Cinema Nation

How are ideas of the `nation' and national identity articulated through the cinematic text? How does cinema shape the nation and how is it shaped by the nation? How do small nations ensure the survival and sustainability of their film cultures in a transnational constellation of cultural flows? This course both adopts and interrogates the concept of `national cinema' to examine global film cultures and the institutions, policies, practitioners, and audiovisual texts that constitute their respective film ecosystems. Central to this course is the complexity of cinema's relationship to the nation: films are critically assessed not only as artistic texts, but also as processes, products, and material artefacts in circulation. Focusing on a global spread of case studies, we explore how cultural politics, production and exhibition practices, artistic tendencies, and film policy interact in national and transnational contexts of various scales. We start by problematising the nation and (trans)national cinema as critical constructs and move on to discuss specific aspects of each national cinema while situating them within larger regional contexts. Each week, we will explore topics such as national identities, centre and periphery, allegory and representation, narrative strategies, film funding and policy, talent development, exhibition strategies, and multiculturalism. Alongside the analysis of policy documents, critical essays, and historical accounts, we will watch and discuss films across different genres (documentary, short film, feature film), focusing on how cinema mediates, (de)constructs, and negotiates the nation-state and its attendant identities. You will engage with a range of key texts by scholars in cinema and cultural studies in our study of global film milieus.