“Film and Revolution” is an interdisciplinary course that introduces students to theories of political revolution, studies of aesthetics and ideology, and the relationship between filmmaking and social movements. The topic is intrinsically interdisciplinary because it exposes students to a range of critical methodologies, which must be placed in dialogue with one another to achieve the dynamism the subject demands. It also poses challenges of historical knowledge as some familiarity with a range of historical events is necessary to properly contextualize different case studies.
This course has a 2x80 minute class schedule with an additional recitation section for evening screenings. Most weeks students will read at least one (1) major theoretical text that will then be placed in dialogue with a film-specific piece of writing or another piece of writing on the same topic for comparative purposes. They will also watch a film or constellation of short films. Granted the complexity of this material, giving students a limited number of texts is the only way to ensure they can handle the workload. The idea is that the major theoretical text will be suitably illustrative of a significant problem in political philosophy and history. Thus, students will read widely known historical texts by Karl Marx, Albert Camus, Martin Luther King, Jr., Franz Fanon, Audre Lorde, and more, alongside more film-specific writing. For instance, during Week 3 we will read Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s “The Manifesto of the Communist Party” (1848) alongside a brief essay by the Soviet filmmaker and film theorist Sergei Eisenstein to consider how the aspiration towards communist revolution achieves material and aesthetic form in the hands of a filmmaker living through a revolution that purportedly manifests Marx and Engels’ very ideals.
The first two-thirds of the class addresses real, existing revolutions of the 20th Century (Soviet, Cuban, New Left, Black Freedom Struggle, Women’s Liberation), and introduces students to a rich array of writings from the political left. The last third takes stock of our post-Cold War world, which has been characterized not only by the return of rightwing extremism within in the US (and elsewhere), but also the continued efflorescence of liberation struggles by indigenous peoples, anti-globalization groups, and climate activists. Under the aegis of “counter-revolution,” students will encounter terms that they have likely heard, such as “neoliberalism” and “fascism,” but whose details are unspecified in their minds. They will also consider the continued relevance of “solidarity” and the ongoing need
to study race and gender critically and capaciously in light of reactionary attempts to reinforce supposedly traditional values. Though the class is international in scope, and internationalism is a theme throughout, the primary focus will be the US due to my own expertise.