HIST 3520 - Cities and Film

5 credit hours
This course explores cinematic representation of cities. Cities are complex and fascinating entities that have long drawn both admiration and repulsion. Cities are the sites of work, living, and leisure, magnets for migrants, stages for urban spectacles, and showcases for architecture. Main subthemes of this course are architecture, modern spaces, impact of war on cities, gender relations, colonial cities, and, as counterpoints, the countryside or nature including as backdrops to “ethnographic” films. As film is a cultural artifact and a product of creative imagination, it will be studied as a form of art. At the same time, history will be explored through films by situating films in the historical context. Cross-listed with FILM 3019.