AIIS 170: Film & Cinema Through The Indigenous Lens

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Class Program

American Indian Indigenous Studies

Credits

Weekly Contact Hours

Course ID

111361

Meets Degree Requirements For

Diversity,

Humanities

Description

Analyze American Indian and Indigenous representation in film through the eras of American cinema. Presentation of storylines, images, languages, people, and places are explored from classic westerns through contemporary Indigenous-produced films. The ongoing impacts of the full range of these films are assessed within diverse audiences and collective society.

Grading Basis

Graded

Course Learning Outcomes

Critically analyze a variety of films and synthesize connections to course themes.

Recognize and explain the conscious and subconscious impacts of the specific use of storylines, images, language, people, and places in film on both Native and non-Native audiences.

Compare and contrast cinematic techniques used by Native and non-Native filmmakers, and the intersections with lived reality.

Identify and dissect the persistence and influence of Indigenous stereotypes though the eras and genres of American cinema.

Assess the decolonization of the cinematic lens by Indigenous filmmakers, and the impacts this reclaiming of one’s own image has on representations of Indigenous peoples and cultures.

Core Topics

Wide-ranging representation of the Indigenous image through the eras and genres of American cinema.
The influence these varied portrayals have on the way Indigenous peoples are seen in mainstream American society.
The similarities and differences in choice of storylines, images, language, people, and places between non-Native and Native-produced films.
The effect and meaning of self-determining the Indigenous image through Indigenous-produced films.