Documentary Studies and Production combines cinema production, journalism, television production, photography, and critical studies courses so you'll develop the variety of skills needed to tell important documentary stories.
Storytelling to Inform, Inspire, and Incite
We think we have one of the best programs of its kind in the nation. It’s no accident that our student films achieve impressive media distribution and regularly appear in festivals and contests around the world. In both 2020 and 2019, our students were finalists in the prestigious national College Television Awards. One Nation Under Guns was a 2020 finalist.
Create films that can change the world for the better and start DAY ONE.
In your very first semester, you will most typically enroll in Cinema Production 1, Introduction to Journalism, Documentary Immersion, and Introduction to Film Aesthetics and Analysis. In these courses you will get a chance to not only make work and write new stories right away and but also to expand your understanding of the histories, economics, and aesthetics of this complex field.
Our Degree is Unique and Interdisciplinary
Some programs emphasize theory. Others focus on production. The Documentary Studies and Production degree galvanizes a creative dynamic between both.
Blazing her Own Path
“I like to describe Black Girls Don't Get Love as a multimedia coming-of-age brand for girls of color. It’s not just a book or a television series or a nonprofit. We are multimedia and multifaceted, and I think that’s really beautiful because it serves people in the places where they need to be served.”
Eden Strachan '21
Doc Students and Alumni Take Sundance
Ithaca College was all over Park City, Utah, for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Maya Cueva '15 was at the festival as a Sundance Ignite fellow to learn from the filmmakers screening their latest projects. Among those filmmakers was Crystal Kayiza '15, who screened her latest documentary, and 11 current Park School students worked as festival volunteers.
Undergraduate Student Film Awards
Where Are Our Alumni?
Our students are well-prepared to assume roles in news organizations, production houses, and to function as independent documentarians. Many of them secure prestigious grants and fellowships; for example, we have had three recent graduates accepted into the very selective Sundance Ingite Fellowship program.
Crystal Kayiza's documentary See You Next Time which was programmed at the Sundance Film Festival. You can watch it on The New Yorker’s YouTube site.
Check out our alumni page to see the broad range of possibilities and opportunities opened up to you with this degree.
Documentary Studies Program Contact Information
Questions about the Documentary Studies program? Please contact
John Scott, Program Director
Associate Professor, Media Arts, Sciences and Studies