[Air-l] Films/Pedagogy

[Wendy Robinson]

I often show clips of the following tapes:
    * Cyberspace Week tapes from TLC  (1997)
    * Nerds 2.0.1 from PBS  (1998)
    * 1900 House from PBS  (2000)
    * Beyond Human from PBS (2001)
And encourage students to watch some of these films on their own and/or 
I've made one of the essays writing on one or two of these films:
    * Metropolis  (1926 -- students often like the Giorgio Moroder release, 
1984)
    * Frankenstein  (1931 & various -- essential, of course)
    * Fahrenheit 451 (1965 -- book by Ray Bradbury)
    * 2001  (1968 -- will be re-released next year)
    * Tron  (1982 -- another will be released next year, there was a 1994 
video game)
    * Blade Runner  (1982 -- I agree is essential, book by Philip K. Dick)
    * WarGames (1983)
    * Brazil  (1985)
    * RoboCop  (1987 -- franchise with other films, cartoons, ancillary 
products)
    * Lawnmower Man  (1992 -- book by Stephen King)
    * Sneakers  (1992)
    * Johnny Mnemonic  (1995 -- script by William Gibson)
    * Terminator & T2  (1991 -- franchise, including 3D version ride, T3 
coming next year)
    * Disclosure  (1994 -- book by Michael Crichton)
    * Hackers  (1995)
    * The Net  (1995 -- teevee series in 1998)
    * Strange Days  (1995 -- script by James Cameron, based on book by Gibson)
    * The Matrix  (1999 -- two more versions in pre-production)
    * Lara Croft  (2001 -- girl games obviously, film franchise in the works)
    * A.I.  (2001 -- based loosely on a Stanley Kubrick script)
There's also a Gibson film/tape that I've been meaning to view from the 
early 1990s.  And I would love to see _StartUp.com_.  If it's on tape yet, 
I'll definitely show it.

More marginal is Coppola's _Nosferatu_ (1990), which may be useful at this 
time of year.  It has a great sequence with silent films and shows the role 
of communication technology within Victorian society throughout 
(typewriters, telegraph, cinematograph), but it's part of the texture of 
the film, not overt.  I use _1900 House_ for the same reason.  It's sort of 
a _Survivor_, with a contemporary family experiencing late Victorian, 
middle-class technology for three months -- they go bonkers 
eventually.  _1900_ is particularly useful for heightening awareness of 
domestic technology and the role that technology and related consumption, 
with the class issues that fall out, play in women's lives.

The "best"?  Or "classics"?  I think students don't have basic cyber 
literacy unless they've seen at least part of _Metro_ and HAL from 
_2001_.  There are so many pop culture interextual references about 
computers (many commercials draw on _2001_, such as a Mac ad in 1999) and 
cyborgs taking over the earth that draw on those two films as reference 
points that I find them essential, despite their age.  And there is high 
quality criticism as well.  Students often like the films too, if they can 
be coaxed along a bit.

You'll see that I've defined "cyber" pretty broadly.  Four primary reasons:
1)  To encourage students to think outside the <box>Internet</box>.  Just 
because characters in the film use the Net, doesn't necessarily mean that 
the film is about what the Net is about, the world that the Net represents, 
if that makes sense (e.g., computer monitors and email are ubiquitous -- so 
what?).

2)  Problems with the quality/age of many of the films; therefore students' 
appreciation may be diminished.  Movie stars and action/FX are good for 
capturing their imaginations.  _Johnny Mneumonic_ and _Hackers_ are *awful* 
films, but they do have some good sequences and it's fun, if argued the 
right way, to see Keanu Reeves (never more wooden) and Angelina Jolie in 
early performances.  Pierce Brosnan in _Lawnmower_ is a hoot too.

3)  Nevertheless viewing older films helps slip in some historical 
sensitivity to tech, state of the art of yesterday.  And, of course, newer 
may not be "better."  _The Matrix_ is watered down Gibson, but most 
students don't realize it.

4)  Facile vilification of the Net/technology in some films, dumbing down 
for broader audience appreciation (e.g., _The Net_).  A wider selection 
with more thoughtful films encourages less preachy or binary judgmental 
essays.  With my subject matter, it's an occupational hazard.

I too am interested in the final list that shakes out.  Thanks for the thread.

    Wendy Robinson                               wgrobin at duke.edu
    www.duke.edu/~wgrobin                        wgrobin at email.unc.edu
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Instructor: Ethics and the Internet, REL 185.04
    a.k.a. E&I 2.0: Pervasive Computing in the Digital Age
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Duke University                              Department of Religion
    118 Gray Bldg, Box 90964                     Durham, NC  27708
    office: 02CC Perkins Library                 voice mail: (919) 681-1702
    www.duke.edu/~wgrobin/ethics/                fax:  (919) 660-3530
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