Documentary and Everyday Urban life: Integrating community issues and creative ideas in the city

Abstract

This grant will be used for developing further interactive teaching methods around a Special Issues course at School of Creative Media (SM3138) and a GE course (GE3106). The courses bring together documentary cinema, urban studies, landscape architecture, and community-based social issues. Students are provoked to look at urban space visually and become directly involved in learning about social issues and topics around various neighborhoods in Hong Kong through making their own micro-movies and photographic projects. Specific skills students will learn include qualitative and ethnographic research methods; critical thinking and analysis around practical issues; creative thinking in relation to urban processes; basic short film making; and the ability to integrate theoretical concerns and real-world problems.