Cinema in a Globalizing World

In this course we will study cinema as everyday narrative deepening our relationship with a globalizing world. We will study closely how pauperized, sexualized, hyper-urbanized, conflicted, and violent globalizing worlds demand specific techniques of cinematic storytelling that often cut across the genres of auteur, fantasy/sci-fi, kitsch, gangster, political, drama, and indie. With this knowledge of the blurring of aesthetics and categories, we will watch Ritwik

Ghatak’s Jukti, Takko, ar Gappo (Reason, Argument, and a Story, India), Wong-Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express (Hong Kong), Tranh Anh Hung’s Cyclo (Vietnam), Tareque Masud’s Matir Moyna (The Clay Bird, Bangladesh), Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 (South Africa), Bela Tarr’s Sátántangó (Hungary), Pedro Costa’s Colossal Youth (Portugal), and Kim Longinotto’s Salma (Britain). Students will come to understand cinematic techniques in the context of politics of filmmaking and film criticism today. We will read selections from critical film theory, postcolonial film criticism, psychoanalysis, and new media. Reading list includes Laura Marks, Jacques Ranciere, Trinh Minh-ha, Gayatri Spivak, Ritwik Ghatak, Satyajit Ray, Ravi Vasudevan, Kaja Silverman, Christian Keathley, Ulka Anjaria, and others.