Media and film studies
Cinema and Climate
Module code: P5093
Level 5
15 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Seminar, Film
Assessment modes: Coursework
You’ll take an eco-critical approach to cinema, examining its status both as image object and material object.
The module’s premise is that cinema is not only a representational art, it is also a material one. In both cases, it has real world effects.
We’ll consider three media ecologies concerning cinema's effects on climate:
- social – mainstream and general representations of climate in cinema and its attempts to shift beliefs and behaviours in relation to the climate crisis
- perceptual – cinema and video that attempts to change the viewer’s way of perceiving their world. For example, slow cinema that decentres the human, eco-feminist and indigenous films
- material – the environmental footprint of making and watching film.
Module learning outcomes
- Demonstrate an appropriate understanding of the key themes, issues, and debates related to representation of the climate crisis in film and media
- Identify major issues related to the material effects of climate crisis on film and/or media industries as well as the material effects of the film and/or media industries on the climate crisis
- Identify and analyse major films, media and watershed events that have influenced the field and analyse their contribution to the debates on climate change
- Plan and realise an independent research project that applies critical approaches encountered in the module, constructing an analysis and argument in an original case study.