Postgraduate Film And Visual Culture 2026-2027

In discussion with a designated supervisor students will be able to identify and design a programme of research and study, which may include the completion of an undergraduate course, with assessments appropriate to masters-level work, or which may consist of a short programme of research conducted over one semester. The course will run at the discretion of the course coordinator. Students interested in taking this course should email the coordinator to discuss their intentions. 

In discussion with a designated supervisor students will be able to identify and design a programme of research and study, which may include the completion of an undergraduate course, with assessments appropriate to masters-level work, or which may consist of a short programme of research conducted over one semester. The course will run at the discretion of the course coordinator. Students interested in taking this course should email the coordinator to discuss their intentions. 

The module offers a comprehensive look at how documentary has interrogated, and in some rare cases even influenced, politics, social values, and even popular culture. Students will be expected to look at how documentary filmmakers have built upon the famous Griersonian quote – ‘the creative treatment of actuality’ – to evolve the form’s style and scope as well as to challenge the very notion of filmic truth and reality. Attendees to the module will also learn how to identify the key documentary modes and be expected to analyse and understand how the movement’s use of transgressive visual images, no matter how apparently ‘genuine’, is frequently presented through a cinematic perspective that is not always objective. Furthermore, the module will require students to produce a short documentary or individual video essay (in documentary form) and, in doing so, explore the challenges of objective presentations.