Babelisms: Multilingual Film Aesthetics

This class will explore the aesthetic and
political openings provided by incorporating
multiple languages in film and moving image media.
While the use of different spoken languages and
dialects will be the starting point, the class
will also encompass broader notions, like
cinematic languages (classical narrative,
modernist, documentary, avant-garde) and other
practices we may explore (music, body language,
computer code, etc.).

If language is the most common way in which we
engage with the world and describe it, then using
multiple languages may expand our experience of it
and question our basic assumptions. Through this
inquiry, the students will build a more perceptive
and involved practice and understanding of
cinematic form and practice.

These ideas will be approached through screenings,
lectures/discussions, exercises and critique, with
an emphasis on how this interrogation of language
can take different forms and potentially inform
the students' artistic practice. Students will
make a final project or write a critical paper
engaging with the course's themes.