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Mondays
November 16 - December 21
7-10 pm

Many argue that the beauty of documentary stems from voyeuristic observation - the camera records, the scene unfolds, the director stays quiet. This classical documentary style, known as cinema vérité, is in direct opposition to the style favored by Les Nouvelles Egotistes. This term, coined by film critic Jon Ronson refers to an informal group of documentary filmmakers who place themselves squarely into their films. Some admire the assertiveness of these filmmakers, others argue that their work is no longer about the reality of what is being filmed, but rather an egotistic tribute to the filmmaker. While polemicist Michael Moore is arguably the most famous documentarian to adopt this style, he is by no means the first. This course will look at noted directors who insert themselves into their films, analyzing the use of this method. We will begin with Kurt and Courtney (1998) created by storied British documentarian Nick Broomfield whose overt technique of courting controversy has helped redefine the narrative style of the contemporary documentary. The course then compares and contrasts Broomfield's work with that of other Nouvelles Egotistes directors: Michael Moore, Moore protégée Louis Theroux, Morgan Spurlock, and Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk whose Manufacturing Dissent (2007) asserts that Moore's tactics are misleading. We conclude with Nina Davenport's Parallel Lines (2004), a film in which she documents her cross-country road trip in the aftermath of 9/11. Davenport's film leads us into an examination of whether Les Nouvelles Egotistes is a tactic primarily favored by male filmmakers, as well as how Davenport's film differs from the male directors we have watched.

Ronit Bezalel has been creating social issue documentaries for over fifteen years. She began her career at the National Film Board of Canada, where she directed When Shirley Met Florence (1994). Her award-winning film, Voices of Cabrini: Remaking Chicago's Public Housing (1999), received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Award to catalyze dialogue about affordable housing issues in 11 different Chicago neighborhoods. Newsweek magazine selected Bezalel as one of the "Top 10 Women of the 21st Century" (Jan 8, 2001) for this work. Her latest film, Mixing it Up is the sequel to Voices of Cabrini. Mixing it Up moves beyond wrecking ball to unfurl the collisions of lives, cultures, and lived realities as people are relocated and communities reconfigured as part of Chicago's decade-long public housing transformation.

Thursdays, November 19 & December 3-17;
Tuesday, December 29;
Wednesday December 30
7-10 pm

Please note: classes will not be held on November 26 or December 24.

Since its emergence, approximately forty years ago, African film has tackled such diverse and difficult issues as "traditional" values, modernity, colonialism, decolonization, the World Bank, assimilation, and post-colonial Africa. In this course we will explore the rich cultural landscape of Africa by reviewing groundbreaking works that have been instrumental in defining African cinema. For the theme of magic, we will examine Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cisse's breathtaking representation of the Bambaran culture and the magical blacksmith cult of the Komo in Yeelen along with Senegalese film pioneer Ousmane Sembene's controversial work Moolaadé about the casting of a powerful magic spell to protect the girls of a village from the village’s traditional practice of female circumcision. For the theme of myth, we will look at two films by the gifted Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambety. In Hyenas, the reign of the hyena devours the small town of Colobane in this fable about the evils of greed and Western consumerism. The myth and allure of Paris is the focus of Mambety’s second work, Touki Bouki, which follows the adventures of a love-struck couple who are based in Dakar but long to escape to the "City of Light." We will also explore the theme of resistance by analyzing two films. The first work, Camp de Thiaroye, by Sembene and Thierno Faty Sow is a representation of the real life struggle of African French colonial soldiers during World War II for equal pay and respect from the French as they awaited their papers to return to their respective countries. The second film, Bamako, by Mauritanian/Mali-raised filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako depicts the defiant people of Africa who stage a mock trial of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund that takes place in a courtyard in Bamako, Mali.

Kristen Barnes is a scholar and transactional lawyer. She was awarded her Ph.D. in 2003 from Duke University and her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1990. Her work focuses on the areas of Francophone and African cinema, postcolonial literature and film, comparative law, immigration law, questions of citizenship and identity, and intersections between law, literature, and cinema. She has taught courses on cinema at Northwestern University and Duke University. She previously taught a class at the Facets Film School titled French Living on the Edge: Outsiders, Bandits, Rebels and Misfits.

Tuesdays
November 17 - December 22
7-10 pm

Nicolas Roeg entered the British film industry in the 1950s, and within ten years was working as a cinematographer for David Lean, Richard Lester, Roger Corman, and John Schlesinger (among others). In 1970 he began directing his own films, beginning with the psychedelic gangster film Performance (Mick Jagger's feature film debut) which kicked off a run of six astonishing films that reinvented their respective genres: a meditative nature film (Walkabout); a family drama turned gothic horror (Don't Look Now); an environmental work of science-fiction (The Man Who Fell to Earth); a perverse romantic thriller (Bad Timing); and a deranged examination of the American dream by way of a Citizen Kane remake (Eureka). Roeg's career saw a downturn in the 1990s, but with the release of his recent feature Puffball, his filmography is ready for reevaluation. This class will make the case that he is one of the most important British directors of the 1970s and 1980s and we will also discuss his remarkable cinematography and preference for fragmented editing. Additionally, we will analyze his challenging viewpoints on the dynamics of human identity and sexuality; his collaborations with musicians such as Mick Jagger, David Bowie, and Art Garfunkel; and the personal/artistic connection with his former wife Theresa Russell, who appeared in seven of his films, including Bad Timing and Eureka.

Adam Jones is a Chicago-based teacher, writer, video artist, and performer. He has previously taught several courses in the Facets Film School, including Game, Set, Matchpoint, The Selected Dramas of Woody Allen; Flight, Rest and Transformation: Hayao Miyazaki, Master of Japanese Animation; What Time Is It Now? The Films of Tsai Ming-Liang and Thai Takes: Contemporary Thai Cinema. He has also directed music videos for the Kill Rock Stars bands Xiu Xiu and Mecca Normal. He currently teaches at DePaul University and is working on a novel.

Wednesdays
November 18 - December 23
7-10 pm

"Going mad is what we do in the North." (Margaret Atwood)

Where is north?

The truth about north depends on where you stand. North can be across the street, the next town on the road, or the farthest place on earth, where maps turn into void. North has often been described by southerners as a sterile blank, a barren land, a perfect screen to project our hopes, our dreams, or our worst fears. North is where Santa Claus lives and boys become men through adventures fraught with hardship. It is both the ultimate destination for the hero's quest and the perfect escape route for outcasts. North is an illusion, a sea of ice where explorers were fooled in mapping land that never existed by an arctic mirage, the Fata Morgana. This should not come as a surprise, since we tend to invest an unknown landscape with the expectations of our imagination. We will explore the Meta Incognita, the Great Unknown, in the company of six filmmakers –– each one suggesting a possible narrative of North: The Exotic North, embodied in Robert Flaherty’s documentary, Nanook of the North; The People's North in the award-winning epic by Inuit director Zacharias Kunuk, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner; North going South in The Necessities of Life, by Quebec director Bernard Pilon; North as Escape in the Danish film Zero Kelvin; and finally, back to the documentary this time with The Scientific North in Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World.

A Northerner herself, Aimée Laberge was born and bred at latitude 46° 48' N, in Quebec, Canada. She had the opportunity to travel above the Arctic Circle at 80° N on-board the scientific ice-breaker Amundsen in 2003 to research her third novel. Ms. Laberge has lectured at home and abroad on the subject of North and Northerness. She previously taught a Facets Film School class titled, Films from Quebec: Vive le Cinema Libre!