This seminar is a textual and cinematic study of specific categories of ineffable experiences. We will study altered states of consciousness, unexplainable phenomena, and unfathomable human experience, and analyze their representation in cinema. Grounded in film analysis and psychological, philosophical, and historical readings, we will address screenwriting, genre, lighting, and other cinematic devices used to explore esoteric questions of transcendence as depicted in film. We will confront the limits of human knowledge and the beliefs and mythologies that manifest beyond this threshold. We will watch films by: Maya Deren, Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch, Nagisa Ōshima, Nobuhiko Obayashi, Jennifer Reeder, Lars Von Trier, and Apichatpong Weresethakul. Students will write short responses to readings and scenes, and will create short video projects where they will formulate conceptual and formal tactics to illustrate novel personal interpretations of these experiences.
Learning Outcomes:
● Develop a toolkit for formal film analysis and discussion, understanding concepts in genre, screenwriting, performance, camera, lighting, sound, and special effects.
● Study specific categories of ineffable experiences (altered states, monsters, ghosts, eroticism, personal mythologies, spiritual practices, and others), through seminal writings in psychology, philosophy, and history.
● View and analyze films, locating linguistic, imagistic, and aural elements commonly used to depict ineffable experiences.
● Develop original conceptual and formal strategies in filmmaking and practice methods for working intuitively.
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Prerequisites:
Visual Culture, Art History, or equivalent.
Course Level: 4000-level
Credits: 4
Th 8:30AM - 12:10PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 15
Course Frequency: One time only
Categories: 4000 , All courses , Film and Video , Four Credit , Fully In-Person , New Courses , Updates
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