CINEMA AND VISUAL CULTURE IN SOUTH-ASIA

This course will guide students through a variety of communication forms and artistic and mediatic expressions specific to certain regions of Asia, providing them with basic knowledge and critical tools to understand the visual culture of Asian societies.

The course aims to provide students - including those coming from different disciplinary areas - with the basic knowledge and critical tools to understand the figurative and visual languages and the forms of representation and narration used in South Asia and delve into the sociological, historical and economic dynamics that have marked its evolution.
Particular attention will be paid to Indian cinema. At the end of the course students will learn the fundamental characteristics of Indian cinematography; they will be able to apply the knowledge acquired in order to independently recognise, interpret and analyse the most representative elements of Indian cinema. They will acquire the specific terminology of sector studies; they will be able to orient themselves among the proposed sources to deepen and update their knowledge independently and to incorporate the analysis tools learned in class into their interpretative experience of social and cultural phenomena and to apply them in their daily media use.

The course does not require specific or methodological skills. However, a good knowledge of the English language is required, which allows understanding of the texts and audiovisual material in the programme.

The course will focus on Indian cinema which, with its over thirty production centers in as many languages, is the largest in the world in terms of number of films produced each year. For the purposes of the analysis, the course will analise a selection of films belonging to both commercial and art cinema. The course will also explore the variety of forms of audiovisual production that have developed in recent years, also thanks to the advent of streaming platforms and the growing interest achieved by India in international festivals, in particular: TV series, documentaries and short films.
Particular attention will be paid to the analysis of the characteristics of popular Hindi cinema, commonly known as Bollywood, which is the most representative and important in terms of success and distribution, even at an international level. Since the mid-1990s, in fact, it has reinvented itself and developed to reach extraordinary levels of quality and popularity. The Bollywood film industry has influenced daily life and culture for decades, playing an important role in shaping opinions and ideologies, both in India and South Asia as a whole.

The complete bibliography and filmography for the exam will be provided during the course and on the university's e-learning platform Moodle.

Assessment will be by means of a final oral examination on the topics covered in class and on the reference bibliography. It will also take into account the student's participation in class.

Frontal classes in which students will be encouraged to interact and participate in discussions, possibly even producing short essays. The topics of the course will be addressed with ample help of audiovisual material.

Italian

Whose unable to regularly attend classes are asked to contact the professor at the beginning of the course in order to discuss the examination programme.

oral