Breaking the Rules: The Self, Cinema, & Society

Catalog description

This course is a survey of "political films" in the 20 th century, including both films with recognizably political themes and politicized film movements. It consists of readings and viewings that raise problems posed by "political art" as both agent and expression of historical change. Here, the question of the viewer's relationship to film is constantly appraised: are they participants, or passive spectators? Is the public a producer, or not? These questions raise broader concerns about the relationship between the self and society that students might expect to encounter in their professional or post-graduate paths.