The ‘Truth’ About Documentaries

Tuesdays 9:30am-11:00am: October 5th – November 9th, 2021

Early Bird Special: Register early and save! Please note that places are limited and will be reserved on a ‘first pay, first served basis’. All reservations received and accepted by September 28, 2021 will get a $10 discount. The Early Bird fee for this 6-week course is $99/student (regular fee $109).

Pre – pandemic, Shlomo Schwartzberg was regularly offering courses at Ryerson’s Life Institute and the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, as well as various courses to a number of JCCs.  He is also the co-founder of and writer for the noted online cultural website Critics at Large (www.criticsatlarge.ca).

The ‘Truth’ About Documentaries:  Increasingly, documentary films are making a larger impact in the cinematic world. More of them have been released into theatres in recent years and there are TV channels and prestigious film festivals devoted to showcasing them. But what makes one documentary succeed where another one fails?  This course will examine how documentaries get made and why they, often, make the mark that they do. We’ll look at everything from cultural touchstones (O.J.: Made in America; and Michael Apted’s’ acclaimed ‘Up’ series, which followed a group of British kids, every seven years. from ages 7 to 63) to Holocaust documentaries (The Sorrow and the Pity; and Anne Frank Remembered), music films (Searching for Sugar Man; and 20 Feet From Stardom) and docs that can only be described as off the beaten path (Surfwise, about a Jewish surfing family).  The ‘Truth’ About Documentaries will provocatively examine the facts and, sometimes, the lies that reside in this particular type of art form.

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