Introduction
PS140O: Projecting Power
2025-01-21
Why Projecting Power?
- Personal
- Academic
About Me
Who am I?
Worked in traditional and social media for about a dozen years
Went back to grad school to study the rise of mass incarceration
Scholar
How did nonviolent protests influence public opinion?
Producer
Projecting Power
Questions About Film & Media
- Can we learn with mind and body?
- Can we use film to travel across space and time?
- Can we study films to better understand the power of media more generally?
- Can we study narrative to better understand the power of story?
Film & Social Science
- Can we use examples in films to illuminate and evaluate social science theory?
- Can we use social science to better understand cases in films?
- Can we use film to better see the role of the state (though often seemingly invisible)?
- Can we use film to study how power operates?
Groups, States & Power
- What makes a people?
- What makes a state?
- How do the few control the many?
- How are states like organized crime? How do they differ?
- How does power work both inside and outside of the state?
- Are race and ethnicity better understood as ‘essences’ or ‘constructions’?
- Are humans inherently ‘groupish’?
- What kinds of tactics are effective for social movements?
TA: Andrew Zhao
- PhD student in Political Science at UC Berkeley
- Grew up on prairies in Treaty 7 territory in Canada
- Broadly interested in identity and immigration
- Citrin Fellow at Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research
- A Hildebrand Fellow at the Canadian Studies Program
- Earned Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto
- Received Suzanne and Edwin Goodman Prize as top graduating student in political science
Course Overview
Each Week
- One film
- Generally two primary texts
- Some short additional texts
- Every week aim to put texts in conversation with film
- One video essay from students
- Mix of lecture and discussion
About Films
- Some films will contain material that is frustrating, offensive and/or disturbing
- Film and media in this course contain sex, violence, racial and sexual stereotypes, and language, themes, and imagery that may be challenging
- You are expected to watch the films in full but it is also acceptable to close your eyes, cover your ears, walk out, etc. if you find specific scenes especially challenging
- Exceptions to watching films may be accommodated on a case-by-case basis after discussion with the professor
About Films
Please prepare yourself to engage provocative and unfamiliar subject matter as a part of our screenings, readings, and discussions
We are confident that you will find the effort rewarding within the context of the course and in the process of growing as a sensitive, open- minded, historically conscious, analytical thinker, writer, and film-viewer
Participation
Each week we will screen a film, read related scholarship and discuss both in class and online
Attendance and active participation are essential parts of the course. Attendance will be taken at every class
Online participation will take place on bcourses and students are expected to contribute actively online
20% of grade
Video Essay
Each week, a small team of about four students will prepare a brief, approximately five-to-seven minute video essay
Video essays will generally be a ‘close reading’ of scenes from the film, typically in conversation with readings
Video essays may also focus on aspects of film craft, such the score, lighting, or cinematography. Can also focus on director, controversies
The video essay should not be a review of the film or a summary of facts
Video Essay (continued)
Aim to critically analyze a section of the film and, typically, assess it in the context of our readings. Bringing in outside readings or other relevant references is acceptable
The video essay can be shorter or longer but check with an instructor if a significantly different length
Submissions should include both the video and the essay script that includes citations
20% of grade
Weekly Online Discussion
- In addition to Video Essay, co-lead online discussion
- Post discussion prompts such as a screengrab of a scene from the film and some follow-up questions
- Respond to classmates and ask clarifying questions
Attendance
Film Poll
Questions?
The Battle of Algiers
Possible Themes for Week 1
- Origins of nations and nationalism
- Pros and cons of violent and nonviolent tactics
- Types of ‘actors’: FLN, military, civilians, press, UN…
- Role of media, women in insurgency, children
- Role of states in funding and banning film
- Role of narrative:
- Master narrative and counter-narratives
Narrative in Political Science, Patterson & Monroe (1998)
What is Narrative?
- A story
- Human beings as actors, have agency
- Often directed toward some goal
- Some sequential ordering of events
- A narrator’s perspective
Why Narrative in Social Science?
- Individual
- How we make sense of reality
- Facts require interpretation, always ambiguity
- Example: “I did well on that test”
- Story of our lives
- Our place in the world
- “Even as adults, we continue to imagine our futures, families, careers, retirements, and major transitions.” (Patterson & Monroe, 320)
- How we make sense of reality
Why Narrative in Social Science?
- Collective
- We all inherit stories from family, school, culture, religion and so on that structure our thinking
- “Metanarrative,” grand narratives of our time
- Good vs evil, Order vs chaos, Individual vs society, Expansion of human rights, appear universal
- “Master narrative,” stories that reinforce a social order
- Community counter-narratives can also challenge established narratives
Putting Film and Text in Conversation
“Narratives are important in providing both individuals and collectives with a sense of purpose and place. The shared stories of a culture provide grounds for common understandings and interpretation. But as such, they may become sites of cultural conflict when those common understandings are challenged.”
— Patterson & Monroe (1998, 321)
Putting Film and Text in Conversation
“When narratives of culturally acceptable success are not available or are beyond imagination for a particular group, subcultures provide alternative ways to make sense of one’s place in the world. (Folk tales provide one obvious instance of this. Indeed, nationalist movements often make use of folk stories in their attempts to unify a people.)”
