FILM 280 - Israeli and Palestinian Cinemas: The Films of Michel Khleifi and Eyal Sivan

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

This course focuses on two directors, one Palestinian, Michel Khleifi, one Israeli, Eyal Sivan, with important bodies of work that challenge official narratives and take on traumatic histories. In 2003, Sivan and Khleifi made a significant four-and-half-hour documentary together entitled Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel. Through close analysis of both directors’ individual works, Route 181, and other films, the course examines how Israeli and Palestinian history and traumatic events are represented in fiction and documentary cinema. We also look at influences on the directors’ films, including earlier Israeli and Palestinian cinema, and consider contemporary Israeli and Palestinian film within the context of Khleifi and Sivan’s oeuvres. Scholars we read include Edward Said, Ella Shohat, Hamid Naficy, Livia Alexander, Ariella Azoulay, and Nadia Yaqub. Katherine Model.

Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings.

Course Format: CLS