IB Film: American Teen Dream - A Re/Mixed History of US Cinema

ib film

AMERICAN TEEN DREAM: A RE/MIXED HISTORY OF US CINEMA COURSE DESCRIPTION You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.

— The Breakfast Club For large parts of the world America provides — through the lens of Hollywood — significant parts of the vocabulary of our dreams.

This is why America is so loved and so deeply hated — people who have never visited it and who do not speak its language, nonetheless walk its streets and ride its plains at night.

Our imaginations have been colonized.

— Roz Kaveney

IB Film is part of a multi-year, internationally focused and intellectually challenging adventure.

While each iteration of this course will prepare students to excel within both the IB Diploma Program and a college-readiness curriculum — each section will likewise differ from others in their particular textual choices and assessment design.

Our section: American Teen Dream: A Re/Mixed History of US Cinema poses a foundational question for all consumers and producers of the moving image in the

contemporary world: how do we begin to interpret and act upon the complex and often confusing media landscape that surrounds us?

Further: how do we critically navigate the intertwined histories of American film and the epistemically charged and unstable identity of “adolescence?”

Both film and the concept of the “teenager” were born at the same time — the turn of the 19th century — and both continue to inform, animate and dominate our shared cultural imaginary. Our imaginations have been colonized.

In this course we begin the process of de-colonization.

COURSE DETAILS ROOM 609

PERIODS 1A + 3B

TWITTER: @CONTOG

#STANTONFILM

SCHOOLOGY CODE

EMAIL: CONTOG@GMAIL.COM

COURSE STRUCTURE Our course is designed with four (4) core components

AMERICAN FILM HISTORY Charting the birth and evolution of the American film industry from its beginnings in the 1880s to the rise of the Studio System and its current prophesied demise at the hands of digital filmmaking and distribution.

Like all good re/mixes — our history will be told out of order — in fragmented loops, disjointed moments of revelation and contrary to all acceptable methods of mainstream historiography.

THE RISE OF THE TEENAGER The “teenager” is an invention from another century — a magnetized troubled planet of social, cultural, political and economic concern. Its history — your history — is uniquely situated in our mass culture in

often surprising and disturbing ways. Together we will probe this history, its lines of flight and its intersections with the moving image.

METHODS OF FILM THEORY How do we read films? What kinds of knowledge “count” as useful in this process — and who decides?

How do moving images reveal and conceal their deep index of the past century and a half? Systematically we will join the conversation with film theorists and scholars dissecting the most powerful medium yet created.

PERSONAL PRODUCTION PROJECTS Consumption vs. production? Does that division even work anymore? Individually and collaboratively we will use all available tools to explode the separation between the screens we watch and the practices of screening ourselves to the wider world.

COURSE MATERIALS

READINGS All course readings are available online via the shared Schoology space. All participants — including myself — are expected to complete assigned readings prior to the respective course meeting.

TECHNOLOGY Please do your best to obtain the following: - Portable USB flash drive (@ least 2gb) - Internet access - Twitter and Medium account - A binder to organize printed materials - Some machine that captures moving images

ASSESSMENT TASKS READINGS You will become an audacious scholar of often difficult texts in this course But we will do it together within a stress-free and accepting environment. Sometimes I will ask you to complete a set of notes. These notes should be collected and organized in a notebook. Reading quizzes for leader points will occur both online and in-class.

STUDENT TWITTER + MEDIUM You will become a public writer in this course -- sharing your ideas and words with others through a student twitter and medium. Each term we will share a set of common prompts and provocations. This writing will be collaboratively assessed.

PRESENTATIONS You will become a confident public intellectual in this course through the development and delivery of presentations based on readings and topics. These presentations will often be recorded and submitted online.

SOME PIECES OF ADVICE THIS IS A PARTICIPATION HEAVY COURSE To succeed you must assume an active, alert and engaged role in course discussions and activities.

Readings, presentations, writing assignments and productions should be completed as close to the assigned date as possible.

A NOTE OF READING + WRITING + SCREENING + MAKING Be a conscious and active reader / writer / watcher / creator.

PRODUCTIONS You will become a filmmaker in this course by exploring production roles through a series of portfolio submissions. One complete 6-7 minute film will be required for all students.

SCREENINGS You will become a cinephile in this course.

Watching film is sort of what we do. To successfully complete this work you will need a curious mind and some amount of concentration.

In this course we learn to analyze a wide array of texts as complex commercial, artistic and social artifacts. The majority of class meetings will consist of screenings, discussions, group project work, shared readings, group and individual writing sessions and online activities.

Most filmmaking will occur out of the classroom — that is where most of the great stories about your life take place after all.

As a college level course your success largely depends on your ability to authentically engage in our journey.

This will be the most adaptable academic experience of your life so far.

Want to create a film festival? Do it. Want to collaborate with some avantgarde artist halfway around the world? Do it. Want to deconstruct the patriarchal vestiges of contemporary media culture? Do it. I am but a facilitator in the series of adventures that you devise and undertake.

A NOTE ON GRADING A pedagogical discussion on student learning, thinking and grades.

GRADES LEVEL DOWN A “grading orientation” and a “learning orientation” have been shown to be inversely related. Every major educational study that has investigated the impact on intrinsic motivation of receiving grades (or instruction that emphasize the importance of getting good grades) has found a negative drag on sustained student interest in the subject being studied.

COLLABORATIVE GRADING SYSTEM Aiming higher than the lowest level.

An assigned grade is not the goal of this course. It is a required sideeffect of our shared exploration of film, media and critical theory.

You should complete readings, writings, presentations, online activities, blog posts and productions not because of an external weak incentive (i.e., a score) but because you are deeply committed to linking our studies to your own ideas -- and their public circulation.

This is college-level education at it finest. Embrace these expectations and you will have a great time!

This is not to say that there are no grades in this course. There are. But here they will be largely assigned and debated via as a community of peers. At scheduled times during each term your fellow students (and yourself) will assess the completion and success of course activities and assessments. If you do not agree with a peer score you will be encouraged to argue your case.

Stressed? Don’t worry! Do your best. Complete your readings. Write with verve, intellectual courage, honesty and originality! Authentically engage with the course and you will be OK. ;)

GETTING STARTED + FIRST STEPS 1) Create a twitter/medium account that you will want to share with others.

2) Sign on to our Schoology.

3) Complete the opening course introduction and have your parents/guardian sign the syllabus release.

GRADES ARE TOO EASY Impress upon students that what they’re doing will count toward their grade and their response will likely be to avoid taking any unnecessary intellectual risks. They’ll choose a shorter book, or a project on a familiar topic, in order to minimize the chance of doing poorly -not because they’re “unmotivated” but because they’re rational agents. They’re responding to adults who, by telling them the goal is to get a good mark, have sent the message that such success matters more than learning.

GRADES DILUTE Grades compel students to seek the quickest route. They may skim books for what they will “need to know.” They’re less likely to wonder, say, “How can we be sure that’s true?” than to ask “Is this going to be on the test?”

Recent research has found that a gradeoriented environment is associated with increased levels of cheating, grades promote a fear of failure even in highachieving students, and the elimination of grades (in favor of a pass/fail system) produces substantial benefits with no apparent disadvantages.