COM-331: Film and Social Change
3 credit hours
In this course, students will explore how motion pictures represent and spark social changes at home and
abroad. Students will be introduced to a series of contemporary motion pictures dealing with human rights
issues, from documentaries about the Holocaust of World War II to films about military slavery and wartime
rape to feature-length works about political refugees and asylum seekers. Students will examine the political
backdrops against which several of these important films emerged and will gain proficiency in analyzing those
films’ aesthetic and formal traits while becoming more sensitively aligned with the struggles and sufferings of
people across national borders. This course can be used to satisfy University Studies requirements.