Teaching with cinema
Lisa Van Gemert who teaches at Lamar High School in Texas was one of the people whose suggestions led me to set up the sharing comparative group (see the link on the right of the blog web page).She teaches English as well as comparative government, and brings a helpful perspective to the political science course. Here are three of her video suggestions. I doubt that I would have thought of The Painted Veil as an analogy of Sino-British relations, but teachers of literature learn to spot symbolism like that.
Thanks, Lisa.
"I have three suggestions for DVDs that go with the course.
"First, The Painted Veil with Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. It is the video version of Somerset Maugham's novel about a British infectious disease specialist in China in 1925 with his faithless wife. "There is some good treatment of the nationalist movement. I used this in class to show the relationship between the two characters as a metaphor for Chinese/British relations. In the movie, the two people should never have married, but manage to forge something out of a relationship begun badly. Students can write very good analysis of the implications of what this means for modern Sino-British relations. This was very successful.
"Secondly, the documentary Guests of the Ayatollah is riveting. It is based on the book by the man who wrote Blackhawk Down. It is available through Wild Eyes Productions (contact: jody@wildeyesproductions.com). It is $39.95 plus $5 shipping. It is a four-part documentary. The part "Takeover" includes a lot of background on the US/Iran issues of the 1950s. The book is also excellent, though too long probably to assign.
"Lastly, the movie Amazing Grace about the ending of the British slave trade (based on a true story) covers the functioning of the British government in an interesting way. You can pause at points in the movie, asking students to make suggestions to the characters based on what they know of British politics. They enjoy seeing if the politicians follow their advice!"Labels: China, history, pedagogy, UK
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:03 AM
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