FILM 285 - The Cinema of Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier, KBE, was a Bahamian-American actor, film director, producer and diplomat. He was also the first African American performer to win an Academy Award for Best Actor (Lilies of the Field, 1963).  In addition to his career in entertainment, Poitier was a political activist.  In this intensive, students study the life and times of the man who—by many accounts—changed Hollywood.  Watching landmark movies and social problem pictures, reading biographies and memoirs, analyzing press interviews, film criticism and historical analysis, students gain a fuller sense of the social climate in which the actor-director-producer (and his compatriot Harry Belafonte) worked and lived.  Beginning with his stage career in the American Negro Theater and moving into his directorial debut (Buck and the Preacher, 1972), as well as his work as producer, this intensive offers a close analysis of the artistry and activism of a world-renowned talent.  He was a man to whom Queen Elizabeth granted knighthood and President Barack Obama bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Students may produce a collaborative Poitier encyclopedia or filmography in addition to papers. Reading, film screenings and papers required. Mia Mask.

Prerequisite(s): FILM 175  or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.

One 1-hour period plus outside screenings.

Course Format: INT