This interdisciplinary course aims to bring together sociological insights to the study of cinematography and the exploration of modern Greek culture. On the one hand, sociology, the study of societies, involves observation, description and analysis of social phenomena via the application of coherent conceptual and theoretical frameworks. On the other hand, film and cinema constitute potential areas of inquiry in subdisciplines of sociology such as the sociology of art, the sociology of culture, and the sociology of leisure, as well as in urban sociology and sociological studies of modernity and of the public sphere. This course explores films as a social text, as a vehicle for social commentary, analysis, and critique, particularly with regard to social issues, thus examining the sociological implications of film rather than cinema as an art form or as a form of entertainment. This sociological lens entails the examination of how films reflect, influence, and are influenced by social structures, cultural norms and explores how cinematic narratives can reveal societal values, ideologies, and power dynamics. In this perspective, film becomes a fascinating field of social observation where we can study the representation of social groups (based on race, gender, class, sexuality, and other social identities and divisions) as well as how these portrayals perpetuate or challenge stereotypes and dominant ideologies. Films as ideological productions contribute to form historical shared perceptions of social realities and as such they are central in both the creation of social consensus but also in the explicit or implicit critique of conformism. The collective anxieties, traumas and memories as well as the values and attitudes of a given time though are not only reflected in the film but cinema, as a major cultural form, influences and shapes these social values and beliefs.

In this course, the sociological and cinematic lens focuses on Greek society to examine how its turbulent twentieth century history and the cultural changes it underwent are represented in cinematography. In particular, via an exploration of Greek cinematography from the 1950s to today, this course will address the divide between the urban and the rural; the transformation of agrarian societies by the modernization process and the sweeping power of modern ideologies; the representation of gender and sexuality, morals, norms and the ramifications of their transgression; the legacy of traumatic historical events, such as the Minor Asia Catastrophe and the Greek Civil War; the depiction of the trauma of displacement, poverty and the refugee condition; the cinematographic take on contemporary issues like the environmental damage and touristification; the depiction of the challenges of migration and the migrant experience.

While exploring the depiction of social issues in the recent history of the country, the course will also discuss the evolution of different aesthetic styles in cinematography, from Greek realism to the recent Greek weird wave and Greek neo-noir in order to assess the ways socio-political realities shape artistic approaches and innovations.