LFU:online

The course is addressed to BA and LA students interested in the medium of cinema and the Latin American historical and socio-cultural situation. As the students confront themselves with the historical and social aspects of the different countries of Latin America presented in films, as well as train their ability to think critically. Moreover, they should apprehend the enormous potential that cinema has to offer for diffusion of culture in general.

Cinema expresses the cultural identity of a country and reflects its historical background. This medium acts as a time machine that allows us to visit different historic periods. In their own way, films are like the pieces of a puzzle, more or less relevant and representative, of a bigger whole. A film offers unique opportunities to analyse sociocultural facts, their special imagery and language world and, in this way, improve the students’ listening skills in a real context.
In this course, we will focus on the history and socio-political conditions of Latin America.

In the first lectures a historical overview will be provided while the 10 films will be inserted within this panorama. The students watch the chosen films at home. Then, the individual films will be discussed and analysed during the lesson on a weekly basis. In particular, the special representation of historical events, how the sociocultural background is shown in the presentation of history by the director, how important issues are dealt with, how the narrative planes and the flows go, the presentation of messages etc. In groups, we will discuss about the representation of historical events in the films.

The evaluation will include active participation in lessons, home assignments and a written final test.

will be announced