Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update
Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, any references to assessment tasks and on-campus delivery may no longer be up-to-date on this page.
Students should consult iLearn for revised unit information.
Find out more about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and potential impacts on staff and students
Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Lecturer and Convenor
Robert Sinnerbrink
Contact via 9850 0035
TBA
By appointment
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Credit points |
Credit points
10
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
130cp at 1000 level or above
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
What can philosophy teach us about cinema? What can cinema show us about philosophy? This unit explores these questions by investigating philosophical, aesthetic, and ethical aspects of our engagement with cinema. Rather than treating film as an illustration of ideas, we examine how film itself can explore philosophical problems in visual and narrative terms. We begin with the problems of cinematic representation, visual perception, and the ontology of the moving image. We analyse how film represents our subjective experience by exploring the phenomenology of perception and movement, emotional engagement and time-consciousness, moral psychology and ethical transformation. We study how films can express moral ideas, stage philosophical 'thought experiments', focusing on the provocative claim that films can 'do philosophy' by cinematic means. We consider how narrative and documentary film can contribute to our understanding of love and happiness, personal and cultural identity, environmental challenges and globalisation. Finally, we examine recent developments in film-philosophy--spanning phenomenological and cognitivist approaches--responding to digital media and the aesthetics of long-form television series. Overall, the unit aims to show not only how philosophy can help us understand film but how cinema can help us become more imaginative and ethical thinkers. |
Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update
Assessment details are no longer provided here as a result of changes due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Students should consult iLearn for revised unit information.
Find out more about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and potential impacts on staff and students
Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests.
Class discussions, whether online or in tutorials, provide students with opportunities to engage actively with what we are studying together. Students are expected to engage actively in weekly discussions of the unit material in a thoughtful manner that is informed by a careful engagement with the assigned films and readings. Both lecture and tutorials are important sites of individual and group learning. External/online students are expected to prepare for their online tutorials each week having listened to the lectures, read the assigned reading, and being ready to raise questions and discuss the relevant ideas with their classmates. After working through the assigned material, external/online students should spend approximately one hour each week responding to the weekly tutorial questions and contributing to the online discussion forums by actively engaging with their peers via the dedicated discussion forums.
Participation will be assessed based on both the quality and quantity of students' contributions online or in tutorials, including engagement with their peers' responses.
On successful completion you will be able to:
In Weeks 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 students will complete short online quizzes based on the unit readings (5 quizzes in total). Quizzes start in week 3 and continue until week 12. Each quiz opens after the relevant lectures. Quizzes involve true/false or multiple choice options. All quizzes remain open until Week 13. The quizzes cannot be accessed after that date. Please don't leave all the quizzes to the last minute - you should complete the quizzes throughout the semester after the relevant lecture.
Criteria: These assessments will be evaluated on the accuracy of quiz responses to questions based on topics and texts. These quizzes are designed to encourage ongoing study and revision of the unit materials and to foster preparation for other assessment tasks (e.g. the essay).
On successful completion you will be able to: • To analyse and explore the relationship between film and philosophy in contemporary culture.
Students are required to submit a Film-Philosophy Journal covering weeks 1-10 of the course, with a brief entry for at least six weeks of the course (the written content of the journal should amount to approximately 2000 words overall). The journal can be a workbook, scrapbook, diary, or other format of your own choosing (e.g. blog, webpage, photographs, artwork, video clip, etc). Students are asked to write their responses to the week's lecture material, readings, and tutorial discussion, and where appropriate to discuss examples of films/TV works/ documentaries that they have seen or discussed in class. In the journal you may write your thoughts and impressions of the material studied from week to week, provide summaries of readings, or reflections on the topics explored that week; you include images, photographs, film reviews, and other creative works of your own relevant to film and philosophy. Students are also encouraged to use the journal to work through ideas that will be relevant in preparing their essays. The journal is designed to promote ongoing reading and reflection on the weekly topics explored in the lectures, in set readings, and in tutorial discussion; it also aims to encourage students to apply ideas explored in the course to contemporary cinema as well as to broader aesthetic, ethical and cultural debates.
Over the course of the semester, the journal should show evidence of:
a) reflection on weekly readings and topics raised in tutorial discussion (study notes, questions, written comments, etc.);
b) research into essay and tutorial topics (e.g. secondary readings, essay preparation, revision of lectures, reading, and tutorial material); and
c) application of the theories discussed in the course to contemporary films and wider social and cultural debates (personal reflection, critical analysis of particular films, theoretically informed use of images, and so on).
The journal is supposed to be a useful aid for ongoing study and research as well as providing an opportunity to exercise more independent, creative, and critical thinking.
On successful completion you will be able to:
In the Film and Philosophy Essay, students will use the critical methods and aesthetic insights discussed over the course of the term to respond to set questions based on the topics covered during the semester and/or may analyse a film/TV work of their own choosing (in consultation with the Lecturer). Here you show us the critical questioning and philosophical knowledge you have learned over the unit. This essay will be workshopped by exchanging essay plans or sketches in a peer review exercise in Week 13. The final version of the Essay is due at the end of Week 13. Word Length: 2500 words.
Criteria: An excellent essay will demonstrate knowledge of the relevant content; a clear structure and argument; creativity, proper expression, spelling, punctuation and grammar; an easy to read presentation; proper integration and referencing of research and other sources. This assessment will be evaluated based on the criteria explained on the rubric that will posted on iLearn.
On successful completion you will be able to:
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update
Any references to on-campus delivery below may no longer be relevant due to COVID-19.
