WEEK SEVEN: Documentary Truth

This week's theme is "Documentary Truth" in which will examine, among other things, to what extent film can document truth.  On Sunday at 5pm, we will screen the 1997 film Hands on a Hard Body, which documents an endurance competition that took place in Longview, Texas. The yearly competition pits twenty-four contestants against each other to see who can keep their hand on a pickup truck for the longest amount of time. Whoever endures the longest without leaning on the truck or squatting wins the truck. Five minute breaks are issued every hour and fifteen minute breaks every six hours.  The documentary follows the 1995 competition which lasted for seventy-seven continuous hours.  (The Facebook page for the film screening is here.)

In class next Tuesday, we will screen the 2010 film Catfish (recently adapted into a television series for MTV), which follows a young man being filmed by his brother and friend as he builds a romantic relationship with a young woman on Facebook.

The readings for this week are Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" (from the Republic) and the short essay by documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog,"On the Absolute, the Sublime, and Ecstatic Truth."  It is strongly recommended that you re-read Descartes' Second Meditation from earlier in the semester as well.

Below are the trailers for the two documentary films we will be screening together this week.