Fall 2009

AMS 315 • Asian American Film History

Course Description

This course will consider Asian American film from a historical perspective, and through a variety of theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches - including industrial, reception and textual analysis. Foundational to this course is the belief that film history can only be understood in relation to social structures, identities of sex/gender and nation, and the workings of the film industries.

Using both a chronological and thematic approach, this course will expose students to Asian American films from a number of cinematic genres (romance, horror, comedy) and will allow students to explore a variety of film forms (Hollywood, independent, documentary and experimental cinema), as well as their attendant constraints and freedoms. Key issues discussed will include: stereotypes of Asian Americans in classic Hollywood cinema; oppositional practices of Asian American production and spectatorship; intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality in Asian American films; the exhibition and distribution strategies of Asian American film festivals; and transnational Asian (American) cinema.

Grading Policy

Midtem: 20% Final: 20% Paper 1: 20% Paper 2: 20% Attendance/Participation…20%

Texts

Darrell Hamamoto and Sandra Liu (Eds.), Countervisions: Asian American Film Criticism Peter X. Feng (Ed.), Screening Asian Americans

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