World cinema

What is the course about?

This online film course will introduce you to filmmaking nations that are often less visible than Hollywood and the European film industries and will look at cinemas from around the world, including Indian, Chinese, Japanese, African and South American cinema. The course will explore a representative film in depth each week and it will use clips from a wide range of films to illustrate the breadth and significance of world cinema and will explore what is sometimes referred to as ‘Third Cinema’ (Hollywood and Europe represent ‘first’ and ‘second’) while examining a range of contested ideas around nationhood and cinema.

This is a live online course. You will need:
- Internet connection. The classes work best with Chrome.
- A computer with microphone and camera is best (e.g. a PC/laptop/iMac/MacBook), or a tablet/iPad/smart phone/iPhone if you don't have a computer.
- Earphones/headphones/speakers.
We will contact you with joining instructions before your course starts.

What will we cover?

After introducing you to some of the issues at stake in considering world cinema – questions of nationhood, postcolonialism, cultural identity and history – this course will spend a week looking at the cinemas of India, China, Japan, Africa and SouthAmerica. Each session will focus on a specific film as a means of exploring not only its place in film history but also the importance of its country of origin. The films that you will look at are the celebrated Hindi classic, Pyaasa (Guru Dutt 1957 India), a key film from the so-called ‘Fifth Generation’ of Chinese filmmakers, The Yellow Earth (Chen Kaige 1984 China), a classic post-war Japanese comedy, Ohayô/Good Morning (Yasujiro Ozu 1959 Japan), the influential film Xala (Ousmane Sembene 1974 Senegal) and the ‘Cinema Novo’ film Deus e o Diablo na Terra do Sol/Black God, White Devil (Glauber Rocha 1964 Brazil). While analysing these diverse films in depth the course will help you to situate them within the history and the culture of their respective nations enabling you to acquire an introductory understanding of cinemas that have developed beyond (although often in ‘conversation’ with) Hollywood.

What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...

• appreciate a range of films from around the globe.
• understand the importance of non-Western film in an historical, political and cultural context.
• further develop the connections made between the textual, the historic and the cultural in your exploration and
analysis of world cinema.
• explore and understand matters of national and cultural identity as seen through national cinemas.

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

This course is an introductory course and as such does not presuppose any prior expertise in film history or film analysis. The skills required to explore the topics and the films will be discussed in class.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

The course will be delivered by the tutor with small and large group discussions. Short film extracts will be screened
throughout. Reading relevant to the course will be made available in Google Classroom. All PowerPoint presentations will be placed into Google Classroom after each class so that you can follow up afterwards. Where possible links to films online will be provided.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

Clips will be shown extensively throughout the course. Where possible links to online sources will be made available.

When I've finished, what course can I do next?

Please see other Film Studies courses on our website at www.citylit.ac.uk under History, Culture and Writing/Film Studies.