FILM 380 - Sports Documentaries and Docuseries

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

This seminar examines the history, theory, and aesthetics of sports documentaries and docuseries. Drawing on theories of non-fiction cinema, sports media, and media industry studies, we will consider the complex questions that sports documentaries pose about issues related to race, gender, and inequality. The course addresses a range of ciritcal frameworks and historical issues through a series of overlapping case studies related to the archive, star studies, sports-washing, and cultural memory to consider how sports documentaries shaped and are shaped by conceptions of the past shared by members of historically marginalized groups. Special attention is devoted to the increasing cultural and economic significance of sports docuseries to media industries and their centrality on broadcast, cable, and streaming television. To cover a wide range of sports, screenings will include: OJ: Made in America, Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Happy Valley, Athlete A, Dawson City: Frozen Time, Senna, When We Were Kings, and Hoop Dreams. Alexander Kupfer.

Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 or MEDS 160.

One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.

Course Format: CLS