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Special Topics in Film and Video Production: Ecocinema theory and practice: Making Films in the Anthropocene

Course: 
FILM 171S
Instructor: 
Quarter: 
Fall
Academic Year: 
2018-19
Days: 
TTH
Times: 
3:20PM-5:50PM
Location: 
Commun Bldg 113

“The question is not ‘how do nature’s communications flow through us?’but ‘what stops them?’” -Sean Cubitt


C O U R S E O V E R V I E W
This is a hybrid theory and practice course focused on the growing discourse and production of ecocinema within the film and video arts context that is increasingly interdisciplinary and created across multiple media platforms. This course will explore the legacies of film and video to document, construct and present themes that address directly (and indirectly) the ecological issues in this age of the so-called anthropocene, as well as the development of ecocinema as concept and theory.

The past ten years have seen a steady growth of independent and commercial digital cinemas and videos responding to ecological crises like food systems and climate change. Through critical readings of scholarly essays and viewing of diverse media arts practices, this course considers the role that activists and artists play in confronting the biopolitics of climate change, habitat and species loss, and global warming in the age of neoliberal globalization. What discursive, aesthetic and technical strategies and interventions do these works engage in to raise awareness and inspire action on the issues they address? The course includes various artistic practices such as photography, installations, interactive documentaries, web-documentaries and idocs, and films and videos ranging from avantgarde to mainstream productions. Students will also produce creative media sketches and a final film project as they critically consider their works and their place in the overall literal and figurative media ecology of today and the future