Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Race and Gender Study Guide





After the wise and profound words of Father Guido, words which are so perfectly comforting during exam crunch times, here is the much agonized for study guide:

Race and Gender Study Guide

Thursday, November 16, 2017

LGBTQ+ Representation in Film and Television

Cinema, Postmodernism and Television



Nichetti's 'Ladri di Saponette' being broadcast on the Canale5 network: a film about the impact of commercial television as it airs on Italy's preeminent commercial network owned by Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest/Mediaset.

Umberto Eco, "Make Your Own Movie"

For context:
Paul Ginsborg, "The Making of a Television Empire"

The clips below are from Videocracy (2009), a documentary by Erik Gandini.







+ as an addition to our discussion regarding The Conformist/Investigation here is some context on the  1970s and the so-called 'anni di piombo' (the 'lead years') marked by political violence and social conflict:
John Foot, "The Strategy of Tension and Terrorism: Piazza Fontana and the 'Moro Case'"
from John Foot's Italy's Divided Memory

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Fatal Strategies & Slackers: Withdrawing or Accelerating?



Matthias Leupold, Im Kino / In the Cinema, Part II Berlin GDR, 1983
Additional Recommended Baudrillard Readings:

Jean Baudrillard, Requiem for the Media
Jean Baudrillard, The Implosion of Meaning in the Media from Simulacra and Simulation

Please read the section 'Disciplines and Sciences of the Individual' in Part II, particularly the first four segments (from "The Body of the Condemned" to "Panopticism")

Foucault, "The Repressive Hypothesis" from The History of Sexuality, Vol. I

Faster! Faster! Faster!


#Accelerate: Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics (Srnicek & Williams)
Steven Shaviro, "What is Accelerationism?" from No Speed Limit: Three Essays on Accelerationism

Bonus:
Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation (Laboria Cuboniks)

+

What About 'Today'?

Christian Fuchs, "Participatory Web 2.0 as Ideology" from Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies

McKenzie Wark, The Hacker Manifesto

"Every single commodity you produce is a piece of your own death"
"Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy."



Friday, November 10, 2017

Screenings: EPISODE III: ENJOY POVERTY by Renzo Martens in GG1 @7.15pm



Please note the changed day and time of this screening. 
Screening will be on Wednesday, November 15 @7.15pm in GG1.

This is mandatory viewing for all students in both sections of COM 470 Advanced Communication Theory. (For information on the A Ciambra screening see post below)


"Enjoy Poverty: Disclosing the Political Impasse of Contemporary Art" in Art Papers
-an interview with Renzo Martens
Paul O'Kane, "Renzo Martens: Episode III" review in Third Text, 2009
Bonus Interview from the "Africa is a Country Blog" here.

Bonus Reading:



SCREENINGS: A Ciambra by Jonas Carpignano. Monday @7pm in Aula Magna




"The electrifying sophomore feature from rising director Jonas Carpignano (Mediterranea). 14-year-old Pio (Pio Amato) wants nothing more than the respect of his older brother, whom he emulates in every way including his career as a petty criminal. When both his father and brother are arrested, Pio is determined to prove that he can step up and be the head of his sprawling Romani family. But a fateful night and a wrenching decision soon test just how ready he is. Steeped in the complex social fabric of Southern Italy where Italians, Romani, and African migrants coexist in uneasy tension A Ciambra is a bracing plunge into a world in which growing up fast is a matter of survival."

A Ciambra (Jonas Carpignano, USA/Italy, 2017) will be introduced and followed with a q&a by the film's producer, Paolo Carpignano. The film, mostly in the local Calabrese dialects, was distributed in Italian cinemas with Italian subtitles. This is a unique opportunity to see it with English subtitles ahead of its US distribution in 2018 when it will also be the official Italian entry to the 2018 Academy Awards.

This is required attendance for CMS 241 Italian Cinema and CMS 360 Race and Gender in Media students. COM 470 students are strongly encourage to attend.

Jonas Carpignano's first feature, Mediterraneo (2016), which is the first film in the projected trilogy (A Ciambra is the second part) is on reserve in the library for those interested.