5014161 – Medienanalyse: Crisis-Cinema - (Post-) Apolacyptic and New Worlds on Screen [MeAn][MedTP][MA]

In the first quarter of the 21st century the world is being transformed by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst at the same time facing the escalating consequences of climate change and global warming as well as the pressing issue of social injustice. Cinema is creating a space for articulating and visualizing collective fears and hopes. Fictional films allow us to experience the end of the world without incurring any consequences but can also provide us with visions of creating a better world (or even finding new ones). They show us not only apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic scenarios but also utopic worlds (that sometimes actually turn out to be dystopic). Finally, they address urgent social and environmental issues in an accessible manner and expose or extrapolate the alarming alteration of our planet through human activities. After a short introduction to methods and theories the main focus of the seminar will be the analysis and discussion of films like "Stalker" (1979), "The Day After Tomorrow" (2004), "Avatar" (2009), "Interstellar" (2014), "The Circle" (2017), "Downsizing" (2017) or "Don't Look Up" (2021). HINWEIS: Das Seminar findet im Rahmen des EPICUR-Programms (European University Alliance) statt. KIT-Studierende haben hier die Möglichkeit gemeinsam mit Kommiliton:innen aus anderen europäischen Partner-Universitäten zu studieren. Das Seminar findet deshalb online und vollständig in englischer Sprache statt. Hausarbeiten können gerne auch auf Deutsch eingereicht werden.