'Taking the long view': Tuesday 8 November 2011, 3 pm, ORB 1.24

A talk by Richard Kilborn (Stirling) on documentaries that follow the lives of people over several years.

 Film Studies at UCC Research Seminars 2011-2012

Tuesday 8 November 2011, 3 pm, O’Rahilly Building 1.24

Richard Kilborn (Stirling)

Taking the long view: some reflections on longitudinal documentary

This illustrated talk will explore some of the defining features of longitudinal documentaries (long docs). The best-known long doc that has appeared to date is Michael Apted’s Seven Up series.

Long docs set out to trace the life-journeys of individuals from their earliest schooldays till they are fully grown adults, often with children of their own. Further to this, long docs invite audiences not only to reflect on the changes that time or circumstances have brought about in the lives of subjects, but also in their own lives.

Richard Kilborn is senior lecturer in Film & Media Studies at the University of Stirling and is a member of the Stirling Media Research Institute. He has taught at the University of Munich and has been a Visiting Professor at Northwestern University (Chicago), at the University of Klagenfurt and at the Berlin film school. His major research interests are in film and television documentary and in the production and reception of television drama. His publications include: Television Soaps (Batsford, 1992), An Introduction to Television Documentary: Confronting Reality [together with John Izod] (Manchester University Press, 1997), Staging the Real: Factual TV Programming in the Age of Big Brother (MUP, 2003) and Taking the Long View: A Study of Longitudinal Documentary (MUP, 2010).