FAVh021 Film and ecology

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2020
Extent and Intensity
2/0/2. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Ondřej Pavlík, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Pavel Skopal, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Mon 8:00–11:40 C34
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 69 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 4/69, only registered: 0/69, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/69
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 19 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
This course will focus on a branch of research called ecocinema studies. It is a relatively young, rapidly evolving field of study which is concerned with the relationship of film (and media in general), ecology and human perception. For this reason, ecocinema studies is an interdisciplinary field that combines film studies, environmental studies, affect theories or ethics. One of the main goals of ecocinema studies is to broaden the previously dominant anthropological perspective on cinema and to develop a perspective that would be more sensitive to various non-human actors and entities: animals, plants, nature etc. At the same time, such perspective strives to be both aesthetic and political, transnational or even planetary. The series of lectures will introduce various theoretical concepts that can help us to see, analyze and interpret films from an ecocritical point of view. The course will also deal with many different kinds of films and their relation to ecology, from documents and catastrophic spectacles to art cinema. The lectures will be supplemented with regular screenings of selected films.
Learning outcomes
Students will be able to thoroughly understand how to approach films and cinema from an ecocritical perspective. They will be able to think about it in historical terms and they will be able to use some of the basic theoretical approaches to these films.
Syllabus
  • Introduction to Ecocinema studies
  • Theoretical approaches: aesthetics, ethics and politics
  • Eco-genres: film documentary, sci-fi, horror, animation, art cinema, slow cinema
  • Institutional context: festivals, technologies, carbon footprint
Literature
    recommended literature
  • Affective ecocriticism : emotion, embodiment, environment. Edited by Kyle A. Bladow - Jennifer K. Ladino. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2018, xi, 343. ISBN 9781496206794. info
  • LATOUR, Bruno. Down to Earth : politics in the new climatic regime. Translated by Catherine Porter. Cambridge: Polity, 2018, x, 128. ISBN 9781509530564. info
  • IVAKHIV, Adrian J. Ecologies of the moving image : cinema, affect, nature. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2013, xii, 418. ISBN 9781554589050. info
  • Framing the worldexplorations in ecocriticism and film. Edited by Paula Willoquet-Maricondi. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, xvii, 258. ISBN 9780813930664. info
Teaching methods
lectures, film screenings
Assessment methods
essay or test
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2020/FAVh021