IVSA Showcase

In Part I, I discussed documentary pedagogy and Richard Broadman’s Brownsville Black and White (2000) and offered that we consider the strengths and weaknesses of the medium and individual products. This part concerns Bullfrog Films four-part environmental series Edens Lost and Found, Biophilic Design, and I.M. PEI: Building China Modern.

This is the first of a two-part, auto-ethnography about teaching and learning with documentaries. Given the increasing substitution of video screens for flesh and blood professors it is critical to think about both the contexts as well as the contents of these pedagogic practices.

The classroom is remarkably suited to a step by step introduction of visual materials into the curriculum. Properly managed this process can also function as an exhilarating apprenticeship in learning how to make images competently, interpret them responsibly, and display them effectively, resulting in a more robust sociology…