FFS 366 - Francophone Literature and Cultures

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2025/2026a: Ciné-vérité? Narratives and Francophone Documentary Cinema. The Francophone world has a rich and varied documentary film tradition ranging from René Vautier’s Afrique 50 (1950), the first anticolonial film, to Alain Resnais’ Nuit et Brouillard (1956), Marcel Ophüls’ Le Chagrin et la pitié (1969), Nicolas Philibert’s Être et avoir (2002), Agnès Varda’s Les Plages d’Agnès (2008), Moussa Sene Absa’s Yoole, le sacrifice (2010), Nadia El Fani’s Même Pas Mal (2012), Alice Diop’s Nous (2020), and Mati Diop’s Dahomey (2024). This seminar explores different genres of Francophone documentaries, including works of the historical, social, and political varieties, the ‘essai documentaire,’ and the ‘auto-documentaire.’ We use this creative palette as a springboard to examine the specificities of the documentary form and how these films interrogate the burning issues they seek to analyze. We evaluate the extent to which they frame – and redefine – the French and Francophone cultures they depict. Theoretical tools include works by French and Francophone critics and practitioners. Patricia-Pia Celerier.

Prerequisite(s): Two courses above FFS 212 or permission of the instructor.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS