This course will focus on topics in national, transnational, and global cinema, television, photography, and/or new media.

How do the images and sounds and spaces of film and media shape the way we think about about our place in the world, about who we are and where we came from, about what is possible for the future? When do film and media forms open up new imaginative possibilities, question long-held assumptions, and realize previously impossible dreams, and when—and how—can it push our emotional buttons to convince us to hold onto rigid and limited frameworks of thinking? Centering on the case study of Japanese and transnational Asian cinema and media, this course considers how cinema is shaped by social and cultural history, and how it in turn influences and transforms culture. Viewing these questions from outside the Hollywood mainstream affords a new perspective on the languages and contexts of film. We will raise these questions as we embark on a voyage through the twentieth century from the era of silent cinema to wartime cinema, through the New Wave cinema of the sixties and seventies and up to the present day of anime and digital media. Students will emerge with a grasp of major trends and directors of Japanese cinema as well as key directions for research and critical thinking in transnational Asian cinema.

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Requirements class fulfills