Film Studies (FILM) 30115 - Lecture 01
IMAGE OF WORKERS IN CANADIAN FILM
Winter 2007
Lecture: Thursday: 9:30-11:20 Screenings: Monday 12:00-2:50 and Tuesday: 9:30- 11:20  

Instructor:	Dr. Malek Khouri
Office Location:	SS 350
Office Phone:	(403) 220-7339
E-Mail:	khouri@ucalgary.ca
Web Page:
Office Hours:	TBA

Additional Information

There will be four unannounced quizzes for the course. These will involve answering questions on the readings and films assigned for the week, and the lecture of the previous week. The overall average for these quizzes amounts to 20% of the course mark.

Course Description

This course explores how working class people are portrayed in contemporary Canadian cinema. The course maps out how leading scholars of Canadian cinema discuss the concept of national cinema in relation to class. Within this framework, the course covers a wide range of class-related topics; it tackles issues of class as they intersect with history, political activism, globalization, feminism, queer rights, masculinity, regional marginalization, cinematic realism, and Canadian nationalism.

Objectives of the Course

A study of the representation of working class people in Canadian cinema enables us to reconsider some long-standing views of national cinema. It also allows us to address cinematic practices that tend to marginalize various social subjectivities for the sake of a unifying national narratives.

Textbooks and Readings:

- Malek Khouri and Darrell Varga ed. Working on Screen: Representations of the Working Class in Canadian Cinema. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. - Timothy Corrigan. A Short Guide Writing about Film. (Fifth Edition: Longman, 2003). Both books are available through the University of Calgary Bookstore.

Assignments and Evaluation

It is the student's responsibility to keep a copy of each submitted assignment.

Four in-class quizzes: total worth (20%). Essay assignment 1 (6 pages) due in class on March 1 (30%). Essay assignment 2 (15 pages) due in my office on April 16 by 12:00 (40%). Progress and active participation (10%).

Note: Please return assignments directly to the instructor if possible. If it is not possible to do so, a daytime drop box is available in SS110; a date stamp is provided for your use. A night drop box is also available for after-hours submission. Assignments will be removed the following morning, stamped with the previous day's date, and placed in the instructor's mailbox.

Registrar-scheduled Final Examination: No

Please note: If your class is held in the evening, the Registrar's Office will make every attempt to schedule the final exam during the evening; however, there is NO guarantee that the exam will NOT be scheduled during the day.

Policy for Late Assignments

Assignments submitted after the deadline may be penalized with the loss of a grade (e.g.: A- to B+) for each day late.

Writing Skills Statement

Faculty policy directs that all written assignments (including, although to a lesser extent, written exam responses) will be assessed at least partly on writing skills. For details see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/info. Writing skills include not only surface correctness (grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc) but also general clarity and organization. Research papers must be properly documented.

If you wish help with your writing at any stage, including drafts, you are invited to contact the Writing Centre, SS110, 220-7255.

Grading System

The following grading system is used in the Faculty of Communication and Culture:

A+ (96-100); A (92-95); A- (86-91); B+ (81-85); B (77-80); B- (71-76);
C+ (65-70); C (62-64); C- (59-61); D+ (55-58); D (50-54); F (0-49)

 

Plagiarism

Using any source whatsoever without clearly documenting it is a serious academic offense. For details see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/info. Consequences include failure on the assignment, failure in the course and possibly suspension or expulsion from the university.

You must document not only direct quotations but also paraphrases and ideas where they appear in your text. A reference list at the end is insufficient by itself. Readers must be able to tell exactly where your words and ideas end and other people’s words and ideas begin. This includes assignments submitted in non-traditional formats such as Web pages or visual media, and material taken from such sources.

Please consult your instructor or the Writing Centre (SS110) if you have any questions regarding how to document sources.

Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a disability who may require academic accommodation, it is your responsibility to register with the Disability Resource Centre (220-8237) and discuss your needs with your instructor no later than fourteen (14) days after the start of the course.

Students' Union

For details about the current Students' Union contacts for the Faculty of Communication and Culture see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/info

"SAFEWALK" Program -- 220-5333

Campus Security will escort individuals day or night -- call 220-5333 for assistance. Use any campus phone, emergency phone or the yellow phone located at most parking lot booths.

Schedule of Lectures and Readings

January 11 Introduction to the course

January 18 Workers, History and Historiography 1 Screening: Goin’ Down the Road (Donald Shebib, 1970). Reading: David Frank. “In Search of the Canadian Labour Film,” in WOS: 25-45.

January 25 Workers, History and Historiography 2 Screening: Lies My Father Told Me (Jan Kadar, 1975) Reading: Scott Forsyth. “Communists, Class and Culture in Canada,” in WOS: 46-72.

February 1 Workers, History and Historiography 3 Screening: The CBC’s mini-series Canada: A People’s History (Episode One, Peter John Ingles, 2001). Reading: Darrell Varga. “The Image of the ‘People’ in the CBC’s Canada: A People’s History,” in WOS: 73-91.

February 8 Work, Gender and Sexuality 1 Screening: Valerie (Denis Heroux, 1969) Reading: Rebecca Sullivan. “Work in Girl! Sex, Labour, and Nationalism in Valerie,” in WOS: 95-112.

February 15 Work, Gender and Sexuality 2 Screening: Gross Misconduct (Atom Egoyan, 1993) Reading: Bart Beaty. “Not Playing, Working: Class, Masculinity, and Nation in Canadian Hockey Film,” in WOS: 113-133.

February 22 (Reading Week)

March 1 First Assignment Due Work, Gender and Sexuality 3 Screening: The Hanging Garden (Thom Fitzgerald, 1997). Reading: Malek Khouri. “Other-ing the Worker in Canadian ‘Gay’ Cinema: Thom Fitzgerald’s The Hanging Garden,” in WOS: 134-147.

March 8 Work, Gender and Sexuality 4 Screening: Margaret’s Museum (Mort Ransen, 1995) Reading: Peter Urquhart. “Whose Museum Is It Anyway? Discourses of Resistance in the Adaptation of The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum into Margaret’s Museum,” in WOS: 148-157.

March 15 Dirty Work Screening: Dirty Laundry (Richard Fung, 1996) Reading: Margot Francis. “Dirty Laundry: Re-imagining the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Construction of the Nation,” in WOS: 178-203.

March 22 Working on National Cinema 1 Screening: La Moitie gauche de frigo (Philippe Falardeau, 2000) Reading: Andre Loiselle. “Look like a Worker and Act like a Worker: Stereotypical Representations of the Working Class in Quebec Fiction Feature Films,” in WOS: 207-234.

March 29 Working on National Cinema 2 Screening: Rude (Clement Virgo, 1995) Reading: John McCullough. “Rude and the Representation of Class Relations in Canadian Film,” in WOS: 246-267.

April 5 Working on National Cinema 3 Screening: Maelstrom (Denis Villeneuve, 2000) Reading: Brenda Longfellow. “ Counter Narratives, Class Politics, and Metropolitan Dystopias: Representations of Globalization in Maelstrom, Waydowntown, and La moitie gauche du frigo: 268-282.

April 13 Wrap-up and Final Notes Screening: Waydowntown (Gary Burns, 2000)

April 16 Second Assignment Due by 12 AM in my Office