Spring 2026
Cinema and Human Rights
Dates: January 30, 2026 - May 22, 2026Day/Time: Friday 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST
Level: 300-Level
Certificate: Human Rights
Instructor: Sabine El Chamaa, Bard College
This course looks at the intersection between human rights and cinema by exploring fiction and non-fiction films (both in terms of plot and film form) directed by pioneering filmmakers. Students will acquire the analytical tools to read films as text through an interdisciplinary lens, drawing from readings in film theory, film studies, anthropology, queer studies, and post-colonial studies. They will equally acquire the tools to understand the inseparable nature of film form (Editing, Cinematography, Sound) from the filmmaker’s intent. The course critically engages with the historical (and current) role of film in provoking social change, problematising the changing historical and cultural notions of human rights, while questioning the inherent ideologies in the politics of representation. The course will require film viewings, and will be taught through a combination of lectures and debates.
Credits: 3 US / 6 ECTS