Seminar (372-0-1)

Topic

Colonialism on Film

Instructors

Rudolf Fernandes
847/491-7346
640 Lincoln St, Evanston Campus

Meeting Info

Locy Hall 314: Wed 9:00AM - 11:50AM

Overview of class

This course examines the role of film as both an instrument of colonial power and a medium for decolonizing narratives. Through screenings, readings, and creative production, students will explore how cinema shapes, reflects, and challenges the histories and ongoing impacts of colonialism. The class considers how film can reclaim agency, amplify marginalized voices, and imagine equitable futures for communities marked by colonial trauma.

Students will engage key questions around representation, belonging, and the politics of visibility: Who controls the camera? What does it mean to return home? How do framing, editing, and sound construct or dismantle systems of domination? The camera will be understood not as a neutral observer but as an active participant that influences and transforms the very histories it seeks to capture.

Combining theoretical and practical approaches, the course situates film within postcolonial and decolonial thought, attending to intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, and diaspora. Screenings from Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, Europe and the Americas will explore themes of hegemony, sovereignty, freedom, and resistance.

Students will produce short films and critical writing projects that challenge inherited systems of representation, developing a nuanced understanding of how moving-image media can serve as a tool for social and political transformation.

Class Materials (Required)

No course costs.

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area
Attendance at 1st class mandatory