Event
Cinema / Ideology / Empathy
This talk challenges still dominant dogma concerning the efficacious ways to use narrative film for positive social change. Instead of alienation and estrangement, it advocates engagement and empathy. Questioning elements of Marxist and Brechtian theory and turning instead to models from liberal philosophy and psychology, it seeks a new understanding of "mainstream" social problem films' ability to effect hearts and minds.
Sarah Kozloff has taught at Vassar since 1988. She teaches genres courses (Romantic Comedy, Musicals), cultural studies classes (The McCarthy Era, Women and Film). Her scholarship focuses on American cinema, particularly on issues related to speech, narrative, and ideology. She has been invited to present her work at major symposiums in Australia, Denmark, Montreal and London, to contribute to textbooks and reference works, and to evaluate film programs at other colleges. Sarah Kozloff’s major publications include: The Norton Introduction to Film Genres (forthcoming 2013); The Best Years of Our Lives in the BFI Film Classics series; Overhearing Film Dialogue; Invisible Storytellers: Voice-over Narration in American Fiction Film; and "Narrative Theory and Television" in Channels of Discourse, Reassembled, ed. Robert C. Allen.