Jim Paradis, Professor of Comparative Media Studies and Writing
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Explore the culture of surveillance in modern society in a series of brilliant films about surveillance and modernity. Brief introductions and after-viewing discussions explore the rise of surveillance in the framework of shifting media regimes. Light snacks will be served.
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Contact: Jim Paradis, jparadis@mit.edu
| Jan/07 | Tue | 06:00PM-08:30PM | 56-114 |
Futuristic sci-fi film of crime detection in a PreCrime Department (Tom Cruise) that apprehends criminals before they commit crimes. (2002), directed by Steven Spielberg (145 min)
| Jan/14 | Tue | 06:00PM-08:30PM | 56-114 |
Pursuit of a compulsive child killer (Peter Lorre) in pre-WWII Berlin in a growing web of police, neighborhood, and underworld surveillance practices concludes with an injunction to "keep closer watch over the children." (1931), directed by Fritz Lang (111 min)
| Jan/16 | Thu | 06:00PM-08:30PM | 56-114 |
East German Stasi officer (Ulrich Muhne) oversees the surveillance of a state-approved playwright's East Berlin apartment and becomes emotionally entangled with his subject in a milieu in which everyone monitors everyone. (2006), directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmark (138 min)
| Jan/21 | Tue | 06:00PM-08:30PM | 56-114 |
Professional photographer (James Stewart), incapacitated with an injury, passes the time monitoring neighbors with binoculars during a summer heatwave and stumbles on what seems to be a murder scene in a milieu of suspicious neighbors. (1954), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, (112 min)
| Jan/23 | Thu | 06:00PM-08:30PM | 56-114 |
Surveillance expert (Gene Hackman) descends into a informational hall of mirrors, as he misinterprets a conversation and unwittingly sets the stage for a murder. (1974), directed by Francis Ford Coppola (113 min)
| Jan/28 | Tue | 06:00PM-08:30PM | 56-114 |
Out of control NSA agents engage in political assassination, which is inadvertently recorded and then followed by a surveillance/counter surveillance extravaganza that entangles a lawyer (Will Smith) whose identity and reputation are destroyed. (1998), directed by Tony Scott (132 min)
| Jan/30 | Thu | 06:00PM-08:30PM | 56-114 |
Documentary exploration of the hacktavist culture of Anonymous and its modeling of surveillance and action by the many against organizations and state-supported institutions. (2012), directed by Brian Knappenberger (93 min)