Feminist Ecocinema (MA Seminar)

As notions and practices of cinema evolve into post-cinema, contemporary screen theorists are considering how certain media works affect perceptions: of ourselves, others, our environments, and the planet itself. In this time of 'post-truth' in politics and beyond, alongside the cinema's transitions within the 21st century across diverse global screens, this course interrogates depictions of ongoing power imbalances. To examine intersectional impacts of neoliberalism on humanity and the planet, we will adopt the interdisciplinary cultural movement of ecofeminism as a theoretical and methodological lens through which we can closely assess how moving image works advance environmental justices and feminist resistances. How do social and ecological problems of the Anthropocene result in systemic marginalizations of the planet and the poor, whose numbers predominantly include women, seniors and people with disabilities? Inasmuch as environmental degradation disproportionately impacts the poorest in society, how is trauma inflicted on those living in poverty, and how does poverty progress and expand? Our screenings will address experiences of sexual violence and other forms of environmental and gendered personal and collective subjugation and destruction. In short, we will evaluate the efficacy of post-cinematic and moving image media as forms of resistance that function via various formalist and realist means and transnational genres.