Gazes, Bodies and Genders in Film and Television-

An Academic Journal Seminar)

Prof. Anat Zanger

The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University, 2017

Topic of Seminar

Since the early days of cinema and throughout the contemporary proliferation of television, videos, the internet and the 'selfie', various media have been known to record and construct through their images, genres, stars, plots and series the manner by which we perceive women, men and between them.

The seminar will examine the ways in which gazes, bodies and genders are written through the media, as well as the perspectives offered by film and television studies as they pertain to gender, sexuality, post-colonialism, performativity, mythology and intertextuality. Who controls the gaze and who is its object? Who possesses agency? What are the blind spots? How are spectacular bodies conceived? What are the functions fulfilled by the body through the plots and genres weaved by film and television? Where can one detect the dividing line between body and language? Are we able to point to a gradual change in the mediums' rhetoric on issues concerning the gaze, the body and gender? How do Israeli films and television productions figure in this context?

The films discussed in the seminar will include, among others (the final selection will be made during the course of the seminar):  …and God Created Woman (Roger Vadim), Anna's Meetings (Chantal Akerman), Tomorrow We Move  (Chantal Akerman), Joan of Arc (Werner Herzog, Luc Besson), Mulholland Drive (David Lynch), High Heels (Pedro Almodovar), Alien (Ridley Scott), Gett (Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz), Mountain (Yaelle Kayam),  Girls (Lena Dunham), Metumtemet (['Stupid'], Bat Hen Sebag).

Course Description

The first part of the seminar will focus on the grounding of a common language: concepts, theories, significant case studies. The different perspectives will be discussed through a selection of articles and films (fiction and documentary, television series, video art).

The second and central part of the seminar will consist of drafting the theoretical arguments and preparing short presentations for discussion in class.

The third part of the seminar will be dedicated to processing and editing these materials for publication in the graduate students' journal 'Gahliliot'.

Pre-requisites: Students in the seminar must participate in one seminar concerning Gender theories prior to enrolling (the seminars offered in 2017 by Dr. Miri Talmon, Prof. Raz Yosef, Prof. Anat Zanger, or any other seminar in the field).