The birth of the movies coincided with one of the great periods of global upheaval and unrest. They were born in a heated political context, and they have carried the traces of that revolutionary impulse ever since. There's something about the medium that conveys hopes, ideals, anger and insurgence like no other art form, and to this day there's no clearer mirror into our collective political dreams, nightmares, fantasies and (yes, every now and then) reality. Starting at the turn of the 20th century and ending in the age of Trump, Shadow States will tell the story of how movies have reflected—and instigated—political change, and the lessons they can teach us in this moment of political uncertainty and turmoil.
This lecture series is presented by film writer Geoff Pevere, who has been writing, teaching and broadcasting about movies, media and popular culture for more than 30 years. A former film critic with The Toronto Star and regular contributor to The Globe and Mail, he runs thebigshadow.com, a website devoted to the depiction of crime in pop culture.
Doors will open one hour before the first class.
Registrants will receive supplementary materials in advance of their first class.
Tuesdays, January 16-February 27
*Please note: no class February 6
January 16: Rise Up: Revolution and the Movies
Movies can stir us to almost anything, but can they really change the world? From the medium's birth, some filmmakers have dedicated themselves to the proposition that the cinema moves more than pictures: it can point us toward change, upheaval and perhaps even a brave new world.
January 23: Who's On First?: How to be Presidential
You can tell a lot about a country according to the ideal leaders it imagines. In America, the process of creating fictional presidents is an especially illuminating glimpse into how the country has dreamed of its best, worst and as-yet-unborn selves.
January 30: Colour Bars: Race and Movies
The full-fledged arrival of the motion picture medium came with D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, a groundbreaking exercise in cinematic storytelling that also had racism at its core. Race, perhaps the most persistently vexing and volatile element in American life, has haunted the movies ever since.
February 13: The Naked Eye: Documentary and Politics
In documentary, the proximity between politics and images may seem closer than ever, but is it really? How does documentary both convey and distort the truth, and how has the form influenced, shaped and driven our impulse for change?
February 20: The American Nightmare: Vietnam and Movies
More than four decades after the last American helicopter lifted off the American Embassy in Saigon, the war has carried on in the recesses of the American imagination. You could take the Americans out of Vietnam, but there was no taking Vietnam out of American movies.
February 27: Six-Gun Justice: The American West as Political Frontier
The twentieth-century's most popular and influential popular genre was the Western: an imagining of the American past that put the mythic American principles to the test. In an especially revealing and vital way, the Western was America talking to itself about itself, injecting politics into the collective dreamscape.
Corresponding Film Screening: The Final Year
Tuesday, February 27 - 1:00 PM & Wednesday, February 28 - 9:00 PM