Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0263 - Film and Poetry

This advanced practice/theory course explores a poetics of word and image, a poetics of resistance, dream and revelation in film and text. Working with both visual and spoken text, we will consider a series of questions: How do words fall on an image? How do we choose a certain word, a certain phrase in relation to an image? Does the image function as an illustration of the words or does it expand upon the words in a different visual direction and if so, how is that operating? How does the choice of each word, each phrase, the music of how they are strung together, the degree of formality or edge or speed in the reading, how do all of these carry an energetic charge and meaning that comes from the relationship of the voice to the ideas in the poem to the image itself? How do poetry and film work together across cultures and languages, from early cinema to contemporary digital and analog works for single channel and installation? We will study films and installations by Shirin Neshat, Nicolas Rey, Masayuki Kawai, John Akomfrah, Ruben Gamez, Anri Sala and Sergei Paradjanov. Readings include the poetry of Aracelis Girmay, Anna Akhmatova, Paul Celan, Aime Cesaire, Audre Lorde and Wislawa Szymborska, as well as writings on the role of the poet in times of revolution and resistance. Students will complete individual and collaborative projects combining poetry and still and moving images. Students may work in 16mm, Super 8 or digital formats.

Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Lab fee: $65. Field trip fee: $50. In this course, students are expected to spend approximately 8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.