Essay
ASAM 30: Asian American Issues Through Film
City College of San Francisco
Instructor: Roger Chung
Summer 2014
Location: MUB 150, TWR 6:00-9:15pm
Email: rogervietchung@gmail.com
Office Hours: 5-6pm, Thursday, MUB 150
CATALOG DESCRIPTION:
This course will explore both historical and contemporary themes in Asian American film. Beginning chronologically with early representations of race, gender and sexuality, the course will move towards new representations in films made by and about Asian Americans. This course will survey a broad range of films, including narrative, documentary, and diasporic cinema.
This course is UC and CSU transferable, satisfying area 4C for UC, and C2 and D3 for CSU.
DETAILED COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will explore both historical and contemporary themes in Asian American film. Beginning chronologically with early representations of race, gender and sexuality, the course will move towards new representations in films made by and about Asian Americans. We will survey a broad range of films, from narrative, to documentary, to diasporic cinema. The course is designed to get you to critically think about how images and characters within these genres may produce or reproduce stereotypes, but also how these stereotypes are resisted, contested and possibly redefined. You will be expected to use your analytically skills to then critique how the themes of race, class, gender and sexuality are negotiated in an “Asian American” film of your choice that is outside of the course syllabus. You will be evaluated based on in-class discussion and group work, four reflection journals, a midterm and a final film analysis.
Success in this course is predicated on your ability to engage the films from the perspective of analysis of representation, as opposed to summarizing plots, or reviewing the quality of acting. We’re interested in why an image is created the way it is, and what impact that may have on the creation of other images and
City College of San Francisco
Instructor: Roger Chung
Summer 2014
Location: MUB 150, TWR 6:00-9:15pm
Email: rogervietchung@gmail.com
Office Hours: 5-6pm, Thursday, MUB 150
CATALOG DESCRIPTION:
This course will explore both historical and contemporary themes in Asian American film. Beginning chronologically with early representations of race, gender and sexuality, the course will move towards new representations in films made by and about Asian Americans. This course will survey a broad range of films, including narrative, documentary, and diasporic cinema.
This course is UC and CSU transferable, satisfying area 4C for UC, and C2 and D3 for CSU.
DETAILED COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will explore both historical and contemporary themes in Asian American film. Beginning chronologically with early representations of race, gender and sexuality, the course will move towards new representations in films made by and about Asian Americans. We will survey a broad range of films, from narrative, to documentary, to diasporic cinema. The course is designed to get you to critically think about how images and characters within these genres may produce or reproduce stereotypes, but also how these stereotypes are resisted, contested and possibly redefined. You will be expected to use your analytically skills to then critique how the themes of race, class, gender and sexuality are negotiated in an “Asian American” film of your choice that is outside of the course syllabus. You will be evaluated based on in-class discussion and group work, four reflection journals, a midterm and a final film analysis.
Success in this course is predicated on your ability to engage the films from the perspective of analysis of representation, as opposed to summarizing plots, or reviewing the quality of acting. We’re interested in why an image is created the way it is, and what impact that may have on the creation of other images and