Lusophone Cinema (level 6)

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 6
• Coordinator: Patricia Sequeira Brás
• Assessment: a 2500-word essay (40%) and a 3500-word essay (60%)

This course examines cinematic productions originating in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and Portugal. The course offers a focus on a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to film, as well as addressing representations of colonialism and decolonisation, neo-colonialism, and nationalism in postcolonial societies with reference to the theoretical debates that have emerged in postcolonial studies.

Indicative module content

• The relationship between cinema and politics
• Postcolonial theory
• Portuguese-speaking African cinema
• Brazilian cinema novo
• Colonisation and decolonisation
• Contemporary History of Portuguese-speaking countries
• National cultural identity
• Memory
• Conflict

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• understand a range of theoretical approaches in film and postcolonial studies
• demonstrate a methodological approach to visual representation
• demonstrate general knowledge of Angolan, Brazilian, Cape Verdean, Mozambican and Portuguese contemporary history and culture.

Primary materials to be studied include those produced by:

• Amílcar Cabral
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
• Frantz Fanon
• Glauber Rocha.

Films to be viewed include:

• Black God, White Devil (1964)
• Sambizanga (1973)
• The Blue Eyes of Yonta (1992).