Winter Break 2016
Introduction
The cinemas of Chile and Argentina have experienced a dramatic resurgence over the last decade as filmmakers work to explore issues of class, gender, and national identity. Our goal in the courses and off-campus study trip is to start an investigation of how these two Latin American countries view cinema from industrial, aesthetic, cultural, and personal contexts. The Fall term course offers a broad historical and cultural overview of Chile and Argentina and the December study trip and Winter term course concentrate on examining mainstream, alternative, and independent/marginal cinemas and the cultural movements that seek to enact change in both countries.
Course of Study
12 Credits
Fall Term Course, 6 credits
CAMS 295: Cinema in Chile and Argentina – Representing and Reimagining Identity
Through an examination of fiction and documentary films, this course offers a broad historical and cultural overview of Chile and Argentina. The course examines significant political events, cultural developments, and cinema movements including the rise and decline of the politically-engaged New Latin American Cinema movement of the late 1960s, the cinematic diaspora of the 1970s and 1980s, the cultural and artistic responses after the return to democracy, the commercial consolidation of each country’s film industry and cultural production in the 1990s, and recent attempts to create a local audiovisual language with an international appeal.
During the Fall term, students choose topics to research over Winter Break; these topics will be further developed in Winter term when back on campus. Students can choose to work on an academic paper, audio-visual presentation, curatorial exhibition, translation, interview, or other project.
Winter Term Course, 6 Credits ( Includes 2 weeks winter break trip)
CAMS 296: Cinema and Cultural Change in Chile and Argentina
In order to bring the students into contact with the cultural and social discourses subtending the films seen in the Fall term, this course begins with a study trip to Santiago, Chile, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the first two weeks in December 2014. The study trip will concentrate on examining mainstream, alternative, and independent/marginal cinemas and the cultural movements (student rights organizations, Mapuche/indigenous communities, economic protestors and piqueteros) that seek to enact change in both countries. Our time will be spent visiting filmmakers, producers, scholars, cinematheques, and cultural organizations that directly shape filmmaking practices and cultural production in both countries. We will also visit museums, attend screenings and musical performances, and visit neighborhoods of cinematic, cultural, and historical significance.
Following the two-week trip to Chile and Argentina, this course will meet once early in winter term, and then involves individual meetings with the faculty during the first five weeks. The course then meets regularly during the second half of winter term, when students formally present their projects followed by a group discussion.
Faculty Directors
Jay Beck and Cecilia Cornejo, Cinema & Media Studies
Jay Beck teaches Film History III, Contemporary Global Cinemas, American Cinema of the 1970s, American Film Comedy, Spanish Cinema, Rock ‘n’ Roll in Cinema, Film Sound Studies, and Sound Design. His research includes work on film sound, interdisciplinary sound studies, popular music studies, American cinema, Spanish cinema, genre studies, the Western, film technology, and radio studies. He has co-edited two book collections, Lowering the Boom: Critical Studies in Film Sound (with Tony Grajeda) and Contemporary Spanish Cinema and Genre (with Vicente Rodríguez Ortega). His current book project focuses on changes in film sound practices in the 1960s and 70s.
Dates
Program will take place during the first part of December. Specific dates will be communicated to program participants.
Costs
All Carleton-sponsored winter break programs cover the costs of instruction, lodging, some meals, group excursions, public transportation, medical and evacuation insurance, travel assistance, and most cultural events.
Students are responsible for passports and visas (when required), books and supplies, transportation to and from the program sites, and personal expenses during the program. Students will receive a program-specific Additional Cost Estimate at the time of acceptance.
Financial assistance is available. See the Off-Campus Studies website for further information on billing, financial aid, and scholarships.