social and environmental issues, reportage, travelogues and other forms of non-fiction art making. Starting with the basics, students will be working in teams and individually; they will utilize the greater Bennington area and beyond as their set and travel to a variety of locations to cover particular events, landscape, architecture, people, and natural phenomena. The definition of self in relation to subject, subculture, subversion, and issues concerning intercultural encounters are themes found within a strain of non-fiction video production that we will focus on in this class. We will use the tools of media production and historical research to make work that can be defined as documentary while pushing the limitations of various genres in fiction and documentary modes. Course time will also be devoted to discussing media screenings and related readings. This includes work by Shirley Clarke, Bill Greaves, Peggy Ahwesh, James Benning, Kevin Jerome Everson, Amiri Baraka, Mark Lapore, Peter Watkins, Barbara McCullough, Peter Hutton, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Chantal Akerman, Jia Zhangke, Robert Downing Sr., Kidlat Tahimik, Jean Rouch, Georges Perec, Haskel Wexler, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Laura Poitras, Kent Mackenzie, Brett Story, Hito Steyerl, DeWitt Beal, Donna Haraway, and more.

Registration: Please email fernsilva@bennington.edu