Module 4
More often than not, the function of the cinematic experience is to construct a space which invites, if not implores, viewers into the world of film and out of the world around them, leaving behind, however briefly, the world as is for the (wonderful) world of — you know the rest! Whether cast or projected onto the big screen in a theater or, as is increasingly the case, streamed on any number of devices, playing from an even more elusive, immaterial source, the aim of most all films, even non-fiction films, is to create a fantastical sense of an infinite possibility beyond that which we encounter on our day to day outside of the space-time of the cinematic experience—this is the purported gift of cinema. In this module, though, we’ll be looking the proverbial gift horse in the mouth, questioning the varied economies that, in fact, endlessly circumscribe film from major Hollywood productions to independent, art-house projects.
Study
Wong, “Festivals as Public Spheres” in Film Festivals: Culture, People, and Power on the Global Screen
Wasko, “Introduction” and “The Transitional Period and the Growth of Independent Production (1940-1960)” from Movies and Money: Financing the American Film Industry
Optional:
Dean Spade, “Pinkwashing Exposed” watch here
Discussion
How is it that the films we watch come into view?
What behind the scenes conversations are had and what decisions are made which determine what scripts get financed, developed, filmed, distributed, promoted?
What modes of accumulation, what libidinal and political economies, what un/conscious determinations give shape to what it is we experience in and through films?
How might we go about holding in tension the content and cinematic structure of film, the un/conscious desires of the various parties who make films, and the labor as well as monetary and material resources necessary to make films?
What is the role of festivals in the political economy of film?
What is your experience with film festivals? Whether Jaha is your first or not, how do your experiences of film festivals compare to the multilayered dimensions of festivals brought out in Wong’s writing?
What is the relationship between film production and governance/state craft, whether through the production of citizens, racial categories, gender identities, sexuality, norms of being, etc?