FILM 392 - Research Seminar in Film History and Theory

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

This course is designed as an in-depth exploration of a theoretical topic. Students contribute to the class through research projects and oral presentations. Their work culminates in lengthy research papers. Because topics change, students are permitted (encouraged) to take this course more than once. Preference is given to film majors who must take this class during their senior year; junior majors and others admitted if space permits.

Topic for 2023/24a: Artist, Auteur: Spike Lee. The son of a musician and a teacher, Shelton Jackson Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Nicknamed “Spike”, he grew up in a household that valued education as well as the arts. With the release of his first feature film, Lee initiated another cinematic revolution. He demonstrated to Hollywood studios that serious contemporary African-American films were not only aesthetically innovative, they were also commercially profitable. His success has created opportunity for other writers, directors, actors and technicians. Over the last twenty years Spike Lee has directed an array of challenging, innovative and provocative features, documentaries and commercials. The themes embedded in his work are often culled from news headlines, making him one of the most politically engaged filmmakers of his generation. This course is a senior seminar in which the films of Lee are rigorously examined. Mia Mask.

Topic for 2023/24b: Political and Militant Cinemas. How can film participate in or precipitate revolutionary social change? What are some dominant ways in which engaged cinemas have depicted such change? This course begins by defining political and militant cinemas, exploring the different ways in which cinema has been used in revolutionary struggles across the past century, as well as the ways in which the meanings of these terms changes drastically depending on their context. We examine films that played key roles in organized resistance to fascist and authoritarian regimes (Battle of Chile, In the Name of God) as well as those that draw attention to their afterlives (Wolf House). In addition, we attend to the cinemas of various liberation movements within established democracies, such as those of the Newsreel and New Day collectives in the United States. Throughout the course, a key concern are the ways in which political and militant cinemas have foregrounded and utilized form as a way to articulate their positions and achieve their goals, from Derek Jarman’s use of experimental minimalism in Blue to Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’s invocation of Tropicalism and exploitation in Bacurau. Assignments include a topic proposal workshop, discussion leadership, annotated bibliography, and seminar paper. Erica Stein.

Prerequisite(s): FILM 209; two additional units in film history and theory, and permission of the instructor.

One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.

Course Format: CLS