(In Development)
Our understanding of the possibilities, problems and limits of identity will be explored through our viewing and discussion of unique examples from the world of cinema. What does it mean to be alive, feeling, and thinking in this world? This course will include the screening and discussion of films that will make us think, laugh, question, squirm, weep, desire, doubt and rethink.
"The most strongly enforced of all known taboos is the taboo against knowing who or what you really are behind the mask of your apparently separate, independent, and isolated egos."
-- Alan Watts, The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966)
"The only performance that makes it, that makes it all the way, is the one that achieves madness."
-- Turner in the film Performance
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward path had been lost.
--Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy: Inferno, Song 1
Anyone who believes that every individual film must present a "balanced" picture, knows nothing about either balance or pictures.
--Edward R. Murrow
Democracy is a great conversation, a community defined by the scope and substance of its discourse.
--James David Barber
"Believing is seeing and not the other way around."
--Errol Morris
"There are in fact no masses; there are only ways of seeing people as masses.”
--Raymond Williams
1993: Blue (Poland/France/Switzerland: Krzystof Kieslowski, 1993: 98 mins)1994: Before the Rain (Republic of Macedonia: Milcho Manchevski, 1994: 113 mins)1997: Gadjo Dilo (Romania/France: Tony Gatlif, 1997: 102 mins)2000: Joint Security Area (South Korea: Chan Wook-Park, 2000: 110 mins)2004: I Heart Huckabees (USA/Germany: David O' Russell, 2004: 107 minutes)2006: Brand Upon the Brain (Canada: Guy Maddin, 2006: 95 mins)2006: Shortbus (USA: John Cameron Mitchell, 2006: 101 mins)2008: Let the Right One In (Sweden: Tomas Alfredson, 2008: 115 mins)2008: Sleep Dealer (Mexico/USA: Alex Rivera, 2008: 90 mins)Adams, Sam.
"The Future Is Now in Alex Rivera and David Riker’s Sleep Dealer." Sloan Science and Film (November 17, 2008)
2009: District 9 (USA/New Zealand: Neill Blomkamp, 2009: 112 mins)Blomkamp, Neil, Sharlto Copley and Peter Jackson.
"District 9 -- Comic Com Q & A Creative Screenwriting Magazine (August 21, 2009)
Gunkel, Henriette and Christiane König.
"‘You are not welcome here’: post-apartheid negrophobia and real aliens in Blomkamp’s District 9." Dark Matters (February 7, 2010)
McEnteer, James.
"Living in District 9 Truth-Out (June 12, 2010)
Toit, Andries Du.
"Becoming the Alien: Apartheid, Racism and District 9." A Subtle Knife (September 4, 2009)
---.
"The Alienation Effect: Further Thoughts on D9." A Subtle Knife (September 12, 2009)
Zborowski, James.
"District 9 and Its World." Jump Cut #52 (Summer 2010)
2009: Dogtooth (Greece: Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009: 94 mins)Jameson, A.D.
"A Review of the Relatively New Movie Dogtooth (Kynodontas)." Big Other (July 16, 2010)
Murphy, Bernice M.
Dogtooth Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies (June 2010)
Williamson, Ben.
"On Parenting, Media, Education and Phobias." DML Central (February 14, 2011)
2009: No One Knows About Persian Cats (Iran: Bahman Ghobadi, 2009: 106 mins) 2009: The Temptation of St Tony (Estonia/Finland/Sweden: Veiko Õunpuu, 2009: 110 mins)Jafarkas.
"The Temptation of St. Tony." Tiny Mix Tapes (2011)
2009: White Material (France/Cameroon: Claire Denis, 2009: 106 mins)"Claire Denis: The Art of Seduction." Reverse Shot #25 (2009: Special Issue)
Dinning, Samantha.
"Great Directors: Claire Denis." Senses of Cinema (2009)
Taubin, Amy.
"White Material: Out of Africa." Criterion (April 12, 2011)
Thompson, David.
"White Material: Claire Denis’s new movie is puzzling, nasty, and deeply disturbing." The New Republic (January 7, 2011)
2010: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010: 114 mins)Sicinski, Michael. "Dreaming in Cinema: Capturing the Imagination of Apichatpong Weerasethakul."
Cineaste 36.2 (Spring 2011)
