Studiegids

nl en

Third Cinema

Vak
2023-2024

Admission requirements

Enrolled in Film and Literary Studies BA program, or completion of one previous film related course.

Description

In this course we study how moving images can contribute to political activism. The Latin American Third Cinema movement from the 1960s and 70s is a starting point for analyzing third cinema aesthetics and ideology, the participant's role in third cinema practices and theoretical considerations of these explicit non-Western film approach. Does the ideology and aesthetics of third cinema actually defy the conventional categories and views of traditional (Eurocentric) film studies, as Teshome Gabriel claims? Are the militant attitude and national perspective of the early third cinema movement still relevant in our contemporary era, which many believe is characterized by migration, hybridization, multiculturalism and globalization? In the sessions, the lectures and seminar discussions investigate the influences and ramifications of third cinema in contemporary cinema and in theoretical texts by, for example, Hamid Naficy, Olga Bailey, Corinn Columpar and Robert Stam. Argentine Third Cinema filmmakers Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino claimed in their manifesto that they made their films “with the camera in one hand and a rock in the other” (1971). Ever since, the film camera has been replaced with digital cameras and cameraphones for the most part – but have the rocks also been replaced? In reflecting on the past and present of political filmmaking in cinema, documentary and artists’ moving image, this course will address the successors of third cinema, including postcolonial African cinema, indigenous cinema, accented cinema, Black cinema, emergency cinema and moving image practices surrounding the Milk Tea Alliance in East and Southeast Asia.

Course objectives

On completion of this course:

  • the student has knowledge of the main characteristics of Third Cinema practices and theories that arose in Latin America in the 1960s;

  • the student has knowledge of the more contemporary successors of Third Cinema and of Third Cinema applications in a broader sense (such as Third World Cinema, Fourth Cinema and Accented Cinema);

  • the student has insight into the extensions and developments of Third Cinema in various image technologies and activist new media practices;

  • the student has knowledge of and insight into the main theories about this;

  • the student is able to recognize, compare and interpret the main forms of Third Cinema in a narrow sense and its successors in a broad sense since the 1960s;

  • the student is able to construct an argument in the form of a paper in which a political film, video or new media object is analyzed and positioned within debates about Third Cinema;

  • the student has knowledge of the most important developments in the field of multi-media practices within an artistic and everyday context (expanded cinema in the broad sense) since the sixties of the last century;

  • the student has knowledge of the interweaving of various media practices and visual technologies within contemporary visual culture (media ecology);

  • the student has knowledge of and insight into the main theories about this;

  • the student is able to recognise, describe and interpret the main forms of multi-media practice (expanded cinema in the broad sense) since the 1960s;

  • the student is able to construct an argument in the form of a paper in which media practices and / or the relationship between different media practices are interpreted.

Timetable

The timetables are available through MyTimetable.

Mode of instruction

Lecture / Seminar

Assessment method

Assessment

Final paper
Group presentation
Class assignments: Pass/Fail

Weighing

Final paper: 75%
Group presentation: 25%
Class assignments: Pass/Fail

Resit

Resit only possible with final paper. The resit will involve the same subtest as the first opportunity.

Inspection and feedback

A feedback form will be provided. Digital submissions will be required via Turnitin and comments/corrections will be accessible to view for the student. Feedback and final mark will be available two weeks after the final submission date.

Reading list

Literature will be announced on Brightspace before the beginning of the course. Texts will be made available on Brightspace. Literature should be studied before each class.

Registration

Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.

Contact

  • For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.

  • For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal.

Remarks

-