International Cinema:

Catalog description

Variety of topics offered. See current listings for updated topic/description. For Spring 2026: THIRD CINEMAS The term “Third Cinema” was coined in the 1960s by Argentine filmmakers to denote revolutionary cinema existing outside of Hollywood (First Cinema) and European auteur cinema (Second Cinema.) Third Cinema filmmakers see film as a tool to motivate people from all social classes to recognize the dominance of oppressive neo-colonial conditions in their lives and to inspire them to become politically engaged. The political priorities and aesthetic agenda of the Argentines influenced filmmakers across the colonized world and the questions that the Third Cinema movement raised are still relevant and important because they remain unanswered or unresolved. In this course students learn about different cultures and traditions associated with Third Cinemas around the globe. Beginning with Getino and Solana’s radical Third Cinema manifesto, students will study cinemas of rebellion, decolonization and liberation through the lens of transnational solidarity movements. From Latin America to Africa, the Middle East to the U.S. as well as new directions of Third Cinemas that involve Asia and Indigenous cultures, this course will cover a variety of political, aesthetic, and socio-cultural breaks from tradition that pave the way for counter filmmaking to this day. We will view films by directors who determinedly turn away from Hollywood’s stranglehold on representation by projecting their own images and by raising questions of class, race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation.