To offer an overview of the history of Chilean and Argentine cultures and cinemas from the 1960s through the present;
To equip students with a variety of critical and cultural approaches for interpreting and analyzing Chilean and Argentine films and cinematic practices; and,
To develop and complete a major research or creative project based on the course materials and study trip to be presented at the CAMS 295/296 Winter Symposium.
This seminar is open to all Carleton students, but preference will be given to those with a demonstrated interest in cinema studies and/or production. Students are encouraged to take CAMS 110: Introduction to Cinema and Media Studies and/or CAMS111: Digital Foundations in advance of the program.
12 Credits
Fall Term Course, 6 credits
CAMS 295: Cinema in Chile and Argentina – Representing and Reimagining Identity
Through an examination of fiction and documentary films, this course offers a broad historical and cultural overview of Chile and Argentina. The course examines significant political events, cultural developments, and cinema movements including the rise and decline of the politically-engaged New Latin American Cinema movement of the late 1960s, the cinematic diaspora of the 1970s and 1980s, the cultural and artistic responses after the return to democracy, the commercial consolidation of each country’s film industry and cultural production in the 1990s, and recent attempts to create a local audiovisual language with an international appeal.
During the Fall term, students choose topics to research over the December break; these topics are developed further in Winter term when back on campus. Students can choose to work on an academic paper, a video project, translation, curatorial exhibition, or another creative project approved by the faculty.
Winter Term Course, 6 Credits (Includes 2-week winter break trip)
CAMS 296: Cinema and Cultural Change in Chile and Argentina
This course is the second part of the two-term sequence beginning with Cinema in Chile and Argentina. In order to bring the students into contact with the cultural and social discourses subtending the films seen in the Fall term, this course begins with a study trip to Santiago, Chile, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the first two weeks in December 2019. The study trip will concentrate on examining mainstream, alternative, and independent/marginal cinemas and the cultural movements that seek to enact change in both countries.
The Winter term course meets as a group early in the term and then involves individual meetings with the faculty during the first five weeks. Paper drafts, rough cuts and preliminary curatorial work are due after mid-term break. The course then meets regularly during the second half of winter term, when students formally present their projects to each other followed by a public gallery show and symposium in weeks nine and ten.
Jay Beck and Cecilia Cornejo, Cinema and Media Studies
Jay Beck is chair of Cinema and Media Studies, and he teaches Introduction to Cinema and Media Studies, Film History III, American Cinema of the 1970s, Spanish Cinema, Cinema in Chile and Argentina, Rock ‘n’ Roll in Cinema, Film Sound Studies, and Sound Design. His research includes work on film sound, interdisciplinary sound studies, popular music studies, American cinema, Spanish cinema, and Latin American cinema. He is the author of Designing Sound: Audiovisual Aesthetics in 1970s American Cinema and has co-edited two book collections, Lowering the Boom: Critical Studies in Film Sound and Contemporary Spanish Cinema and Genre. He is co-founder of the Sound Studies Special Interest Group in the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and the American co-editor for the journal Music, Sound, and the Moving Image.
Cecilia Cornejo is a Chilean-born documentary filmmaker, artist, and translator. She teaches Digital Foundations, The Essay Film, Documentary Studies, and Cinema and Cultural Change in Chile and Argentina. With ties to both the American Midwest and the central coast of Chile, Cecilia’s work explores notions of displacement and belonging and is rooted in the experience of living in-between cultures. Her films have shown locally and abroad at venues such as MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight, Minneapolis-St Paul International Film Festival, Festival de Cinema Pobre (Cuba), Melbourne Latin American Film Festival (Australia), FIDOCS (Chile), L’Alternativa (Spain), Arsenale (Berline), InVideo (Italy), and 1588 Minutes de Cinema Chilien Documentaire (France). Cecilia is the recipient of an Established Artist Grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (2014), a Jerome Foundation Film, Video, and Digital Media Grant (2017), and Artist Initiative Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board (2016 and 2018).
Students will stay in student residences and hostels.
Our time in Buenos Aires and Santiago will be spent visiting filmmakers, producers, scholars, cinematheques, studios, and cultural organizations that directly shape filmmaking practices and cultural production in Argentina and Chile. We will also visit museums, attend screenings and musical performances, and explore neighborhoods of cinematic, cultural, and historical significance.
Program will take place during the first part of December. Specific dates will be communicated to program participants.
All Carleton-sponsored winter break programs cover the costs of instruction, lodging, some meals, group excursions, public transportation, medical and evacuation insurance, travel assistance, and most cultural events.
Students are responsible for passports and visas (when required), books and supplies, transportation to and from the program sites, and personal expenses during the program. Students will receive a program-specific Additional Cost Estimate at the time of acceptance.
Financial assistance is available. See the Off-Campus Studies website for further information on billing, financial aid, and scholarships.
No meetings or deadlines are available at this time. Please check back later.
