The course will focus on the dilemma of left wing politics in narrative fiction movies. Since it's inception, film has been rightfully called a “bourgeois” art. An immense amount of capital is needed to make films, filmmakers understandably have to stay loyal to the people writing the checks. Then of course there is low budget D.I.Y. cinema, that doesn't answer to the capitalists. Still, there are those big budget movies that aren't right wing, made with vague symbolism and undertones that gets past coropratist Hollywood. Or just by the inginiutity of it's makers, they somehow get around the idealogical influence of Hollywood producers.
Areas of Focus:
1. Cinema's connection to capital that influences it's idealogy.
2. The Leftist debate: Low budget v. Big budget
3. The different metholodigies used by political filmmakers: realism, surrealism, horror, etc.
4. Political cinema: preaching to the choir?
5. Examples of political films that made an impact.
Through such analysis of poltical films and history, can we have a serious discusion about how to make a left wing cinema that works?
I propose the following films, but i wouldn't have a problem just showing one of these (or clips from some or all of them) and having a one day class, which could be a group conversation about leftist cinema. Also, I would like to hear suggestions for films! The ones I am proposing fit into certain periods or styles of politcal film, but I might of missed something that would fit better!
Proposed films:
Sergei Eisenstein's “Strike”, Rene Clair's “A Nous La Liberte”, Vittorio de Sica "Umberto D", Jean-Luc Godard's “Tou Va Bien”, Costas-Gravas' “Z”, George A. Romero's “Dawn Of The Dead”, Cristian Mungui's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", and Alfonso Cuaron's “Children Of Men.”