- Why do we watch movies?
- How do films influence the way we view the world?
- What is the essential or unique power of film?
- How has filmmaking changed over time, and why?
- How does the cinema industry influence the type of films we see?
- What are the roles and responsibilities of a filmmaker?
- Is it important to know the identity of a director? How does this background relate to their film?
- How can students use film or video to change the way we see?
- Understand Sontag’s key arguments about cinema
- Recognize key genres and filmmakers of 20th-century cinema
- Relate Sontag’s arguments about cinema to contemporary films
- Investigate the relationship between cinema as art, and cinema as industry
- Articulate the power of film and video in contemporary life
- Use film and writing to express complex ideas creatively
1-6 Class Periods
VIDEOS:
On Cinema Video and Transcript
HANDOUTS:
Unit Background
Unit Research
Handout 1
Handout 2
Handout 3
Handout 4
WORKSHEET:
Essay/Review Worksheet
Film/Video Worksheet
TEACHING PLANS:
Teach Handout 1
Teach Handout 2
Teach Handout 3
Teach Handout 4
Essay/Review Activity
Film/Video Activity
- Art and Culture
Medium > Visual Arts
Subject Matter > Art History
- History and Social Studies
Themes > Culture
Themes > Globalization
Themes > History of Science and Technology
- Literature and Language Arts
Genre > Drama
Genre > Essay
Place > American
Place > Modern World
- Analysis
- Auditory analysis
- Compare and contrast
- Creative writing
- Critical analysis
- Critical thinking
- Cultural analysis
- Discussion
- Evaluating arguments
- Expository writing
- Film editing
- Historical analysis
- Interpretation
- Literary analysis
- Making inferences and drawing conclusions
- Media analysis
- Musical analysis
- Oral analysis
- Oral communication
- Oral presentation skills
- Persuasive writing and speaking
- Report writing
- Representing ideas and information orally, graphically, and in writing
- Role-playing/Performance
- Summarizing
- Synthesis
- Technology
- Textual analysis
- Using primary sources
- Visual analysis
- Visual art analysis
- Visual art skills
- Visual presentation skills
- Writing skills
- ELA Reading: 1-7, 10
- ELA Writing: 1-6, 9-10
- ELA Speaking & Listening: 1-2, 4-6
- ELA Language: 4, 6
- HSS Reading: 1-5, 7-10
- HSS Writing: 1, 4-6, 9-10
Susan Sontag was known as a passionate cineaste: someone deeply interested in the art of film. Having appeared briefly in a French New Wave film in the late 1950s, she went on to champion the movement in the United States. Her many essays on film include examinations of important directors and their work, from Robert Bresson to Jack Smith, and a late essay, “A Century of Cinema.” She was known to see five or six movies a week, chronicling her film-going in her journals, and returning frequently to the same theater for second or third viewings, long before the days of DVDs, digital downloading, or online viewing. Years into her passionate film viewing, she picked up the camera, directing three features and a documentary.
This lesson asks students to consider their relationship to the art of film, the influence of the modern film industry, which has changed significantly since Sontag’s heyday, and the evolving role of film in the digital era, and to reflect on these questions in their own essays, reviews, and experimental films.
LESSON 2 HANDOUTS
LESSON 2 STUDENT ACTIVITY OPTIONS
- Watch Regarding Susan Sontag and reflect on its relevance to your students and subject area. For extracurricular organizations, community groups, and book clubs, consult our guide on adapting the curriculum.
- Review our curriculum units and lessons below, then choose the individual lesson(s) most aligned to your needs. See our interdisciplinary diagram for more help choosing an appropriate lesson and unit.
- Select the handout(s) and student activity you will use with each lesson.
- Begin the lesson by watching and discussing the lesson video module with Handout 1
- Continue the lesson with Handouts 2-4 to deepen learning (optional)
- Complete the lesson with a student activity: options include writing, presentation, and creative assignments as well as class projects or debates
- Download or print all related resources for your lesson at our resource center (video module, handouts, worksheets, teaching plans), and prepare for classroom use. Preview the lesson video module, familiarizing yourself with the content and any potential areas of sensitivity for your students (see viewing and discussing sensitive materials).
- Reflection questions may also be assigned as short essays or response papers.