ANTH 479 A: Advanced Topics in Medical Anthropology

The Role of Documentary Film in Food Politics

Instructor: Professor Ann Anagnost 

Contact: anagnost@u.washington.edu. 

Instructor Office Hours: After class, or by appt. on Zoom

Class Time and Place: M W, 2:30-4:20, LOW 217

Related Learning Links:

ANTH 411: The Culture and Politics of Food in Italy (Study Abroad Spring 2026)Links to an external site.

Applications are currently closed online but there are still a few openings. Let me know if you are interested.

ANTH 411: Early Fall Start Culture Edition (Application opens later in January)

Course Syllabus

This home page is the place to go for access to the Discussion Boards, Powerpoints, readings, films, and assignment drop boxes. I will be using the class email list to send updates, so please keep an eye out for those emails. Powerpoints will be uploaded before class for students who wish to use them as a platform for note taking. If you find that a link does not work or if you have other feedback on how the home page is working for you, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Attendance Policy:

Class attendance is important for this class. Our activities will include class discussion and group project time. See below for how class participation will be calculated for the final grade.

Please do not attend in-person if you are experiencing symptoms. It is important to let me know before class if you are not able to be in class due to illness or some other reason so we can figure out an accommodation.

Course Objectives:

This course is focused on creating useful tools for understanding the role of documentary film in public debates about contemporary food politics. We will be exploring a select series of films (out of an ever-expanding genre of food documentary) that explore many aspects of our food system, in particular, human health, environmental sustainability, multi-species ethics, and food access inequalities. We will be examining the rhetorical power of film to mobilize support for food change. What makes an effective film in terms of its ability to convey its message responsibly and engage viewers? Learning goals encompass both learning about the industrial food system and food change movements as well as how to convey our knowledge and passion for these issues to others through the medium of film.

• Each week will include a film viewing followed by discussion.
• Every other class will include lecture time, small-group discussion of the readings, and project time.
• Project time will be devoted to skills sharing and project development of a short cell phone video (5-10 minutes) on some aspect of food politics and ethics. Group projects are possible but only in consultation with the instructor.

Discussion Posts:

This class is designed to encourage active discussion. In order for this course to work well, it is important to stay current with the readings and to be prepared to participate in class. Discussion will take place during class time and also through activity with the discussion boards on Canvas.

The graded assignments for this class is a weekly discussion post (2-3 substantive paragraphs, 6 points each) for each set of films and readings. They are due midnight the day before the scheduled class discussion. This will give me time to sort through the posts as preparation to lead the discussion in class.  The in-class discussions constitute part of your grade. We will use a google doc as a means to document your small-group discussions followed by a report back to the class as a whole.

Grading Overview:

Please Note: Final grades will not be calculated using the Canvas Grade Sheet. The total points will be added up, multiplied by 4, and divided by 100 to get the 4.0 equivalent.

Discussion Prompts and Reading Assignments:

The content of the post should reference the readings for that day as well as the film viewed in the previous class. The content of the discussion posts can take different forms. Here are a few suggestions to prompt your approach:

• Identify a critical term or a particular theoretical framing that the author is using. Does it help you view something in a new and mind-altering way?
• Identify an "aha!" moment that particularly struck you in what you are learning from the reading.
• Make a connection between the reading assignments and the films assigned for this course. How does the visual material complement or complicate your understanding of the written material.
• Identify a passage that you are wanting to understand more clearly. What is not clear to you and what might help you to comprehend what the author is saying.

Please note that to receive full credit for your post, you need to include a quoted passage in the reading by page number to respond to the prompt. Merely responding to the films will not be sufficient to receive full credit.

Assigned Book (available as an ebook in the UW Library):

• Louise Spence and Vinicius Navarro, Crafting Truth: Documentary Form and Meaning. Rutgers U. Press, 2011.

Shorter Readings:

• W.J.T. Mitchell, "Representation." In Critical Terms for Literary Study, Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin,eds. U. Chicago Press, 1990,
• Laura Lindenfeld, "Digging Down to the Roots: On the Radical Potential of Documentary Food Films." Radical History Review 110 (Spring 2011): 155-160.
• Jennifer M. Barker, "Chew on This: Disgust, Delay, and the Documentary Image in Food, Inc." Film Philosophy 15,2 (2011): 70-89.
• Belinda Small, Regarding Life.
• Ryanne Pilgeram and Russell Meeuf, "Good Food, Good Intentions: Where Pro-Sustainability Arguments Get Stale in US Food Documentaries." Environmental Communication 9,1(2015): 100-117.
• David Montgomery, et al. "Soil Health and Nutrient Density." PeerJ (2022).
• Cusworth, George, et al. "Green Rebranding: Regenerative Agriculture, Future-Pasts, and the Naturalization of Livestock." Trans Inst Br Geogr 2022;47: 1009-1027.
• Melissa Montalvo, "Indigenous Food Sovereignty Movements Are Taking Back Ancestral Land." Civil Eats (2022).
• Patricia Klindienst, "The Gardens of Two Gullah Elders." The Earth Knows My Name (2007).

Requirements for Film Project 

• Students will design and produce a 5-10 minute cell-phone documentary video about some aspect of food politics or ethics. 
• Group projects are possible with consultation with the instructor.
• Project Proposal: A one-page document that defines a topic and sets out a production plan. (4 points)
• Progress Report: A 2-page document that describes filming locations, identifies possible interviewees and your progress in contacting them, sketches thematic/narrative/interview questions, determines format (film/slides/powerpoint). For those working in a group map out your planned division of labor and how you plan to complete your contribution to the group. (4 points)
• Story Board: This can be done as a narrative script or as a set of images with commentary. Plot out the story arc for the film and what you still need to do to complete it. (5 points)
• Film Screening (in class).
• Final Project (Due 3/17, midnight): Film Project (20 points) and a 5-page Written Commentary (5 points) detailing what you learned, and (for group projects) your contribution to the final product.
• The instructor will be available to meet with students working on projects after class on Monday or by appt on zoom.
• The instructor has lavaliere microphones to lend out to improve sound quality for filmed interviews.

Class Schedule