Spring 2022  |  AMES 3756 Section 001: Southeast Asian Cinema (66765)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
01/18/2022 - 05/02/2022
Mon, Wed 01:00PM - 02:15PM
UMTC, East Bank
Nicholson Hall 315
Enrollment Status:
Open (27 of 30 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
This course examines the social life and political functions of cinema and media cultures in Southeast Asia in relation to various contexts in which they emerged and circulate. The course is attentive to the impact of historical processes on film and media culture as well as to how film and media process historical events - colonialism, militarism, religious conflict, economic turmoil. The course will be divided into three different periods. We will, first, explore the period of the early twentieth century where colonialism in the region activates claims around nation and nationalism and we will examine the role modern media plays in these debates by looking at how notions of "national media" produces "others" who are at the margin of such development. Second, we will explore polarized ideological conflicts during the Cold War - the period in which Americanization and anti-American sentiment were expressed in media through genres that are now considered propaganda. We will also look at films and graphic literature that overtly document and critique violence. The final part of the course will focus on contemporary Southeast Asia - the financial crisis of 1996 and many forms of authoritarianism that still impact the discussions, understandings, and practices of human rights in the region.
Class Description:

This course examines the social life and political functions of cinema in Southeast Asia in relation to various contexts in which cinema emerged and circulate. The course is attentive to the impact of historical processes on cinema as well as to how film and media process historical events - colonialism, militarism, religious conflict, border dispute, ideological wars, economic turmoil. The course is guided by three different problematics: the arrival of cinema as an imported technology that coincided with and was arguably contingent upon the European colonial presence in the region; the Cold War, the Americanization of popular media and anti-Communist sentiments; and the emergence of national film industries vis-à-vis independent cinema in the present time. The latter sees cinema as a recuperative means, on the one hand, from political trauma as a result of violent suppressive regimes, and on the other hand, from the ongoing human rights crises and the decline of democracy in the region.

Feature-length filmography includes works from Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and East Timor. A couple short films are from Brunei.
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/66765/1223
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
17 November 2021

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