Night Moves

Meek's Cutoff

Wendy and Lucy

Old Joy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiPng8wQS9I)

Boarding Gate

Clean

Demonlover

Beats Being Dead

Yella

Ghosts

Jerichow: Post all blog entries on Jerichow under this discussion thread.

Purpose of and Instructions for Using this Blog

Welcome to the pre-session 2015 session of 

ENG 239--Film Directors.

Your professor:
Dr. Marco Abel. I'm professor of English and Film Studies, as well as chair of the English Department at UNL. My office is located in 204a Andrews Hall, which is the chair's office in the department's main office (which is 202 Andrews). I've been at UNL since 2004. You can find out more about me here.

The basic course premise:
The course will closely study the oeuvre of three contemporary directors: the German filmmaker, Christian Petzold; the French director, Olivier Assayas; and the US American auteur, Kelly Reichardt. To provide an overriding framework for our conversations about their films, I sub-titled the course "'One Cannot Love Without Money': Desire, Capitalism, and Contemporary World Cinema." The quotation--that one cannot love without money--comes from Petzold's film Jerichow.

The basic idea I hope to capture with this sub-title is the question of how contemporary subjectivity is affected by neoliberal finance capitalism, how, that is, who we are is deeply impacted by what the latest configuration of capitalism is doing to us. Is love possible without sufficient financial resources? How are our desires shaped by the permanent state of (economic) precarity many of us are confronting? What forms of community are possible when people find themselves constantly forced to be mobile, having or being expected to move to "where the jobs are"? And how does contemporary cinema investigate this relationship between the private and the public, between desire and capital(ism), between who "I" am and how "they" want "me" to be? What (new?) forms does it develop in the process, or simply use to dramatize these questions? What answers does it provide? What differences might we notice in how films from different "1st world countries" engage these questions?

You can find the course syllabus and basic policies here. 

How to use this blog:
1. After each day's screening, each of you has to post a blog entry by no later than midnight of the day the film screened. While you may post later than midnight, I will not give you credit for contributions posted after midnight. 

My hope is that each of you will read at least some of your peers' posts (the more you read the better); I myself will of course read all of them, and I will let our in-class conversations be guided by the blog conversations. I believe that the quality and frequency of your in-class participation will benefit from having to express some of your thoughts on the films in writing prior to our in-class discussions.

Each day we will start with a conversation about the film we watched the previous day and will end class with the next film screening.

2. Your posts can vary in length but should contain at least one substantial idea or thought about the film in relation to the course topic. 

You might be able to express such an idea or thought in as little as one fully developed paragraph; or you might be more expansive in your entry and post, say, a short essay of 500-1,000 words. In general, I do not expect that you post such "lengthy" essays each and every time, but I strongly encourage you to consider being more elaborate in your remarks at least once a week. 

Overall I encourage you to balance things out: sometimes you have a lot to say, so you should feel free to do so; at other times you don't have that much to say, so stay brief. Whatever you do, however, your post has to be relevant to the film on which you write and must engage the broader topic of the course. How you engage the topic can vary widely: through close readings of a moment in the film, through working with some of the assigned course readings, through directly responding to what one or more of your peers have argued, or through broader reflections on the film and the course topic. Here, again, I urge you to balance things out.

What is always important is that you ground your arguments and observations in the facts of the film at hand: you need to be able to evidence what you argue. While there is no correct interpretation of any given film (or text more broadly speaking), there are most certainly wrong interpretations. (For example, Moby-Dick is not about my nephew, Cyrus: claiming otherwise would be counter-factual and simply absurd, just as it's absurd to argue the sun revolves around the earth. Such statements are simply false.)

3. In general I hope that you engage each other. In other words, if there are already a number of posts on a given film before you get the chance to post, you should read some of them and see if you cannot build on the existing arguments, whether by adding ideas, arguing with the ideas, filling in gaps, etc. The only thing you are not allowed to do is to attack your peers: you can critique and disagree with arguments, but you need to do so in a respectful manner. Personal attacks and such like will not be tolerated by me.

Keep in mind that the blog is supposed to foster interaction between all members of this course. Act accordingly, please.

4. In week 1 and 3 you get to skip posting on one film screened during that week; in week 2 you will have to post on each of the 3 films that will be screened. Failure to blog on a film (beyond the allowed skips) will result in a lowering of the possible points you can obtain for that week from 100 to 85; so if you missed one post in week two you could get only 85 points that week (and that only if your other two posts were "perfect"). 

5. To ensure that you do some of the assigned readings, your posts have to engage (citations, paraphrases) one or more of the relevant texts (relevant = relevant to the films at hand). Failure to engage assigned texts in meaningful fashion will prevent you from getting full credit for your posts.

6. Since there are no additional writing assignments, you will receive each week a cumulative grade for your blog posts, which will result in three grades (one per week); you will also receive one grade per week for your in-class participation. 

Your final grade will be based on the following formula:

Total blog entries = 75% of final grade (with each week equally weighed)
+
Total in-class participation = 25% of final grade (with each week equally weighed)

7. Class attendance will affect your final grade only if you fail to attend class. I expect you to attend each of the 14 class meetings we have. Missing one class meeting won't have any negative effect on your grade; missing two class meetings will result in a lowering of your final grade by 4 points; missing three class meetings results in an automatic "F" for the course, as that would be more than 20% of our class time (this is per English Department rules). Barring special hardships, the reason for failure to attend class has no bearing on this matter.

8. ACE

*This course satisfies Student Learning Outcome #7 of the ACE program, “Use knowledge, theories, or methods appropriate to the arts to understand their context and significance.”

*Students will study the aesthetics and social significance of the motion picture, and analyze films in detail. Through course lectures, readings, as well as by screening and discussing films, students will gain appropriate knowledge and theories to understand films and their artistic and cultural contexts. Through various writing assignments, students will learn how to write about film and how to use appropriate film terminology. Students will also talk about the wider cultural ramifications—which might include class, race, gender, and sexuality—as they are expressed in film dealing with the issue of globalization.

*Students watch and discuss a film every day. Class sessions will include brief lectures that provide relevant knowledge and context. Films are screened and, as a class, students discuss the work in the context of their readings on related issues in film aesthetics or culture. Students will be expected to carefully analyze the film with regard to the issue of globalization. We are especially interested in what these films disclose regarding the values, concerns, and social customs of the various societies that created them and of the women and men who directed them. Through the writing of daily blog posts, students will have an opportunity to demonstrate the relevant knowledge and skills needed for successful film analysis.

9. Students with Disabilities Policy

Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) provides individualized academic support for students with documented disabilities. Support services can include extended test time, textbooks and handouts in alternative formats (electronic texts, Braille, taped texts, etc), classroom notes, sign language interpreters, and transcriptionists. SSD not only accommodates students that have visible disabilities, but students with other varying types of disabilities that impact college life.

If you have a documented disability that is impacting your academic progress, please call SSD at 472-3787 and schedule an appointment with the Director, Veva Cheney, or the Assistant Director, Barbara Woodhead.

If you do not have a documented disability but you are having difficulties with your coursework (such as receiving low grades even though you study more than your classmates or find you run out of time for test questions when the majority of your peers finish their exams in the allotted time), you may schedule an appointment with Veva. 

10. Office Hours

Since we see each other every day, I propose that rather than having a regular slot set aside for office hours you simply approach me after class if you feel want to talk with me. We can always walk to my office, if necessary.

If you cannot talk with me after class I'd be happy to meet you at other times; please just let me know, either verbally or via email.