LAS 381 - Colonialism and Digital Media in Latin America and the Philippines

The legacies of colonialism in Latin America and the Philippines have been bitterly contested in recent film and digital media. From enslavement to Native rights, creators and audiences have turned to screens to address and interpret some of the greatest traumas of the colonial past. From recent hits of Colombian cinema by Ciro Guerra like Abrazo de la serpiente to the Werner Herzog classic, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, this course uses film analysis, cultural memory, and historical contextualization, to analyze these representations of Latin American history. The course also centers videogame and social media interactivity as fundamental genres of historical narration and indigenous cultural preservation respectively. By engaging digital media critically, we will uncover how they shape popular historical imaginations and create new stories, often expressing the region’s rich complexities and contested historical memories.

Fulfills an elective in the Latin American Studies major and minor.