FMST 802 Feminist and Queer Media: A Counter-Lineage in Moving Image History

Offered: 2021 /4
Credits: 3

This seminar examines a vibrant yet overlooked area within the history of the moving image, that of practices, activities, and works produced, circulated, and promoted by film and video media associations, groups, and festivals associated with feminist, lesbian, queer, and LGBTQ identity politics and activism. The common purpose of these gender-oriented media centers and activities was to create new spaces for women and gendered subjects in society and in visual culture, using grassroots systems and networks and drawing on changing technologies available in film and video.

This course will illustrate the trajectory of feminist and queer media through the analysis of a series of case studies selected among the many organizations that have emerged since the 1970s, worldwide. Another focus will be the discussion of methodological difficulties involved in doing research about feminist and queer media groups and associations, due to the ephemerality of these institutions and their practices. Finally, the course will highlight past and present examples of gender-specific radical protest and civil disobedience through the analysis of US Black feminist and queer groups and non-Western instances of grassroots globalization.

While primarily based on the weekly discussion of assigned readings and on students’ presentations of their own projects, the seminar will host guest lectures and group discussions with members of local and international feminist and queer associations such as, for instance, GIV, bildwechsel, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Women Make Movies, as well as with scholars expert in this area of study.

Prerequisite: PhD student

Contact: Rosanna Maule