This seminar explores the rich cinematic traditions of Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Brazil, analyzing how film serves as a site of cultural resistance, political critique, and decolonial storytelling. Through screenings of landmark and contemporary films, students will engage with themes of anti-colonial struggle, Indigenous and Afro-Latinx representation, gender and labor politics, and the role of cinema in shaping national identity. We will examine the aesthetics and politics of movements such as Cuban revolutionary cinema (ICAIC), Mexican Third Cinema, Brazilian Cinema Novo, and Indigenous filmmaking in Peru, considering how filmmakers disrupt dominant narratives and propose alternative ways of seeing. Readings will include critical film theory, decolonial thought, and manifestos from Latin American directors. Students will actively participate in discussions, write film critiques, and have the opportunity to create a final project—either a written analysis or a creative response—to the cinematic traditions explored in the course. Key Directors May Include: Sara Gómez, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Glauber Rocha, Lucrecia Martel, Arturo Ripstein, and Claudia Llosa. No prior film experience required—just a passion for cinema and critical inquiry. Critical Ethnic Studies 2000-level seminars introduce students to the complexities and nuances of intersectionality, gender, disability, decolonial theory & philosophy, in imperialist and non-imperialist societies. 2000-level seminars may incorporate one or more of the following interdisciplinary fields of critical ethnic studies: Africana studies, African-American Studies, Asian American studies, Indigenous studies, Chicano/a /x, and Latino /a/x studies, border studies, cultural studies, critical disability studies, critical gender studies, and global racialized and global silenced communities. Courses can be in-person, hybrid, or online.

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