[Air-L] suggestions for movies on communication technology and social change

[Beth Corzo-Duchardt]

Looks like we’re generating a great list, I hope someone compiles a master list and shares it. The dystopic versions of these stories are particularly interesting to me, so I have lots of examples. I’ve included some that haven’t yet been mentioned below. But I’d also suggest that in addition to giving students a list of 5 or so films (and/or TV shows, I think some have already mentioned *Black Mirror* and *Mr. Robot*), you encourage them to come up with their own examples. I do a similar assignment and I find that students never cease to come up with interesting interpretations of films I’d never have considered in those terms. For example, one of my students talked about how *Gone Girl* (David Fincher, 2014) makes an argument about the power of the news media to guide public opinion. 

Some interesting early examples that mirror today’s discussions about mediated identity construction and the documentary power of moving images: 
*Hoodoo Ann* (Ingraham, 1916). A girl accidentally shots a gun as she’s mimicking a Western star and mistakenly believes she’s killed a man because she applies (faulty) movie-logic to interpret the real-life events.
*A Reckless Romeo* (Fatty Arbuckle, 1917) A philandering husband is caught on film and publicly shamed when he appears in a public service newsreel entitled “Mashers in our Parks Must be Stopped” (in contemporary parlance, to *mash* meant to *come on to* someone who was unwelcoming)
*Sherlock Jr.* (Buster Keaton, 1924) a boy dreams himself into a movie where he becomes a better version of himself. In the end, he wakes up and in the film’s final seconds kisses the girl of his dreams after learning from the movie exactly what to do. 


Two films that I often use clips from for in-class examples in advance of the assignment are: 
*Idiocracy* (Mike Judge, 2006) A pretty terrible and somewhat racist film about a future dystopia where American citizens have become stupefied by evermore vapid TV programming and automated living. Despite, or actually, because of it’s failings, I find it to be very teachable.
*Wall-E* (Andrew Stanton, 2008) This popular Disney/Pixar collaboration depicts a future of fat, lazy, stupid and disconnected humans that is very similar to the world of Idiocracy, though it does have a feel-good environmentalist message. 

Has anyone mentioned *Tron* (Steven Lisberger, 1982)? It sort of fits the digital activism mold, though ironically it was funded by a company a lot like the villain on the movie (Disney) to help sell video games.

All Best, 
Beth


Beth Corzo-Duchardt, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor of Media & Communication
Muhlenberg College
bcorzo-duchardt at muhlenberg.edu <mailto:bcorzo-duchardt at muhlenberg.edu>
bethcorzoduchardt.com <http://bethcorzoduchardt.com/>