Reference no: EM133190923 , Length: Wrod Count: 1500 words

Assignment: Third Cinema Movement Research Paper

Aims

1. Perform independent research in film history parallel to class lectures
2. Design a research project, including research questions
3. Hone critical thinking and strategic uses of different kinds of research sources
4. Practice poster presentation, which may be new to you

Topic Choose a film topic that is not directly related to class materials and that pertains to a period since 1950. The topic does not have to be "significant" (award-winning, famous), but needs to be a rich opportunity to explore a film movement, political situation, technology, aesthetic, or other key aspect of history. You can focus on one film or one filmmaker (director, producer, writer, editor, cinematographer, etc.), or you can look more broadly at a film movement, technology, etc. "Film" here is defined in its broadest sense of moving image usually accompanied by sound, so you can research videogames, online videos, television, VR, etc. If you are interested in a topic but unsure if it "fits," please ask. There are several suggested topics in the Research Project folder on Brightspace if you have trouble thinking of a topic. Another possibility is browsing the DVD shelf in the Killam library; it's on the ground floor in the room marked "Music Collection."

If you're having trouble deciding what kind of direction you might take with your project - and especially what kind of focus or argument you might make - David Bordwell's "Doing Film History" has a good overview of approaches. This article is a recommended reading for Week 1 of this course. This article also includes some broad questions (e.g., "How have the conditions of the film industryproduction, distribution, and exhibition-affected the uses of the medium?") that you might adapt to more specific case studies. You can also think reflectively about the approaches and questions we use in class lectures and discussions, and the approaches in the assigned readings.

List of Possible Topics for Research Paper

You can choose any topic you would like. However, here are some suggestions of topics related to what we study in class and also those that we did not have time to cover in class but that are very worthwhile:

I. Third Cinema Started in the 1960s, this is an international movement that sees Hollywood and other commercial cinemas as "First" cinemas and auteur-driven cinemas as "Second" cinemas. Key moments include Solanas and Gettino's film, The Hour of The Furnaces (1968), and their manifesto, "Towards a Third Cinema" (1971). The work is explicitly political and formally adventurous. The manifesto and film are easily accessible online. Many other films have also been categorized as Third Cinema, and you could investigate these instead/as well.

II. Cinema Novo The Brazilian new wave of the 1960s and 1970s. It is diverse, but it tends to be influenced by issues of class and colonialism. One of my personal favourite films is How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1971), available at the Killam library.

III. North American Underground of the 1960s/1970s Some great film auteurs of this time are Joyce Wieland (whose complete works we have at the Killam library), Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, Shirley Clarke, Kenneth Anger, Michael Snow, and Jonas Mekas. These films are generally very experimental in form (sometimes non-narrative) and often shot on 16mm, "amateur" film formats. Some films are also available online.

IV. Fifth Generation Chinese Filmmaking Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and Tian Zhuangzhuang are the most famous of these Mainland Chinese directors who became internationally famous in the 1980s. They turned away from the programmatic communist politics of the previous decades and created visually splendid, often socially and politically critical works. Several of their films are available at the Killam and the Halifax Public Library.

V. Bollywood of the 1990s/early 2000s This was a great era of Bollywood cinema and a major shift from Mother India, which we'll see a bit of in class, towards a highly cosmopolitan, upper-middle-class milieu. And the music and dancing are great. There are many DVDs available at the Killam and the public library.

VI. Non-Hindi Indian Cinema The popular Telugu and Tamil cinemas in India have been prolific and diverse for almost a century, and there are cinemas in several other languages that are also thriving. Some films are available on Netflix and iTunes. Browse and surf, and see what might catch your interest.

VII. New Korean Cinema Korea has a strong film and television industry that produces everything from costume dramas to horror film. Since the 1990s, there have been some very important Korean auteurs making enjoyable, often hard-hitting films. The Killam has thee of Bong Joon-ho's films, and Park Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance - of his Vengeance trilogy - is available at the Halifax Public Library. These are all formally polished and entertaining, if sometimes tough, to watch.

VIII. New Queer Cinema An important movement of the 1980s and 1990s, New Queer Cinema included activist, formally adventurous alternatives to anodyne coming out stories. Derek Jarman, Jennie Livingston, Isaac Julien, and Todd Haynes are some of the key English-speaking figures of this movement. Their films are available at the Killam, through the Halifax Public Library system, and some on Netflix, iTunes, and otherwise openly available online.

IX. Cinema of #BlackLivesMatter There has been a lot of excellent, English-language (and other) cinema emerging in the context of contemporary anti-Black racism. Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman is just one high point in a long career; Dee Rees's Mudbound, Steve McQueen's Widows and 12 Years a Slave, Jordan Peele's Get Out, and Barry Jenkins's Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk are all readily available, important, and enthralling films.

X. Iranian Post-Revolutionary New Wave Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Samira Makhmalbaf, Marziyeh Meshkini, and Jafar Panahi are important auteurs who often play with the boundaries between documentary and fiction, and thus challenge our perceptions and responsibilities as viewers. Panahi is especially politically engaged and has been imprisoned and banned from filmmaking. Their films were especially important on the festival circuit in the 1990s and 2000s, winning many top awards. We have several at the Killam and in the Halifax Public Library system.

XI. YouTube, Netflix, or iTunes These platforms have had an extensive impact on online video culture and have arguably changed the way we watch moving images. Choose one of these (or another) site and research the cultural, legal, and/or historical issues associated with it. Although we will discuss video streaming to some extent in class, we will do so after the Research Paper is due, so this is fair game.

XII. Videogame Histories Choose a videogame (stand-alone or franchise) and research its creation, reception, aesthetic influences, and/or historical significance. As with YouTube, etc., we will discuss this in class after the paper is due, so do not be worried about overlap with class materials.

XIII. A Technology Choose a technology such as 8mm film cameras marketed to consumers, 3D animation, Smell-O-Vision/AromaRama, DBox. Investigate how this technology originated, how it has been used, and what its impact has been. Have there been any controversies associated with the technology? Has it been used as its creators intended? You might also research the concept of technological determinism and the ways film historians have used/objected to this discourse.

XIV. A Filmmaker Who is Not a Director Usually, film directors are prioritized in the writing of film history. Less commonly, performers', producers', and composers' careers are the backbone of an historical account. Even rarer is the narration of film history through the career of a cinematographer, editor, screenwriter, costume designer, etc. This project could be a great opportunity to explore the work of someone whose style you admire. Although it's unlikely there will be peer-reviewed sources about that person, you may find interviews with them, and you can draw on peer-reviewed sources on the films and film industrial context.

XV. Virtual Reality There are opportunities to do some original research by interviewing NSCAD students working in VR and/or interviewing people at Dal's VR lab, GEM. Even though we're going to be studying this in class, because of the nature of the medium (and because we're not studying it until very late in the term), this could be a good opportunity to get more exposure to VR work.

XVI. Archival Research Dalhousie owns the archives of the film production company imX Communications, which was founded in 1998 and whose work includes Margaret's Museum and New Waterford Girl. If you're interested in digging through primary sources to learn about the film production process, this is an unusual opportunity to do so. Similarly, the archives of Terry Ryan, who worked at the NFB (Atlantic) in the 1980's, are held at Dal. You could, alternatively, do research through the Nova Scotia Archives, which has a YouTube channel. A lot of these films are from a period before that, which this course covers, but there are some from the 1950's and later as well; you could also visit the archives in person.