Religion, Film & Media @ SJSU Online Fall 2016
Class Meets Fully Online Starting August 24, 2016!
We will:
- Identify the roles of religions & religious symbolism in film & media
- Critically analyze themes & issues including: religion & gender, religion & culture/ethnicity/race, religion & nature, religious conflict, etc.) as defined & depicted in film & media;
- Identify & compare both explicit & implicit meanings, messages, & interpretations
- Evaluate the relationship between religion, film, & media in the current and shifting cultural, social, & political climate.
Films to be studied include (among others):
Agora (2009): Pagan philosopher Hypatia & the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria during the rise of Christianity.
Even the Rain (2010): Spanish film crew shooting movie about Columbus gets caught up in modern-day indigenous uprising.
The Way (2010): A father makes peace with his son’s death and his own estrangement from Catholicism on pilgrimage in northern Spain
Malcolm X (1992): The life & death of activist Malcolm X and his conversion to Islam
Selma (2014): The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights movement, & the black church
Black Orpheus (1959): The Greek myth of Orpheus & Eurydice retold against the backdrop of the Brazilian Carnival
Daughters of the Dust (1991): Ancient African religious themes inform a family’s struggle to reconcile past, present, & future. (an inspiration for Beyoncé’s Lemonade!!) 🍋🍋🍋
Syllabus/Greensheet
- [PDF to be posted]