Universität Wien

170535 UE Film as anti-racist and feminist artistic practice on the fence (2023W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 17 - Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 30 participants
Language: German

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

The initial discussion session takes place on Thursday 12 October 2023.

Furthermore there will be an additional session on Friday 01 December at the University of applied Arts, Vordere Zollamtstraße 7, Seminarraum 24/EG (Film and discussion with the directors: Yeter Güneş, AT 2022, by Bernadette Dewald, Louis Hofbauer and Lilly Axster, 11:00-14:30). Note: This session I highly recommend to you, but it is not obligatory. Alternatively you watch the film online and write a short paper discussing it.

Optional: We visit two films at the film festivals Viennale and Queertactics, as well as the exhibition Ancestral Clouds Ancestral Claims by Denise Ferreira da Silva & Arjuna Neuman at Kunsthalle Wien.

  • Thursday 12.10. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 3 2H467 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 19.10. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 3 2H467 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 09.11. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 3 2H467 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 16.11. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 3 2H467 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 23.11. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 3 2H467 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 30.11. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 3 2H467 UZA II Rotunde
  • Friday 01.12. 11:00 - 14:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Thursday 07.12. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 3 2H467 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 14.12. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 3 2H467 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 11.01. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 3 2H467 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 18.01. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 3 2H467 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 25.01. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 3 2H467 UZA II Rotunde

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

“I wasn’t born to look the other way. I was born to help shape the world, based on a specific ethical position.” (Rúbia Salgado, in: Moments of Resistance, AT 2019)

In this seminar we will be looking at antiracist and feminist film and media works from the fields of art, cinema and activism past and present. We will analyse – individually, together, and in groups – how our viewpoints are shaped (in part) by our own history and positionedness within society, and how this knowledge can help us develop a critical visual idiom and position.

How does the past live on in the present? How do personal and social histories influence our current perception, thinking and agency? When dealing with these questions, transhistorical and intersectional approaches are vital. In the seminar we will be researching, comparing and applying feminist and antiracist methods of representational critique. Instead of starting by “zero” again and again, we will be creating transhistorical links. We will recognise friction points between different times and situations. We will discuss differences in aesthetics, social positionedness, content and viewpoint.

Art and theory with a sociopolitical focus often takes an open political form. It can be documentary, fictional or both at the same time. Open means open for critique, but also open for things we do not know or understand. (Ruth Noack, Roger M. Buergel, Jean-Luc Godard). Film as an antiracist and feminist practice on the fence is a statement, a claim that can take different shapes and must be cumbersome enough in order to express radical social critique not only in its content, but also in its visual idiom, its dramaturgy, its editing. Form is more than mere expression of intentions and motivations. At its best, it is more clever than we are (Feridun Zaimoglu), and maybe it is also more political.

Assessment and permitted materials

Readings of films, artworks and texts on the seminar’s core questions and discussions. Research on a film or artwork seen as (part of an) antiracist and feminist practice (present, past, future, i.e. work in process), association of this film or artwork with a core text or extracted concepts and presentation of a seminar paper.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Presentation of a seminar paper on a film or artwork and an associated text (60 %). Regular and active participation in the seminar’s discussions (20 %). To articulate critical interest in your colleagues’s papers and contributions is vital (20 %). Seminar papers and presentations are to be delivered by the date and time you agreed upon. For a positive overall mark, all these parts of your seminar participation are necessary. Do not miss more than 2 90-minute sessions (max.).

Examination topics

Knowledge of films, artworks and texts, and of the seminar’s core discussions and methods. (Some materials will be available on moodle, others you can find in libraries and on the internet. Listed literature and films to be added on during the semester.)

Reading list

Films:

Wer putzt das kritische Museum?, A 2023, by das kollektiv and maiz (in German)
Yeter Güneş, A 2022, by Bernadette Dewald, Louis Hofbauer and Lilly Axster (in Turkish and German with German subtitles)
FtWTF, A 2015, by Katharina Lampert and Cordula Thym (in German with English subtitles)
Privilege, USA 1990, by Yvonne Rainer (in English)
Was sollen wir denn machen ohne den Tod?, D 1979, by Elfi Mikesch (in German)
Ganz Wien, A 2022, by Isabella Burtscher (in German)
Operation Spring, A 1998, by Angelika Schuster and Tristian Sindelgruber (in German)
White Dog, USA 1982, by Samuel Fuller (in English)
Meeting the Man. James Baldwin in Paris, GB 1970, by Terence Dixon (in English with German subtitles)
Der letzte der Ungerechten, F 2013, by Claude Lanzmann (in French and German with German subtitles)
Things. Places. Years, A 2005, by Klub Zwei (in English with German subtitles)
Jenseits des Krieges, A 1996, by Ruth Beckermann (in German)
Totschweigen, A 1994, by Margareta Heinrich and Eduard Erne (in German with English subtitles)

Texts:

Arendt, Hannah, “The Aftermath of Nazi Rule. Report from Germany.” In: Commentary, October 1950
Baldwin, James, Another Country, New York 1962
Fink, Dagmar, Cyborg werden, Bielefeld 2021, (in German)
Green, Renée, Other Planes of There: Selected Writings, Durham/NC and London 2014
Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Encarnación, Steyerl, Hito (Hg.), Spricht die Subalterne Deutsch?, Muenster 2003, (in German)
Minh-ha, Trinh T., When the Moon Waxes Red: Representation, Gender, and Cultural Politics, New York/London 1991
Peters, Kathrin and Seier, Andrea (Hg.), Gender & Medien Reader, Zurich/Berlin 2015 (in German)
Piper, Adrian, Out of Order, Out of Sight, Volume I and Volume II, Cambridge/Mass. 1996
Salgado, Rúbia, Aus der Praxis im Dissens. Literarische und politische Texte, Vienna 2015 (in German)
Schaffer Johanna, Ambivalenzen der Sichtbarkeit, Bielefeld 2008 (in German)
Schmeiser, Jo, (Hg.) Conzepte. Neue Fassungen politischen Denkens, Vienna 2015 (available in English at: www.conzepte.org)
Spence, Jo, Beyond the Perfect Image. Photography, Subjectivity, Antagonism, Barcelona 2005
Steyerl, Hito, „Eliminatorischer Exotismus. Besserweissi: fuck off“. In: Zweite Hilfe. Hysterieblatt für die absteigenden Mittelschichten 2, S. 37-39, 1997 (in German)

Association in the course directory

Last modified: We 11.10.2023 15:47