The course explores cinema's origins in documentary practices and some of the major movements in documentary cinema, including the G.P.O. documentaries, the W.P.A. documentaries, the founding of Canada's National Film Board and the wartime documentaries of Great Britain, United States and Canada, the Free Cinema, cinéma-vérité, and institutional documentary. Texts on all these movements, including declarations of important proponents of the various schools and institutions, will be examined.