Subjectivity and/or Diversity: First-Person Narrative in Film

Subjectivity and/or Diversity: First-Person Narrative in Film is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies course taught by Jean Marie Teno.

This course satisfies Division I requirements.

Course Description
Over the past decades, personal video diaries have become part of everyday life. The first person narrative has become a familiar tool for Avant-garde filmmakers as well as for directors making commercial narrative films. Looking at fiction and non-fiction films, this course will explore the filmmakers' strategies and the questions raised by their role as the Narrator vis ` vis their story and their public. Do first person narratives in film bring us a better understanding of complex issues or are they just a way for the author to impose a personal point of view that can contribute to perverting or concealing the truth? Students will be expected to write a response journal on screenings and readings. One short and one longer essay will be required. We will see films by filmmakers such as: Chris Marker (Sans Soleil), Agnes Varda (Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse), Ross McElwee (Sherman's March),Oshima (Kyoto, My Mother's House), Zeka Laplaine (Kinshasa Palace), Marcos Arriaga (Promised Land), Kidlat Tahimik (Perfumed Nightmare), Terence Malik (Badlands), Jean-Luc Godard (Histoires Du Cinema), Guiseppe Tornatore (New Cinema Paradiso), Jean-Marie Teno.

Learning Goals

 * Multi-Cultural
 * Reading
 * Writing