HFMK03316U FM, Module 2, Media, Genre and Aesthetics: Issues in World Cinema
Master in Film and Media Studies, 2016-curriculum + 2013-curriculum
Adopting a wide-ranging ‘world cinema’ approach, this course explores the recurring connections between cultures, genres, and audio-visual style. The terms ‘culture’ and ‘genre’ will be interpreted broadly: ‘culture’ encompasses national cultures, but also, for example, institutional cultures or emerging subcultures and alternative cultures; relevant to ‘genre’ are the received categories of commercial filmmaking but also general types of audio-visual expression associated with art cinema and the independent sector.
A central aim is to encourage a comparative approach to questions of culture, genre, and aesthetics, and featured films will thus be drawn from all corners of the globe. Lectures and discussions will focus on a series of issues that highlight the extent to which the links between culture, genres, and aesthetics are anything but trivial, having instead much to do with the world-making capacities— and thus social and other contributions—of audio-visual expression.
Issues to be explored are as follows:
Group style and film movements (6th generation filmmaking in the People’s Republic of China);
Genre formulae, innovation and individual style (Wong Kar-wai [Hong Kong]);
Moral feel-good films (On the psychological benefits of genre: Gauri Shinde’s English Vinglish and Lone Scherfig’s Italian for Beginners);
Authentic expression and ‘direct speech’ (West African village films, European funders, and the filmmaker’s role as “griot”);
Heritage culture and memory (the biopic – on the ethics of basing fiction on real lives);
Social justice and human rights films (Fiction and non-fiction in human rights filmmaking: Luis Puenzo [Argentina] and Joshua Oppenheimer [DK]);
Nollywood (Nigeria), Riverwood (Kenya) and the ‘straight-to-video’ phenomenon (Quality, quantity, piracy, markets and the appeal of local culture: Biyi Bandele’s Half of a Yellow Sun; Ben Addelmann and Samir Mallal’s Nollywood Babylon);
Capacity building and training (Nurturing personal, independent, creative expression: Denmark’s role beyond Denmark – CPH:DOX’s CPH:LAB; the National Film School of Denmark’s ‘Middle East Project’; International Media Support’s Screen Institute Beirut initiative, among others);
Slow cinema (Time and experience: Chantal Akerman [Belgium] and Apichatpong Weerasethakul [Thailand]);
Depicting the natural world (Environmental aesthetics: Knut Erik Jensen [Norway]; nature in the context of the horror film);
Extreme cinema (Provocation and transgression in the art film: Lars von Trier [DK])
Assigned readings introduce students to debates about how best to study world cinema, to elucidations (from a variety of theoretical perspectives), of central concepts, and to case studies relevant to the films in focus. The course emphasizes practitioner’s agency, the practice-based thinking that goes into the making of a film. The course will feature visits by practitioners. Timetabling permitting, we also expect to engage directly with filmmakers through Skype.
The detailed course outline suggests a significant number of additional films and also provides further readings for each week; students are welcome to focus on these in connection with their written assignments.
Master in Film and Media Studies 2016-curriculum:
Module 2: Media, Genre and Aesthetics: HFMK03311E
- Category
- Hours
- Course Preparation
- 353,5
- Seminar
- 56
- Total
- 409,5
Master elective for students from outside of Humanities at UCPH:
http://hum.ku.dk/uddannelser/skemaer/enkeltestudieelementer.pdf/Indskrivning-enkelte-kurser.pdf
Apply on form to sn-mef@hum.ku.dk June 1, 2017 at the latest.
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- OtherThe exam will be conducted in English or Danish
Criteria for exam assesment
Master in Film and Media Studies, 2016-curriculum:
http://hum.ku.dk/uddannelser/aktuelle_studieordninger/ film_medievidenskab/film_og_medievidenskab_ka.pdf
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- HFMK03316U
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Level
- Full Degree MasterFull Degree Master choice
- Duration
- 1 semester
- Placement
- Autumn
- Schedule
- Skema bliver lagt udenfor blokstruktur
- Study board
- Study Board of Media, Cognition and Communication
Contracting department
- Department of Media, Cognition and Communication
Course Coordinators
- Pia Karstoft Andersen (8-716778797a756c7a466e7b7334717b346a71)
Lecturers
Mette Hjort