ARHT2656 - National and Transnational Cinemas

Semester 2, 2011  |  Credit Points: 6

Coordinator: Richard Anthony Smith
Phone: +61 2 9351 4208
Email: r.smith@sydney.edu.au

Description

This unit of study investigates the problem of national cinema in terms of cultural specificity, identity and difference. The cinematic production of different nations will be compared in ways that draw out the various dimensions of the overall problem of the relation of cinema to the nation, of cinematic nationalism, and of cinema to existent and emergent cultural forms. One problem for national cinemas is that production is geographically dispersed and formally divergent. A film that is in production can exist not only in several forms, for instance, in analogue and digital forms, but can also be in production in different places and at different stages of production, pre-production and postproduction, at the same time. A key issue, then, is how national cinemas have responded, and continue to respond to globalised, transnational film production and distribution, and to the ever-present demand for technological and aesthetic renewal. If a film does not exist in any one form or be present in any one place, how can it be said to belong to a national context?

Assessments

1x1500wd essay (30%), 1x3000wd essay (60%), tutorial participation (10%)

Textbooks

Recommended Readings:
Hjort, Mette and Scott Mackenzie, 'Nation and Cinema', London and New York: Routledge, 2000

Classes

1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week and 1x2-3-hr film screening/week

Prerequisites

ARHT1001 and ARHT1002 (For Art History Major), ARHT1002 or ENGL1025 or ENGL1026 (For Film Major)

Prohibitions

ARHT2056

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