Note: schedule is subject to change.
For updates and links to readings, please visit the class website: http://www.openmediaeducation.net/cms345/
Week 1: Film and the Environment: Situating Ecocinema Studies, What Counts as Ecocinema?
Film: Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1982)
Reading:
Scott Macdonald, “The Ecocinema Experience,” Ecocinema Theory and Practice
David Ingram, “The Aesthetics and Ethics of Eco-film Criticism” in Ecocinema Theory and Practice
Rust, Monani, and Cubitt, “Introduction,” Ecocinema Theory and Practice, 1-13
Week 2: Tracing the Tradition of Ecocriticism
Film: An Inconvenient Truth, (Davis Guggenheim, 2006)
Reading:
Willoquet-Maricondi, “Introduction,” Framing the World, 1-25 (e-book reserve)
Minster, “The Rhetoric of Ascent in An Inconvenient Truth and Everything’s Cool,” 25-42, Framing the World (e-book reserve)
Murray and Heumann, “Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth and its Sceptics: A Case of Environmental Nostalgia,” 195-206, Ecology and Popular Film (e-book reserve)
Week 3: Visualizing Global Environmental Change in Hollywood Cinema
Film: The Day After Tomorrow (Roland Emmerich, 2004)
Reading:
Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann, “Introduction,” Ecology and Popular Film (e-book reserve)
Pat Brereton, “Environmental Ethics and Eco-Cinema” and “End of the World Scenarios and the Precautionary Principle” in Environmental Ethics and Film (e-book reserve)
Stephen Rust, “Hollywood and Climate Change,” Ecocinema Theory and Practice, 191-211
Ines Crespo and Angela Pereira, “Climate Change Films: Fear and Agency Appeals,” Transnational Cinema
Week 4: The Big Picture: Theory and Philosophy; Sci-fi and Postmodernism
Film: Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017)
Reading:
Adrian Ivakhiv, “An Ecophilosophy of the Moving Image: Cinema as Anthrobiogeomorphic Machine” in Ecocinema Theory and Practice
Pat Brereton, “Postmodern Science Fiction Films and Ecology,” Hollywood Utopia (e-book reserve)
Week 5: Eco-Horror and Biotech
Film: Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow, 2015)
Reading:
Carter Soles, “Sympathy for the Devil,” Ecocinema Theory and Practice
Sean Cubitt, “Are We Not Men?”, EcoMedia (PDF)
Short paper #1 due
Week 6: The Hollywood Blockbuster: Wilderness
Film: The Revenant, (Alejandro G. Iñárittu, 2015)
Reading:
David Ingram, “Wilderness in Hollywood Cinema,” Green Screen, 13-35 (e-book reserve)
Willoquet-Maricondi, “Shifting Paradigms from Environmentalist Films to Ecocinema,” 43-61, Framing the World (e-book reserve)
David Ingram, “Wilderness in Hollywood Cinema,” Green Screen, 36-68 (e-book reserve)
Week 7: Nature Writes the Screenplays: Wildlife and Documentary Filmmaking
Film: March of the Penguins (Luc Jacquet, 2005)
Reading:
Claire Molloy, “Nature Writes the Screenplays,” Ecocinema Theory and Practice
Luis Vivanco, “Penguins are Good to Think With,” Ecocinema Theory and Practice
Week 8: Documentaries cont.
Film: Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005)
Reading:
Pat Brereton, “Appreciating the Views: Filming Nature in Into the Wild, Grizzly Man, and Into the West,” Ecocinema and Practice, 213-232
Henry, “Constructions of Nature in Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man,” 170-186, Framing the World (e-book reserve)
Midterm: View Okja and answer questions in exam booklet.
Week 9: Companion Species and Wilderness
Film: The Cove (Louie Psihoyos, 2009)
Reading:
Jennifer Ladino, “Working with Animals” and Nicole Starsielski, “A Cultural History of
Underwater Cinema” in Ecocinema Theory and Practice
Short paper #2 due
Week 10: Animation
Film: Princess Mananoki (Hayao Miyazaki, 2000)
Reading:
Murray and Heumann, “Introduction,” That's All Folks?: Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features, 1-28 (e-book reserve)
Murray and Heumann, “Bambi and Mr. Bug Goes to Town,” That's All Folks?: Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features, 29-48 (e-book reserve)
Bruckner, “Bambi and Finding Nemo: A Sense of Wonder in the Wonderful World of Disney,” Framing the World, 187-208 (e-book reserve)
Week 11: The Transnational Turn in Ecocinema Studies
Film: Dirty Pretty Things (Stephen Frears, 2002)
Reading:
Pietari Kääpä and Tommy Gustafsson, “Introduction” and Pietari Kääpä “Transnational
Approaches to Ecocinema” in Transnational Ecocinema
“Disposable Bodies: in The Conatant Gardner and Dirty Pretty Things,” Framing the World (e-book reserve)
Week 12: Ecojustice: Latin America and Water Politics
Film: Even the Rain (También la lluvia, Icíar Bollaín, 2010); Abuela Grillo (The Animation Workshop, 2009) (https://vimeo.com/11429985)
Reading:
Roberto Forns-Broggi, “Ecocinema and ‘Good Life’” in Transnational Ecocinema
Andrew Hageman, “Ecocinema and Ideology” in Ecocinema Theory and Practice
Week 13: Indigenous Cinema
Film: Awake, A Dream from Standing Rock (Myron Dewey and Josh Fox, 2017)
Reading:
Jennifer A. Machiaorlatti, “Ecocinema, Ecojustice, and Indigenous Worldviews: Native and First Nations Media as Cultural Recovery,” Framing the World (e-book reserve)
Pat Brereton, “Westerns, Landscapes and Road Movies,” Hollywood Utopia (e-book reserve)
Short paper #3 due
Week 14: The Environmental Impact of Media Production
Films: Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground (University of British Columbia for Frontline/PBS, 2010) Reading:
Richard Maxwell and Toby Miller, “Screens,” Greening the Media, 65-85
Hunter Vaughn, “5000,000 Kilowatts of Stardust: An Ecomaterilaist Reframing of Singing in the Rain,” Sustainable Media (e-book reserve)