DHUM 25A03 - Middle Eastern Cinema and Politics

Contemporary Middle Eastern cinema reflects the social, political and cultural challenges in the region, while revealing the revolutionary spirit of its filmmakers and their filmic language. This course will define dominant themes such as: territory, cultural identity, modernism, religion, gender, internal conflict and socio-political violence, within both historical and present political contexts. Filmmakers, among others will include: Chahine, Saab, Panahi, Gitai, Folman, Doueiri, Khleifi, Abu-Assad, Güney, and Ceylan, dealing with the challenges of Egypt, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, and Turkey. Basic film analysis terms and cultural theories will be covered in order to study and articulate the form as well as content of these films. While addressing the larger question of the relationship between aesthetics and politics, this course will encourage an analysis of film as a participant in social and political change.
Diana GONZALEZ
Séminaire
English
Autumn 2020-2021
10% - Participation in class discussions (to be organized according to the online course) 30% - Film viewing notes (one typed page, to be handed in by email each week) 20% - Oral presentation (to be done in groups of 3) – according to the online structure, this may be “group projects” in another format 40% - Final research paper (10-12 pages) + One written quiz on filmic language terms for extra credit (if noted above 17, 0/20)
David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, 9th ed., McGraw Hill Co.,2010
Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992
Hamid Dabashi, Masters and Masterpieces of Iranian Cinema, Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers, 2007
Hamid Dabashi, Dreams of a Nation: on Palestinian Cinema, New York and London: Verso Books, 2006
Ten films will be viewed (out of class). Readings will be selected from: Mehran Kamrava, The Modern Middle East: A Political History Since the First World War, 2nd ed.,Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Calif. Press, 2011
Lina Khatib, Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War and Beyond, New York: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2008
Hamit Bozarslan, Kurds and the Turkish State, in R. Kasaba (ed.), Cambridge History of Modern Turkey
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 333-356; Bozarslan, Hamit.
Violence in the Middle East: From Political Struggle to Self-Sacrifice. Princeton: Marcus Wiener Publishers,2004 160-161); Raz Yosef, The Politics of Loss and Trauma in Contemporary Israeli Cinema. NY., London: Routledge, 2011, 2014.
Destiny (El-Maseer) (Youssif Chahine, Egypt, 1997)
Dunia: Kiss Me not on the Eyes (Jocelyne Saab, Egypt/Lebanon, 2006)
Kadosh (Amos Gitai, Israel, 1999)
West Beirut (Ziad Doueiri, Lebanon, 1998)
Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, Israel, 2008)
Wedding in Galilée (Michel Khleifi, Palestine, 1987)
Foxtrot (Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2017)
Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey, 2009)
A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, Iran, 2017)
Mike Wayne: Political Film : The Dialectics of Third Cinema, London: Pluto Press, 2001
Mikael Bakhtin, Epic and Novel, in The Dialogic Imagination : Four Essays by M. M. Bakhtin, Michael Holquist (ed.), , Caryl Emerson and Michael Hoquist (trad.), Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982
REQUIRED FILMOGRAPHY (subject to change) :
Omar (Hany-Abu Assad, Palestinian Territories, 2013)
Yol (Yilmaz Güney, Turkey, 1982)
*ACCESS TO ALL READINGS AND FILMS ARE ONLINE
Other possible films to work on:
When I Saw Saw You (Annemarie Jacir, Palestinian Territories, 2012)
The Bubble (Eytan Fox, Israel, 2006)
Facing Mirrors (Negar Azarbayjani, Iran, 2011)
Mustang (Denis Gamze Erguven, 2015)
Beaufort (Joseph Cedar, Isreal, 2007)
Lebanon (Samuel Maoz, Isreal, 2009) –ON GOOGLE DRIVE
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz, Israel, 2014)
Paradise Now (Hany Abu Assad, Palestinian Territories, 2005)
The Time that Remains (Elia Suleiman, Palestinian Territories, 2009)
Divine Intervention (Elis Suleiman, Palestinian Territories, 2002)
The Circle (Jafar Panahi, Iran, 2000)
No One Knows About Persian Cats (Bahman Ghobadi, Iran 2009)
Et Maintenant on va ou? (Nabine Labaki, Lebanon, 2011)
Lectures complémentaires:
Ella Shohat, Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation, revised ed., (1st ed., 1989),
New York and London: I.B. Taurus & Co., 2010
Viola Shafik, Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity, revised ed., Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2007
Mikael Bakhtin, Epic and Novel, in The Dialogic Imagination : Four Essays by M. M. Bakhtin, Michael Holquist (ed.),
Caryl Emerson and Michael Hoquist (trad.), Austin: University of Texas Press, ; Siefried Kracauer, Theory of Film: Redemption of Physical Reality, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997