Sr Sem: Race, Gender, Film

This course examines the intersecting roles played by race, gender, and sexuality in our media, with particular emphasis placed on film and video. Over the course of the term, we will investigate the ways in which various media texts transmit and construct conceptions of race, gender, and sexuality. As we analyze work by such directors as Julie Dash, Douglas Sirk, Marlon Riggs, Claire Denis, Alfred Hitchcock, and Cheryl Dunye, we will explore the ways in which conceptions of race, gender, and sexuality are facilitated and constrained by legal, medical, and ethical discourses that emerge from specific historical and geographic contexts. In addition to analyzing classical narrative cinema, we will investigate counter-media practices that use form to resist approaches to race, gender, and sexuality found in dominant media platforms and traditions.