Global Film Cultures NonWestern Cinema

In the years following its emergence in the 1890s, film quickly became an enormously popular art form, as well as a large and lucrative industry. Focusing on non-Western cinema context, Global Film Cultures: Non-Western Cinema will examine the relationship between the artistic and industrial sides of film, as well its cultural impact and the implications of its status as a 'mass' art. By focusing substantially on the history, movements, and new forms and aesthetics of Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern cinemas, this module examines on moments in cinema's development that are particularly relevant from an historical perspective, be it aesthetic, social, technological and/or economic. Throughout the semester we will examine the histories of non-Western cinema by screenings, readings, and discussions of such vital moments in film history; Japanese silent cinema, Shanghai Cinema in the 1930s, Post-Independent Indian cinema, Latin American Cinema and social changes, Chinese-language new wave(s), New Iranian cinema, South Korean film renaissance, and the emergence of Singapore Cinema.