FILM 2608 A/B, History of World Cinema, Prof. Aboubakar Sanogo, Fall/Winter (1.0 credit)
Description: This course is articulated around three major categories: time, space, and form. Through the category of time, the history and evolution of the cinema will be explored from its beginnings in the late 19th century to the first two decades of the 21st century. The category of space will not only make it possible to look at the cinema in a truly global manner, but also to study ways in which the cinema is at once tributary to the space of the nation-state and is inevitably bound to exceed it in light of the historical and contemporary configuration of capital and geopolitics. Finally through the category of form, we will examine the evolution and transformation of film form, from the cinema of attractions to the age of the digital, via Soviet Montage, German Expressionism, Italian Neorealism, the French New Wave, the New African Cinema, the rise of Asian cinema, Dogma 95 among others.
Evaluation: Take home exams, midterms, research papers
FILM 3608, Topics in Film History, Topic: African Cinema, Prof. Aboubakar Sanogo, Fall (0.5 credit)
Description: This course will explore the history of cinema in Africa, from its beginnings to the present. It will explore among other things the work of the Lumiere brothers in Africa, the colonial cinema, the multiple ways in which Africans have used the cinema since the advent of independence starting in the late 1950s and early 1960s and the recent boom in film production on the continent. The works of such masters as Ousmane Sembene, Souleymane Cisse, Idrissa Ouedraogo, Abderrahmane Sissako, Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina, Faouzi Bensaidi, John Akomfrah, will be explored. Such major concerns in African cinema as the problem of auteurism, spectatorship, realism, third cinema, the national, feminism, the popular, cinephilia, Nollywood, the postcolonial, race, Afro-futurism, genre and the challenge of the digital will also be examined.
Evaluation: Take home exams, research paper, and final exam.