Please check here for updated delivery information: https://ask.mq.edu.au/account/pub/display/unit_status
PHL3065 Film and Philosophy will be using electronically available readings available via Leganto on the iLearn website. My book will also be a valuable resource and is a recommended background reading: Robert Sinnerbrink, New Philosophies of Film: Thinking Images (Continuum/Bloomsbury, 2011).
Textbooks for this unit can be purchased online from Booktopia https://www.booktopia.com.au/coop
The list of Macquarie University S1 2020 units and texts can be found on the Booktopia website.
This unit uses an iLearn website, Leganto online resouces, Kanopy (an video streaming service available through the library) and Echo360 lecture recordings. Both internal and external students will accordingly require regular access to a computer and a reliable internet connection.
For lecture times please consult the MQ Timetable website: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au. This website will display up-to-date information on your classes and classroom locations. Lectures are scheduled in a two-hour block on Mondays from 1:00pm to 3:00pm. Recordings will be available on iLearn for all external/online/OUA students.
Lectures
A two-hour weekly Lecture block given by the Unit Convenor. These Lectures will be recorded on Echo360 and available as downloadable recordings on the ilearn website for this unit. Powerpoint slides/notes will also be available via the website.
Online tutorial discussions will be conducted using a dedicated Tutorial Discussion Forum on the iLearn website. Weekly Tutorial Questions will be posted and students asked to respond to these questions and engage their peers in online discussion. The Essay Plan Workshop will also be conducted online in the final week, with students posting a sketch or plan of their essay and giving each other feedback via a dedicated Forum.
Tutorials begin in Week 2 and students must participate in at least 9/12 classes.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update
The unit schedule/topics and any references to on-campus delivery below may no longer be relevant due to COVID-19. Please consult iLearn for latest details, and check here for updated delivery information: https://ask.mq.edu.au/account/pub/display/unit_status
Week 1: What is Philosophy of Film/Film-Philosophy?
Required Readings:
Background reading: Robert Sinnerbrink, ‘Introduction: Why Did Philosophy Go To the Movies?’ New Philosophies of Film: Thinking Images (London/New York: Continuum, 2011), pp. 1-10.
Week 2: Ontologies of the Moving Image
Required Readings:
Background reading: R. Sinnerbrink, ‘The Rules of the Game: New Ontologies of Film’ New Philosophies of Film: Thinking Images (London/New York: Continuum, 2011), pp. 28-44.
Week 3: Understanding Film Narrative
Required Readings:
Recommended; R. Sinnerbrink, New Philosophies of Film: Thinking Images, Chapter 3, ‘Adaptation: Philosophical Approaches to Narrative’, pp. 45-64.
Week 4: Cognitivism Goes to the Movies
Required Readings:
Background Reading: R. Sinnerbrink, New Philosophies of Film: Thinking Images, Chapter 4, ‘Cognitivism Goes to the Movies’, pp. 67-89.
Week 5: Affect and Emotion in Cinema
Required Readings:
Background Reading: R. Sinnerbrink, New Philosophies of Film: Thinking Images, Chapter 4, ‘Cognitivism Goes to the Movies’, pp. 67-89.
Week 6: Cinematic Ethics
Required Readings:
Recommended: Jinhee Choi and Mattias Frey, ‘Introduction’, in Jinhee Choi and Mattias Frey (eds), Cine-Ethics: Ethical Dimensions of Film Theory, Practice and Spectatorship (London and New York: Routledge, 2014), 1-14.
Week 7: Gilles Deleuze’s Cine-philosophy
Required Readings:
Background Reading: R. Sinnerbrink, New Philosophies of Film, Chapter Five ‘Bande a part: Deleuze and Cavell as Film-Philosophers’, pp. 90-116.
Week 8: Stanley Cavell’s Film Philosophy
Required Readings:
Background Reading: R. Sinnerbrink, New Philosophies of Film: Thinking Images, Chapter Five ‘Bande a part: Deleuze and Cavell as Film-Philosophers’, pp. 90-116.
Week 9: Film as Philosophy: Pro and Contra
Required Readings:
Background Reading: Christopher Falzon, ‘Philosophy through Film’, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://www.iep.utm.edu/phi-film/
R. Sinnerbrink, New Philosophies of Film, Chapter 6, ‘Scenes from a Marriage: On the Idea of Film as Philosophy’, pp. 117-135.
Week 10: Film as Philosophy Case Study 1: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman/Gondry, 2004)
Required Readings:
Recommended: George Toles, ‘Trying to Remember Clementine’, Christopher Grau (ed),Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Philosophers on Film (London: Routledge, 2009), pp. 111-157.
Week 11: Film as Philosophy Case Study 2: Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011)
Required Readings:
Recommended: R. Sinnerbrink, ‘Planet Melancholia: Romanticism, Mood, and Cinematic Ethics’, Filozofski Vestnik, Vol, XXXVII, No. 2 (2016): 95-113.
Week 12: Film as Philosophy Case Study 3: The Act of Killing /The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer and Anonymous, 2012/2014)
Required Readings:
Recommended: Interview extracts from Southeast Asia Globe, Malay Mail, and Inside Indonesia: ‘The Act of Killing and the Ethics of Filming’, International Boulevard (August 2013): https://www.internationalboulevard.com/the-act-of-killing-and-the-ethics-of-filming
Mehlis Behlil, The Look of Silence: An Interview with Joshua Oppenheimer and Adi Rukun’, Cineaste (Summer 2015): 26-31.
Week 13 Essay Draft Workshop
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