RELSTY 218G: Religion & Film

Religion, like film, makes worlds. Practitioners, like viewers, are asked to suspend belief in order to enter another world-and then find that world in this world. We leave a detective movie and start seeing the world as a series of clues; we leave a prayer meeting and start looking for moments of grace in daily life. This course serves as both an introduction to the methods and key terms in the study of religion and as a way to gain a richer understanding of why we watch films and how they work on us. We address topics such as: How do films such as Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" or Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust" organize the world through myths about good and evil and with rituals that bind communities across generations? How does the Coen brother's "A Serious Man" retell a Biblical story for the present? And how do Afro-futurist films such as Sun Ra's "Space is the Place" help viewers imagine world not structured by racism?