Screening Social Justice in the Spanish-Speaking World

This course engages students with social justice issues in the Spanish-speaking world (the US, Latin America, and Spain), analyzing recent films addressing topics such as: racial, gender, and sexual identities; socioeconomic inequality; immigration, the border, and displacement; civil conflict, dictatorship, and their aftermath; the environment and climate change; postcolonial legacies and the impact of neoliberalism and globalization. We will analyze the stories these films tell and how they tell them, asking whether film can be considered an activist project, and what effect it might have on legal, political, and social debates outside the walls of the cinema. While some knowledge of Spanish is a plus, it is not required, as films are subtitled and readings and course materials are in English.