History on Screen

Catalog description

This course explores the ways in which feature films and documentaries construct the historical past and shape, reflect, or revise popular understandings and national or cultural myths about the past. We will consider films as products of particular moments in history (potential primary sources), as well as arguments about the moments they portray (potential secondary sources). We will explore how audiences take an active role in shaping the meaning of a film, and thus how that meaning may shift as audiences change over time. We will trace how and why filmed representations of our understanding and interpretation of the past have changed over time. The topics of the films analyzed in this course may vary.