Cinema of Resistance

Cinema of Resistance: Political Filmmaking,
Revolutionary Movements, Art, and Social Change

"(W)hat we call the political is society itself,
it is the form of history itself. film and
revolution, or film and arts, or politics and
arts, are inseparable." - filmmaker Masao Adachi
in 2006
In this course we will view works that explore
what the revolutionary potential of the film
medium is and has been, at what point the camera
becomes a tool for effecting social change, and
how cinema has existed as both a means and a site
of resistance.
Drawing upon the rich history of political
filmmaking and the myriad approaches to the form,
works shown will be from a broad range including
films by individual makers, collectives, and
groups; and films from various revolutionary and
historic moments, as well as contemporary
struggles.
A number of important feature-length narrative
films will be presented but the course will
primarily focus on non-fiction films, personal
filmmaking, essay films, and works that engage
testimony and shared memory. We will also
critically engage with contemporary advocacy
documentaries, agitprop, activist videos, the
recent use of live internet streaming in
political protest (such as Occupy, Standing Rock,
Ferguson), to explore how marginalized groups and
marginalized voices use moving images as a way to
affect social change. Contemporary artists and
filmmakers will join the class via skype, and in
person for in-depth discussion.
Through screenings, readings, class discussion
and self-reflective writing exercises, students
will develop a deeper understanding of social
issues and their formal realization in film; the
various modes of exposition in cinema and their
subsequent political values; and the many ways
films have defined events in the world and shaped
our memory of them.