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CINE402-11S1 (C) Semester One 2011
The Essay Film

0.2500 EFTS
21 Feb 2011 - 26 Jun 2011 		↓Other occurrences

Description

This course studies the essay film, a hybrid genre which troubles conventional distinctions between documentary and fiction, as the model for a new mode of critical practice.

Cane Toads: An Unnatural History. Image used with permission. This course takes the essay film, a hybrid genre which troubles conventional distinctions between documentary and fiction, as a model for a new mode of critical practice.  The essay film, in terms of form, style and method, is situated on the crossroads of literary and cinematic “writing.”  

The essay film places the accent upon the process of research and the position of the researcher rather than upon the rules which govern critical inquiry or their confirmation in a final solution to the problem under consideration.  It rejects the familiar techniques of narrative continuity and argumentative consistency associated with documentary.  Rather it assemblies a heterogenous collection of images and discursive positions, overlaid with the “dubious” statements of philosophical reflection, speculative reason, critical commentary, political rhetoric, poetic language, emotive or intuitive response, private fantasy and public opinion.  Topics will include:

• literary antecedents for the essay film
• cinematic antecedents for the essay film
• fiction and non-fiction in the essay film
• le camera stylo and ciné-écriture
• theoretical approaches to the essay as method (Benjamin and Adorno)
• personal voice and public discourse
• history, time and memory in the essay film
• politics and aesthetics of the essay film
• the essay film and the postcolonial subject
• women and the essay film
• the city in the essay film

Pre-requisites

Subject to approval of the Programme Coordinator

Course Coordinator

Alan Wright

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Essay 1 (4000 words) 50%
Essay 2 (4000 words) 50%

Textbooks

Required Texts

CINE 402 Course Reader;

Films studied include:
Night and Fog (Resnais, 1956)
Sans Soleil (Marker, 1982)
The Fourth Dimension (Minh-ha, 2004)
The Gleaners and I (Varda, 2001)
F For Fake (Welles, 1974)
Marlene (Schell, 1984)
Hotel Terminus (Ophüls, 1988)
Histoire(s) du Cinéma (Godard, 1986-1996)
Black Audio Film Collective
London (Keiller, 1992)
Of Time and the City (Davies, 2009)
Perfumed Nightmare (Tahimik, 1983)
Cane Toads (Lewis, 1988)
Bright Leaves (McElwee, 2004)
Reconstruction (Lusztig, 2001)
The Ister (Barison and Ross, 2004)

Fees

Domestic fee $1,444.00
International fee $5,875.00


For further information see School of Humanities.

All CINE402 Occurrences

  • CINE402-11S1 (C) Semester One 2011
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