Course in Contemporary Greek Cinema, Culture & Society at Oxford

Contemporary-Greek-Cinema-CourseTuesday, 17 January – Tuesday 20 March 2012; 5:00 – 7:00 pm.

This 10-week course explores modern Greek culture and society through a range of Greek films that have shaped contemporary Greek cinema. The course is an opportunity for the general public to broaden their knowledge of Greek culture and cinema, which is fast gaining international acclaim.

Over the last twenty years or so a contemporary cinema has emerged from Greece with a different style, thematic concerns and narrative techniques. The current trends and aspirations in Greek cinema signify a rupture with the past – the older commercial cinema of the 1950s and 1960s as well as the New Greek Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s.

This new 10-week course explores modern Greek culture and society through
a range of Greek films that have shaped contemporary Greek cinema.
The course is an opportunity for the general public to broaden their
knowledge of Greek culture and cinema, which is fast gaining international
acclaim.
Over the last twenty years or so a contemporary cinema has emerged from
Greece with a different style, thematic concerns and narrative techniques.
The current trends and aspirations in Greek cinema signify a rupture with the
past – the older commercial cinema of the 1950s and 1960s as well as the
New Greek Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s.

Although by no means homogenous, the films belonging in this new ‘trend’ are characterised by faster pace, less introspection and theorising, more focus on relationships and family dynamics, hybridity in genre and style, awareness of the codes of popular culture, and indifference to the issue of Greekness or large political statement. They are realist in terms of their choice and treatment of subject matter.

The course looks at ways in which these ‘new current’ films negotiate contemporary social realities to depict a society which, set within a European context, has undergone radical changes.

The course aims to provide an overview of current political, social and cultural trends in contemporary Greek society through its cinema and to examine how its preoccupations compare with British as well as European ones.

Enquiries:

University of Oxford, Department for Continuing Education
Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA, United Kingdom
E-mail: ppweekly@conted.ox.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1865 270360

Fee: from £150.

Click here for more details.