Saving America from Itself? Movie Interventions (Moore, Lee, DuVernay, Kopple):Junior Colloquium
AMST 204
Spring 2022
| Section:
01
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| Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate |
We will place four interventionist filmmakers--Michael Moore, Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay, Barbara Kopple--in a strategic dialogue to consider the American studies anti-hoodwinking potential of movies. Their movies have tried to sway elections, empower social movements, inspire protest, popularize national self-critique, study the tactics of top-down power (including scapegoating) and bottom-up resistance, and, perhaps, save America from itself. The many cultural-theoretical payoffs of their movies include moving us beyond any checklist tendency simply to observe representations of gender, race, and class. They help us question why these categories were produced in particular ways and help us interrogate (intersectionally and dialectically) how they interact with, rely on, and sometimes mask one another. Our four independent filmmakers--in trying to be changemakers--dare us not only to take a hard look at what kind of an America we have had and now have, but prod us, at times seduce us, to imagine more expansively what kind of America we might want to create. We will also put their movies in dialogue with related movies by D. W. Griffith, Boots Riley, Robert Reich, and others. And to establish a longue durée historical perspective we will read Howard Zinn's epic A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. In terms of fields, our colloquium integrates movie studies, cultural studies, premises studies, resistance studies, and social transformation studies. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
MICHAEL MOORE IN TRUMPLAND (2016, dir. Michael Moore)
FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (2004, dir. Michael Moore)
WHERE TO INVADE NEXT (2016, dir. Michael Moore)
FAHRENHEIT 11/9 (2018, dir. Michael Moore)
SAVING CAPITALISM (2017, dir. Jacob Kornbluth, Sari Gilman), featuring Robert Reich
DO THE RIGHT THING (1989, dir. Spike Lee)
WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS (2006, dir. Spike Lee)
BLACKKKLANSMAN (2018, dir. Spike Lee)
BIRTH OF A NATION (1915, dir. D. W. Griffith)
SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (2018, dir. Boots Riley)
SELMA (2014, dir. Ava DuVernay)
13TH (2016, dir. Ava DuVernay)
AMERICAN DREAM (1992, dir. Barbara Kopple)
DIXIE CHICKS: SHUT UP AND SING (2006, dir. Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck)
Howard Zinn, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES (2009)
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Examinations and Assignments:
Assignments TBA. Most movies will be streamed for free, but some will be available only on Netflix and students will have to have access to a Netflix account. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Pfister,Joel Times: .M..... 01:20PM-04:10PM; Location: DWNY200; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 7 | | |
| Seats Available: 1 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 0 | JR non-major: 1 | SO: 4 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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