Environmental Documentary Media

Media is the objects, networks, and infrastructure that connect people in convoluted communicative webs: the internet, social media, smartphones, radio and television, photographic media, virtual reality, augmented reality, and all the rest. Today, it is widely recognized that media actively participate in the social construction of the world, yet we are less attuned to media’s role in shaping material ecosystems. This course explores several key questions: How does mediation contribute to the conceptualization of living environments? How does the media affect the planet as a habitat? How can the media be utilized in struggles for land and energy justice? And how can we build on documentary traditions to create compelling documents of our own questions and findings?
We will examine a diverse range of film, video, and digital works on themes such as the Anthropocene, environmentalism, urbanism, land dispossession, and migration routes through an ecocritical perspective. As an advanced theory-practice course, it combines seminar readings and discussions with regular screenings and a series of workshops on photo, video, audio, and post production skills. No previous knowledge is required.