FILM 395-000: National Cinemas: Global Cinema (Spring 2011)

Cultural Capitals: The Question of ‘National Arthouse Cinema’ within Post-WWII Globalization

This seminar (open to both Master’s and upper-level undergraduates) investigates the question of national cinema within the context of global film production and globalization.  How might we position one film as “national” while another film from the same country could be called “world cinema” or “global cinema”?  The term “national cinema” has also become complicated within co-operative multinational production, and we will discuss networks of production, distribution and exhibition of cinema in the United States as well as what the term “global cinema” might mean outside of American exhibition contexts.  We will also debate the extent to which particular films, directors, countries or historical periods can be representative of a particular region. 

With a focus on art-house cinema, another contested category for us to consider in relation to popular fare, each week we will ‘visit’ a different country, viewing one film each by two directors based in a country. Our mad dash ‘world tour’ samplings may include countries such as Russia, India, Iran, Japan, Hong Kong, Senegal, Sweden, Italy, and Cuba as well as avant-garde shorts from North Africa and the Middle East and co-productions between Turkey/Germany.  The course will wrap up with a section on our neighbor to the north, Canada, including co-productions with Italy and India.   Sometimes both films will be within the same historical epoch or even the same year while other weeks will involve a pair of films separated by many decades.

The class will be a discussion-based seminar, with Tuesday’s class focusing on the readings of the week and the particular nationals cinema and Thursday’s class focusing on the featured screening of the week.  One weekly screening of a ‘featured film’ will be shared with the undergraduates Tuesdays from 8-10pm and a second screening will be optional for the undergraduates but required for graduate students.  Postings are due each Wednesday at 11:59pm. Graduate students should attend the two seminars each week with the undergraduates as well as an extra meeting with Professor Cryderman every two weeks to discuss the two additional films.  There will also be some additional reading requirements for the graduate students, and the term paper will be 20-25 pages rather than 12-15.