FMST 044. Poverty and Precarity on Screen

Cinema has been well suited to depicting glamour, opulence, and wealth. But what about the widespread situation of being poor and living on the brink of being even worse off? This course explores how poverty and economic precarity have been represented in narrative film from the 1930s to the present, including Hollywood film in the era of the Great Depression and the New Deal, neorealism, surrealism, Third Cinema, the LA Rebellion, and New Korean Cinema. How does attention to poverty inform aesthetic and narrative form? What are the social and political implications of how film addresses economic inequality? Our focus will be on narrative film, but students will have the opportunity to consider other audiovisual media for the final essay project.
Prerequisite: FMST 001 or instructor permission.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Catalog chapter: Film and Media Studies
Department website: https://swarthmore.edu/film-media-studies

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