Film and Politics

This course examines film as an extension of politics and a medium of political engagement. Concentrating on the second half of the twentieth century, we will discuss the fictions and the realities of various historical events (e.g., Hiroshima, Cold War, Red Scare, decolonization, mass emigration, fall of communism, terrorism) as they were represented in the mainstream, the avant-garde and the documentary film. We will ask to what extent these representations served as propaganda, a form of protest and resistance, or an attempt to formulate political alternatives, and what political influence they were able to generate.