This module, taught in English and with fully subtitled films and reading material in English, will allow students to analyze various aspects of German film and moving image culture in the new millennium. It explores developments in recent German filmmaking in the context of the increasing globalization of media industries and images and in the con-text of contemporary cinema’s relationship to other media forms. Students will explore the dynamics of recent German cinema, including its successes at major award ceremonies and at film festivals, its relationship to Hollywood and to other international cinemas, its distinct approach to questions of the audience, of auteurism and of production, and to transnational images, particularly concerning the emergence of Turkish-German filmmaking. Students will also address the representation of politics, terrorism, history, heritage and the national past, the engagement with issues of performance, gender and sexuality, the use of genre and popular commercial film styles, and the re-emergence of a counter cinema in the work of the Berlin School and after. Case studies will be drawn from main-stream narrative films, art cinema, experimental documentary, essay films, gallery installations, and long form tv drama.

Seminar work on current trends will allow students to work independently to research an individual case study of a chosen film and its significance to contemporary German cinema.