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Special Topics in Film: Film and Labor
170-001 | CCN: 15479
Sean Lambert
Date and Time: T, W, TH, 1-3:30pm
4 Units
From 1895’s first ever film, Workers Leaving the Factory, to contemporary films like Sorry to Bother You, Atlantics and American Factory, cinema has long held a fascination for workers and labor. This fascination extends beyond the visual: filmmakers and film theorists like Walter Benjamin, Sergei Eisenstein and Siegfried Kracauer have also attempted to theorize a structural relationship between making films, watching films and understanding work. This course will explore the connection between film and labor from a number of angles — including the ways film aestheticizes labor, the role of labor in film production and the relationship of film spectatorship/theory to labor. We will also use film to explore the intersection between labor and various social movements, including those related to gender, race, class and anti-colonialism.
The course fulfills Arts and Literature and L&S Breadth requirements.