Undergraduate Courses (list)

This course will explore some of the major currents in filmmaking from around the globe since World War II. We will consider the validity of a number of concepts such as world cinema, counter cinema, first, second and third cinema, and third-world cinema, focusing in particular on the interplay between local traditions and transnational industrial and artistic practices. Readings as well as class lectures and discussions will focus on the historical and cultural contexts of production and reception of the individual films studied, and on close textual analysis.

We will study films from around the globe (likely including Russia, Italy, France, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Cuba, Argentina, Colombia, Mali, South Africa, Iran, India, Japan, and China). In class, we will explore how films from these diverse contexts engage with many issues of contemporary importance, relating to gender, sexuality, race, religion, terrorism, war, migration, political systems, economic policies, poverty, consumerism, and the environment.

This course satisfies two goals from the SAS Core Curriculum: Areas of Inquiry: Arts and Humanities [AHp]; and Contemporary Challenges/Diversities and Social Inequalities [CCD].