— Patterson & Monroe (1998, 320)
Close Reading of a Scene (and/or Text)
- What’s going on?
- What’s conveyed?
- What directorial choices shape our experience?
- Does the scene serve as a kind of symbol or analogy for something larger?
- How does power work in the scene?
- Where is the state? Who wields “legitimate use of violence”?
Example: Counter-narrative in Civil Rights Movement
“Diane Nash was an amazing young woman, a college student in Nashville, about 20 years old in 1960, as they were beginning the sit-in demonstrations at lunch counters to demand integration. Her self-definition was this — we are people who are no longer willing to live with segregation; now, we understand you may kill us for that, but that’s your problem, not ours.”
Gloria Richardson, Protest and Media
“Not only does the photo capture a cinematic level of drama; it also displays Richardson’s courage and steely resolve. In a 2013 interview with Amy Goodman, Richardson describes the moment: ‘And then this guy started coming toward me. I thought he’s got to be crazy. And I don’t even know why I pushed the gun, but I know I was furious at that time.’”
— Barbara Smith, The ‘Creative Chaos’ of Gloria Richardson (1922–2021)
Gloria Richardson, Protest and Media
“The fact that we see a Black woman coolly facing off against a heavily armed white man in military uniform feels paradigm-shifting, especially when women were generally expected to be helpmates behind the scenes.”
— Barbara Smith, The ‘Creative Chaos’ of Gloria Richardson (1922–2021)
Wedding Scene
Discussion:
What stands out about the wedding scene?
Let’s hear first from: Stephanie, Dillon, Bailey, Madeleine
Counter-narrative in the Wedding Scene
“Indigenous artists, musicians, painters, sculptors and writers also joined their compatriots in providing an anti-colonial ‘counter-discourse,’ reacting thereby to the popular culture of the urban pieds-noirs community, who tended to portray native men using five main stereotypes: ‘savage, poor, dirty, dishonest, and lascivious’ (Sivan 1979, p. 32). Similarly, native women were often depicted in their domestic space as prostitutes in alluring fantasist erotic settings.”
— Kahina Amal Djiar (2009) in “Symbolism and memory in architecture: Algerian anti-colonial resistance and the Algiers Casbah”
Counter-narrative in Art
“As a rebuke to French colonialist imagination in Algiers, Mohamed Racim, painted a series of works that revealed the power of indigenous cultural resistance. One of Racim’s favourite scenes described the faithfulness of the native population to their customs, as well as the strong sense of community that continued to characterise the lifestyle in the Casbah. It showed the urban ambience of the old medina area during a typical night of Ramadan. No sign at all of the French colonial presence in Algiers was depicted, as if the Casbah was a completely independent territory.”
— Kahina Amal Djiar (2009) in “Symbolism and memory in architecture: Algerian anti-colonial resistance and the Algiers Casbah”
Counter-narrative in Art
“The strength of this painting resides to a large extent in the socio-cultural specificities of the scene: terraces cornered by chatting women, streets inhabited at night by playing children and people socialising, with a series of illuminated minarets behind them, which symbolised the religious character of the celebration – and perhaps a deeper sense of persisting devotion to the Islamic faith.”
— Kahina Amal Djiar (2009) in “Symbolism and memory in architecture: Algerian anti-colonial resistance and the Algiers Casbah”
Counter-narrative in Art
“In another artwork, Racim painted a scene of a wedding party taking place in one of the Casbah’s courtyard houses (Figure 2). By placing the indigenous woman in the shape of the bride, he wanted to give her an intentionally ‘decent’ image.”
— Kahina Amal Djiar (2009) in “Symbolism and memory in architecture: Algerian anti-colonial resistance and the Algiers Casbah”
In Sum: Experience is Always Contested
“Experience is at once always already an interpretation and something that needs to be interpreted. What counts as experience is neither self-evident nor straightforward; it is always contested, and always therefore political.”
— Scott (1991, 797) cited in Patterson & Monroe (329)
Break
Brubaker: Politique du Pire?
Why a Politique du Pire?
“Ethnic and other insurgencies, for example, often adopt what is called in French a politique du pire, a politics of seeking the worst outcome in the short run so as to bolster their legitimacy or improve their prospects in the longer run.”
— Brubaker (2002), Ethnicity without Groups
Discussion:
How does the idea of a Politique du Pire help explain key scenes in The Battle of Algiers?
Let’s hear first from: Gretchen, Ying Ying, Andrew, Luci
What radicalizes Ali?
Discussion:
What are some of the policies that seem to politicize people in The Battle of Algiers?
Let’s hear first from: Derya, Ariana, Liz, Qing
Role of Children?
Discussion:
What are some of the ways children are used in The Battle of Algiers?
Let’s hear first from: Deisy, Victoria, Pintack, Alexander
Role of Media?
Discussion:
What influence do media have in The Battle of Algiers?
Let’s hear first from: Tucker, Alisa, Sarah, Ramona