Communication 793R - S- Film and History

In this seminar, we will grapple with the myriad issues that arise whenever filmmakers attempt to (re)construct the past. The moving-image commodification of history is as old as the film medium itself and has shown no signs of abating. Indeed, a number of scholars have observed that filmmakers' interest in representing history escalated during the past few decades, a time when the seemingly apolitical meta-narrative and "great person" approaches to history began giving way to expressly ideological contestations and recontextualizations of the past. This seminar will cover a wide range of time-periods, national cinemas, and types of productions (e.g., narrative films, documentary films, "Biography"-type TV programs). It will very much be driven by student interests, with a significant portion of the seminar devoted to the presentation of in-depth case studies that the students themselves have chosen and developed.

Open to Doctoral & Masters students only.