Compare the formal strategies of Bowling for Columbine and Koyaanisqatsi. How does each film present and establish its position or set of ideas? How is each approach more appropriate to the rhetorical or expository purpose of the film?

ASSIGNMENT

Your short essay should be between three and (no more than) four typed, double-spaced pages (800–1,000 words) on the following topic:

Compare the formal strategies of Bowling for Columbine and Koyaanisqatsi. How does each film present and establish its position or set of ideas? How is each approach more appropriate to the rhetorical or expository purpose of the film? In your analysis, specifically refer to the different expositional and imaginative practices that are central to each film. Do not merely list the various practices used in each film; rather, explain in what particular way those practices are employed to convey a particular message.

A paper that lists and compares the strategies but does not make connections to each film’s practices with respect to its message can only receive a grade in the C range. That is, your paper needs to detail the particulars of the documentary form for both films. Try to explain why the practices chosen by Moore and Reggio, respectively, are appropriate for their film’s particular purpose.