The fascinating article in your Jan. 28 issue on the documentary production center at Chicago`s Columbia College states that it is ”the only place between the coasts devoted to the art and technique of documentary production.”
There is another place-here in the electronic journalism unit of the College of Communications at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
I have been teaching a sequence in documentary since January 1989. In the first semester, we survey the history of documentary, and screen and critique a lot of them to understand the form. In the second semester, we produce one, which is aired on the local public television station.
In fact, we`ve just been advised by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences that last spring`s student documentary production,
”Drinking 101: An Introduction to Alcohol at the University of Illinois,”
has received an award for best student documentary in a crowded field.
Actually, Michael Rabiger, the director of Columbia College`s ”doc”
center, deserves a piece of the honor. I use his textbook.
