American Neorealism

3 credits · Undergraduate

Explores how a particular film style (Italian neorealism) traveled across the Atlantic and became a powerful means of narrating the lives and experiences of diverse individuals and communities that are often left out of Hollywood's depictions of everyday life in the US. Focus on how neorealist technique (non-professional actors, location shooting, durational shots, “everyday” characters and speech, etc.) is used to bring to the center the vibrant contours, sounds, and textures of lives lived at the margins. Films and topics may vary from semester to semester, but will always focus on histories, experiences, and representations of and by minoritized identities.