Spanish and Latin American Cinema (SPAN30023)

This subject gives students majoring in Spanish and Latin American Studies the opportunity to reflect on their language/culture achievements and to engage in a guided learning program which uses Spanish-language cinema as a vehicle for in-depth cultural and linguistic understanding. Cinema is one of the most important forms of cultural expression in the Spanish and Latin American World, and is used to tell complex social, political, cultural, economic and personal stories. This subject will inspire students to reflect on their language/culture learning experience while completing their major and revisit the film and culture components present in all core and elective Spanish and Latin American Studies subjects.

During the semester, students are guided in the holistic study of a representative film or group of films from the Spanish-speaking world. This study entails exploring major and emerging Spanish-language cinemas from a variety of aesthetic and industrial perspectives; understanding the culture-society nexus; identifying local varieties of spoken Spanish; and evaluating the transnational value of specific national cinemas. This is a project-based subject, and the assessment is codesigned by students, in that they are able to identify their preferred areas of study and avenues of exploration at the beginning of the semester. The major assessment task involves a professional level presentation based on the group project. Students will have the opportunity to show their work at the Latin American Film Festival.

This subject is the Capstone subject in the Spanish and Latin American Studies major.