Here's my new course proposal. I was already sent back to the drawing board once:
DOCUMENTARY PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE: Place as Character

Description:
This course introduces students to documentary work (film, print, photography, audio) in which landscape figures as central character. Most of this work probes the particular question: how does a landscape shape the character and fate of its inhabitants, and how—conversely—do people manipulate their landscapes to serve as towering monuments of the future and/or revisionist records of the past? As city-dwellers, we will work to define “landscape,” both natural and manmade, beginning with the site of our classroom—expanding outward toward the building, the campus, and the city. Our theoretical readings will explore the way we navigate and remember space and architecture. Using the work of Susan Stewart, Elyssa East, Matthew Buckingham, and Barbara Kopple, to name a few, we will look at landscape-as-launching-pad for nonfiction narratives that are mysteries, elegies, or social commentary/exposé. Through study and practice, students will work toward constructing longer-form narratives about their chosen sites, due at semester’s end.

Beyond readings and screenings, fieldwork and production will comprise a substantial portion of the semester. Students will integrate the technical and theoretical components of the course at a site of their choice. We will play special attention to the difficulty of documenting all that is absent as well as that which is readily apparent.

Students will work with audio and video equipment in-class, but students are encouraged to approach their fieldwork exercises with writing, photography, audio, or video. This course is appropriate for those interested in a technical and theoretical introduction to documentary fieldwork and is also appropriate for students of multimedia journalism and/or narrative nonfiction.