Johdatus elokuva-analyysiin: elokuva ja muuttoliike Yhdysvalloissa, 5 op

The primary aim of this lecture course is to introduce students to the basic concepts of film analysis including camera movements and perspectives, editing, light and sound, composition and mise-en-scène, as well as principles of filmic narration, with an emphasis on ways of reading and interpreting the language of cinema. Thematically, we will focus on representations of migrants and migration in American cinema from the early twentieth century to the present day. From its inception, American cinema and migration were closely linked: Hollywood was largely created by immigrants and displayed various American dreams on the big screen; furthermore, during the silent era the cinema was seen as a medium of storytelling that could transcend linguistic and cultural barriers. However, Hollywood’s treatment of migration and immigrants has been ambivalent: oscillating between projections of social, political and economic anxieties onto the figure of the immigrant and portrayals of migration as central to American identities, it has functioned “as a marker of America in its interaction with the wider world” (Richardson) in conflicting ways. At the same time, independent filmmakers from a variety of cultural backgrounds have told stories about migration and migrants that differ markedly from those of mainstream American cinema, both in content and in style. Beginning with early representations of immigrants in films like Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant (1917) and Howard Hawks’s gangster film Scarface (1932), we will go on to examine classic migration films like Gregory Nava’s El Norte (1983) and end with a group of recent films by directors with an immigrant background including Nigerian-American Chinonye Chukwu’s alaskaLand (2012) and Chinese-American Lulu Wang’s The Farewell (2019). We will discuss a different film every week. The lectures will be interactive and include discussions in which students are expected to participate actively. Each lecture will be followed by a screening of the film for the following week (hence the four-hour slot).