| Introduction
Setting
the Stage: Some Questions to Think About
Who determines what is a morally acceptable film?
Must your own values be the same as those expressed in a film
for you to learn from the film or enjoy watching it?
Is is possible for a film to pull you into it’s world and
make you believe something you don’t want to believe?
Introduction
In this era of high-stakes testing, the tendency is to view movies
in the classroom as a distraction, at most a deserved respite
from the serious work of preparing students for the minimum competency
assessments they must pass to graduate. The guiding principle
of this series of modules , however, is that films
provide students an opportunity to think critically about plots
or events, characters, techniques, themes, and social issues.
In other words, bringing movies into the classroom in a viable
and engaging way enables students to build on skills they already
possess—thinking critically, framing arguments, decoding
images—skills essential to success in high school, college,
and the world of work. From a values standpoint, films provide
their viewers, young and old alike, with an opportunity to take
a stand on important and often controversial issues, to accept
or reject radically different interpretations of the world, to
find confirmation of their own beliefs, or begin the process of
questioning long-held assumptions about the world and their place
in it.
This
is a multi-clustered unit that focuses on the use of films in
teaching ethics. We include five films in four modules:
1. Triumph
of the Will (1938, Ger.), and Casablanca
(1942, Amer.)
2. Stand
By Me (1986, Amer.)
3. Mississippi
Burning (1988, Amer.), Spain)
4. The
Merchant of Venice (2004, Brit.).
Each
film provides direct support to standards in secondary language
arts or social studies.
Each module includes film introductions, discussion questions,
project ideas, classroom activities, topics for further study,
writing prompts, and assessment strategies that will provide a
structure for the incorporation of these films into the humanities
classroom. Teachers will, however, have to make their own decisions
about the appropriateness of a particular selection based on course
objectives and learning standards. There are compelling,
even urgent, reasons to teach Leni Riefenstahl’s documentary
Triumph of Will (1938), for instance, in an Advanced
Placement English Language and Composition course. We are
not so sure it belongs in a ninth grade classroom where students
may lack an understanding of film as propaganda.
Students
will be asked to identify the values upheld by each of the five
films and to discuss how a film’s formal elements (photography,
editing, lighting, etc.) make the identification of values possible.
They will be asked to situate films in history both in terms of
their subject matter and their making. (It is critically important
that the action of The Merchant of Venice, for example,
takes place during the Renaissance, but it is just as important
to understand the artistic and political decisions of a director
making the film in 2004.) What is the connection between art and
life? Do directors have ethical responsibilities?
Can a film still be good if its content or message makes us flinch?
How faithful must a so-called historical film be to the event
it purports to represent?
By
thinking critically and broadly about film, students will discover
much about themselves and the world in which they live.
The study of film, like the study of literature or history, leads
us to questions about who we are, what we believe, and where we
need to change. Moving toward an understanding of movies and developing
a vocabulary with which to discuss them will make possible a whole
other avenue of lifelong learning.
Educational
Objectives
Upon completing the Ethics and Film Module students will
be able to:
- Identify
and analyze a film’s hierarchy of values (or ethical scheme).
- Use
vocabulary appropriate to the critical discussion of film.
- Demonstrate
knowledge of the technical vocabulary of film (eg., rough cut,
cutaway close-up, long shot, medium shot, tight shot, diegetic
and nondiegetic sound, etc.)
- Analyze
the connection between a film’s formal or technical elements
and its content.
- Define
propaganda and discuss its characteristics in film.
- Distinguish
the various kinds of documentary films (observational, interactive,
reflexive, expository).
|
