| Unit name | Contemporary World Cinemas |
|---|---|
| Unit code | DRAM30057 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Maingard |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of Film and Television |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit will examine key trends in contemporary world cinema/s (beyond Hollywood, British, and Western European cinemas) across several geographical places, and/or within one country or region. This will include aspects such as, the exploration of thematic contents, narrative forms and structures, styles and aesthetics, genres and auteurs, along with the impact of digital and internet-based technologies and screening platforms, and changing industrial contexts with reference to national/transnational production. It will also consider world cinema/s in contemporary media and film festival cultures. The unit will explore broader theoretical ways of understanding contemporary world cinema/s, such as their relation to modernity/postmodernity, globalisation, space/place, identity and subjectivity. Students will explore significant films, or a body of films, in relation to key ways of understanding contemporary world cinema/s, developing a specific area of focus in an individual presentation and combining multiple perspectives in a research essay.
Unit Aims: To examine contemporary world cinema/s in relation to thematic contents, narrative forms and structures, styles and aesthetics, genres and auteurs, digital and internet-based technologies and screening platforms, and changing industrial contexts; To explore differing means of locating world cinema/s particularly in relation to contemporary media and film festival cultures; To deepen conceptual vocabularies and theoretical frameworks for the analysis of contemporary world cinema/s; To provide an opportunity to develop a specific area of focus on a selected case study for individual exploration and presentation; To write a research essay drawing on a variety of approaches and perspectives to the analysis of a film.
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Identify and respond to central and emerging trends in contemporary world cinema/s;
2. Analyse films to an advanced level, on the basis of themes, narrative, style and aesthetics, genre and the director as auteur, taking account of changing industrial contexts with reference to national/transnational production, and digital and internet-based technologies and screening platforms;
3. Identify and apply differing theoretical and methodological approaches in the study of contemporary world cinema/s, and respond to the complexities of these;
4. Identify and evaluate pertinent evidence in order to support a cogent argument;
5. Develop an advanced research investigation in the form of a research essay.
| lectures, seminars and small-group tutorials |
10 min. individual presentation (30%) ILO 1, 3-4
4000 word essay (70%) ILO 1-5
Presentations will take place in plenary sessions
Appadurai, A. (1996) Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Minneapolis and London, University of Minnesota Press.
Ezra, E., & Rowden, T. (eds) (2006) Transnational Cinema: the film reader, London and New York: Routledge.
Iordanova, D. (2013) The Film Festival Reader, St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York: New York University Press.
Kuhn, A. and Grant, C. (eds) (2006) Screening World Cinema: A Screen Reader, London and New York: Routledge.
Shohat, E. and Stam, R. (2013 [1994]) Unthinking Eurocentrism, 2nd edition, Oxon & New York: Routledge.
