CURE: Reframing Doc Impact

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This is a designated CAS CURE (Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience) class. Reframing Impact: Documentary, Change, and the Impact Imperative explores how the idea of “impact” has reshaped the documentary world—transforming approaches to filmmaking, funding, and audience engagement since An Inconvenient Truth (2006). Students will conduct original research and interviews with filmmakers, funders, and impact producers to examine how “impact” is defined, achieved, and debated. The course also interrogates how the pressure to demonstrate measurable change can affect artistic freedom and creative vision. It culminates in a collaborative project designing a new Impact Lab for the DC/DOX Documentary Festival, connecting student scholarship to real-world efforts that use film as a catalyst for reflection, advocacy, and democratic dialogue.