This is an interdisciplinary course that utilizes film to consider the Amazon basin, its history, peoples, and landscapes through cinematic representations. The course places the films in the context of film history and critical theory. Films range from the imaginative re-enactments of early exploration; first contacts between Europeans and native Americans; rubber boom extravagances; rainforest ecology and threats to rainforest survival; as well as complex social interactions in modern Amazonia. Representation through film is a motif throughout the course, culminating in fully fictionalized accounts of Amazonia. The course takes into consideration the Brazilian, North American, Mexican, European and Argentine creators of the films and their visions of Amazonia, as well as the audiences and markets to which the films are intended. It considers images of Amazonia over four decades through dramatic and visual depictions. Formerly offered as ANTH468D.

Prerequisites/Rules:
Credits: 3
Grading Method: Regular, Pass-Fail, Audit