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Goals: This assignment is designed to further discussion of some of the topics we address in the textbook, especially its last segment (Part VI Cities Around the World).  Even more relevant could be discussion of themes not addressed but relevant to this segment.  In short, you need to write a narrative discussing urban geographic issues provoked by watching a moving picture focused primarily on a city/cities in the less developed world.

 

[Please understand that the following long description of the project is to help you with ideas and logistical questions.  Despite the detailed and lengthy description, all attempts have been made to keep this as a relatively small project (worth 30 points).  Make sure that you address all the formal requirements described below, and you will be fine.  Use office hours if you have questions. This is an individual project.  Plagiarism will be punished.]

 

Choice of film: It should be a feature film about a city/cities in the less familiar, non-western world, therefore the US, Canada, and the UK should be excluded.  Other developed countries in Europe (e.g., France, Germany, Spain, Scandinavia) and Asia (e.g., Japan, S Korea, Syngapore, and Taiwan) are just okay (because you may not learn much if these are already familiar films).  The ideal choice is a film with some urban themes on/from Eastern Europe, Russia and other former Soviet states, Latin America, Africa, the Islamic world,  India, China, and SE Asia. 

In any event, American or British films are NOT acceptable.  Below I include a list of films available in our university library’s media section in the basement (videos and DVDs could be borrowed or viewed there).  These films are grouped regionally.  This list is just a suggestion.

Feel free to use Long Beach Public Library or any regular video rental services and/or suggest your own (favorite and not so) film meeting the choice of film criteria explained above.

 

Procedures: In nutshell, do the same as with our usual weekly responses.

 

1. Watch the film and write
    a) its summary presuming that your reader is not familiar with the film; 
    b) express your general feeling/opinion about the film (Did you like it?  Was it accessible?  Was its aesthetics challenging?)
    c) list all geographical questions you have about the film. [1/2 – 1 page]

 

2. The main point of the project is to be able to see and analyze geographical issues in such a popular media as films, and bring in ideas from our readings and lectures.  In other words, use the film to illustrate terms and concepts from the textbook.  Therefore, write a narrative (about 5 page long) discussing the questions of geographical nature you have after watching the film.  Ideally, the questions should not be just basic (e.g., the location of events), but also more fundamental (e.g., How important is the urban setting in the film?  How different is the urban landscape there from what you might have in the US?  How is urban spacial morphology organized differently from the USA?  What ideas from the textbook the film helps to understand/visualize? etc.).  Remember, very much like history, geography is everywhere.  Your ability to think spatially and to ask geographical questions is most important, perhaps even more than the answers you provide.  Use geographical terms and concepts from the textbook (esp. Part VI).  Wherever appropriate, address the artistic dimension of the film.  You may also bring into your essay reference to a comparative American film centered on a US city.

 

3. Find available literature on your film and/or relevant geographic literature. Roughly, as a guideline, the following would be enough: one book, or two academic articles, or three general audience publications such newspaper articles.  The web is okay if it just duplicates online what is otherwise available as a printed matter.  But only the web is not okay.

 

4. Edit you essay, make sure it is free of errors and typos.  Pay attention to logic and argumentation.

 

5. It should be typed, in about 11 point font, 1.5 line spacing.  It should include about 0.5 to 1 page summary of the films and your opinion.  The main body of the essay should be about 5 pages, followed by a conclusion and a list of sources briefly cited in text.  All together the project is 7 pages max not counting any extras.

 

6. Deadline will be discussed in class.

 

7. Have fun!

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Xiu Xiu = The sent down girl
Between 1967 and 1976, nearly 8 million Chinese youths were "sent down" for specialized training to the remotest corners of the country. The young and beautiful Xiu Xiu dreamt of becoming a horse trainer in Tibet, far away from her busy city home. Her training begins in the isolated plains of Tibet but slowly Xiu Xiu discovers that she is unlikely to ever see her home again without a wealthy sponsor. Her world becomes a horrifying cage, where "patrons" promise her escape in exchange for her sexual compromise.  This sounds like a rural film but perhaps would allow discussion of urbanization, deurbanization, images of urban places etc. PN1997 .X58 1999   

So close to paradise

Gangster film about two country boys who move to the big city to begin new lives and while one is content with his menial job, the other enters the world of gangsters and underworld alliances. PN1997 .S6325 1998

Yi ge dou bu neng shao = Not one less 

Salaam Bombay!

Krisha, a ten year old boy, has been abandoned in Bombay by his mother. He tries to earn money to go home while he lives in the streets.  PN1997 .S125 2002 

Crimson gold 

This is a story of Hussein, a humble pizza deliveryman who feels continually humiliated by the injustices he sees all around him. When his friend Ali finds a receipt for a stranger's necklace purchase, Hussein is stunned by its exceptionally high cost. He knows that his pitiful salary will never be enough to afford such a luxury. Soon after, he and Ali are refused entry to an uptown jewelry store because of their scruffy appearances; his rage over this slight sets off a series of events. But, Hussein will taste the luxurious life for one night before his deep feelings of humiliation push him over the edge.  Iran PN1997 .C8732 2004   

The Cyclist

Nazim, formerly a cyclist, but now a lowly Afghan guest worker in Iran, must overcome many obstacles in his attempt to ride a bicycle continuously for seven days and nights, in order to obtain money to pay for medical care for his desperately ill wife. PN1997 .C926 1996   

Children of heaven

A young boy, Ali, loses his sister Zahra's school shoes. In order to stay out of trouble, the two come up with a plan to share Ali's shoes, but they must keep it a secret from their parents. Iran. Award winner: Montreal Film Festival, Newport Film Festival, Singapore Film Festival. PN1997 .C46427 1999   

Dastforoush = The peddler
Three short tales set among the poor of contemporary Tehran describing a kindly but naive couple who want someone to adopt their baby, a mentally unstable man who lives with his invalid mother, and the last hours of a peddler suspected of betraying his friends. PN1997 .P398 1996

Yol
A portrait of modern Turkey as seen through the eyes of five prisoners granted furlough to visit their families. PN1997 .Y665 1983 


Mapantsula
Panic is a mapantsula, a Zulu term for a petty crook. Set in South Africa, he is imprisoned with Anti-apartheid activists. There he is transformed into a man willing to become involved with social change. PN1997 .M262 1988   

 

Moscow parade = Prorva

Summary The post-Soviet Union view of the Stalin Era. Set in Moscow in the summer of 1939. Anna, a former aristocrat, is married to one of the chiefs of the secret police. She hates these men who have exterminated her family and who are abusing her now. But she takes advantage of their luxurious life--all the things that are available only to the Soviet elite.  PN1997 .M674 1993 

Comment: Very arty, surreal film filled with haunting and strange beauty.

 

Moscow does not believe in tears = Moskva Slezam Ne Verit

Summary The setting is Moscow in 1958, and three small town girls have just arrived to pursue their separate dreams in the big city. Shows how their lives have turned out 20 years later.   PN1997 .M672 1984 

Comment:  An easy choice for the urban.  Academy Award, Best Foreign Film.

  

Little Vera = Malen’kaia Vera

Summary The controversial, award winning Russian movie about a woman torn between her lover and her bitter parents.  PN1997 .L5778 1989 

Comment:  A popular perestroika time film signaling the end of the Soviet system.