- To master fundamental principles and tendencies in the area of documentary creation;
- Historically and culturally contextualize cinema and documentary photography;
- To develop capacities for the criticism and analysis of documentary works;
- Identify and analyze different types of narrative and strategies to represent reality;
- Learn technical and creative approaches.

I - Documentary Photography
- The image as a document;
- What is documentary photography;
- Photographic Image vs. Documentary image;
- References of documentary photography: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, William Klein and Sebastião Salgado;
- Documentary photography in Portugal.
II - Video Documentary
- The nature of the documentary;
- Documentary as Art;
- The camera and the man: a look of Dziga Vertov;
- The advertising cinema: Leni Riefenstahl, Frank Capra and John Huston;
- Ethical issues. Objectivity and subjectivity;
- Direct Cinema and Cinema Vérité;
- The documentary in Portugal;
- The construction of a documentary: language, methodology, preproduction, production and post-production.

Currean Bernard, Sheila (2007). Documentary Storytelling. New York: Focal Press.
Rabiger, Michael (2015). Directing the Documentary – 6th edition. New York: Focal Press.
Rothstein, Arthur (1985). Documentary Photography. New York: Focal Press.