ES 183: Films of the Natural and Human Environment
Summer Session B 2015
University of California, Santa Barbara
TR 6:30-8:40 pm, Buchanan 1930
Instructor: Jen Martin, HSSB 3239, jamartin@history.ucsb.edu
Office hours: Wednesdays 3:30-5:30 pm and by appointment
Introduction: Welcome to ES 183: Films of the Natural and Human Environment! In this
course, we will study how film—documentaries, features, shorts—have shaped our ideas
about nature from the early 1900s to the present. We will learn to think about film beyond
simple stories of triumphs or tragedies, of progressive or declensionist narratives.
How should we understand the role of film in environmentalism? How should we talk about
issues and evaluate problem-solving in film? How should we understand the relationship
between objectivity and advocacy in environmental films? Does bias ultimately matter? We
will explore these questions and others in ES 183 as we reflect on the power of film to
change how we look at the natural world and how we choose to live there. I would like you to
walk out of our classroom with the background knowledge and analytical skills to answer
these questions as well as pose and answer your own.
Readings: You should complete all of the assigned readings before each class meeting.
Please bring that day’s reading and notes (either digital or hard copy is fine) to class, so that
we can discuss the text together. All assignments are available on GauchoSpace in an effort
to reduce costs for students.
Assignments and Grades
Grade Breakdown
In-class participation and informal writing:
Key terms quiz:
Critical Film Review Essay:
Take-home Essays:
30 %
16 %
24 %
30 %
***For every 24 hours that any assignment is late, the grade will drop by one letter. That
means, for example, an A paper turned in 30 hours late will become a C paper.***
Participation: The success of this course depends on your good-faith participation. This
means coming to every class prepared to contribute. I will make every effort to learn your
name, and I might call on you to contribute to a discussion even if you do NOT raise your
hand. All classes will have a mixture of lectures, discussions, selections from films, informal
in-class writings, and other exercises, so there will be a number of different ways for you to
participate. Participation can mean something as simple as asking or emailing a question!
Almost every class I will ask for short, informal written responses about that day’s readings,
lecture, or film in order to encourage you to keep up with the readings and to evaluate how
well you understand the course’s content and themes.
If you need to miss a class for a personal, medical, or religious reason, you must
notify me in advance. Neither exemptions nor extensions will be granted after the fact. Please
check your email regularly. Please do not use your electronic devices during class for any
reason except for note-taking. This is especially important during film screenings as the
bright lights will be distracting to your neighbors. If someone is talking during a discussion
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and your head is buried in a laptop without looking up or taking any notes, I will assume that
you are not paying attention to the issues at hand.
Key terms quiz: I will give you a list of eight key terms on Thursday, August 13 from the
glossary in Timothy Corrigan’s Short Guide to Writing About Film. This glossary is available
on GS. You will define each term. Each answer is worth two points and two percent of your
final grade.
Critical Film Review Essay: Choose any film listed at the end of the syllabus and write a
critical review of that film. Some of the films are difficult to access, so you may need to use
the interlibrary loans services available in the library. Please plan ahead. Your review must
be 4-5 pages in length, typed, 12-point font, double-spaced, and proofread. In the first part of
the review, you should try summarize and evaluate the film. You should assume that your
reader has NOT seen the film. This section is worth 12 points. What did you like or not like?
Why? What are its themes, narrative, characters, plot, point of view, sound? Use the key
terms you learned from Corrigan. In the second part of the review, you should identify at
least two ways that the film succeeded and at least two ways that the film did not succeed in
shaping your ideas about nature. How did the film make you feel or think differently about
the environment? In what ways did the film tackle an issue and/or evaluate problem-solving?
In what ways, if at all, did your film address the relationship between objectivity and
advocacy in environmentalism? This section is worth 12 points. Don’t forget an introduction
and a conclusion. Please turn in a hard copy of your review essay at the beginning of
class on Thursday, August 27.
Take-home essays: You will have eight days to prepare essay responses to two out of three
questions based on the course content and skills. Each essay will be about 3 pages in length.
You must use lectures, discussions, presentations, and readings to craft your essay answers.
Each essay is worth 15 points. You must turn in the hard copy of your essays to me at my
office, 3239 HSSB, by 12 pm on Friday, September 11. I will be holding extended office
hours during week six, so that you can turn in the hard copy of your take-home essays to me
earlier if you wish. Please do not slide your essays under the office door.
Other policies
Crashing: If you are not yet registered, during week one you should sign the waiting list at
the end of each class. Please see the instructor.
Equal Access for All Students: If you have any learning or medical condition that requires
accommodation to complete the course work, please ensure that the Disabled Students
Program (DSP) is aware of your disability and that you are familiar with your DSP
responsibilities. See http://dsp.sa.ucsb.edu/Index.aspx. I am committed to work with you and
DSP to find the appropriate accommodations.
Plagiarism: UCSB takes plagiarism and other academic misconduct very seriously. If you
turn in any work that fails to acknowledge the contributions of others, it may result in failure
of the assignment or the course itself. If you are unsure what constitutes plagiarism, please
ask. We will discuss plagiarism in detail.
Incomplete Grades: Incompletes will not be given for this class, except in the most extreme
circumstances, such as a debilitating illness or death in the immediate family.
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Copyright: All of the materials you receive through this course are subject to federal
copyright laws and university policies. Distribution of these materials, such as posting them
online or selling them to third party businesses, are strictly prohibited.
Schedule:
Week One
T, Aug. 4: Introductions
Presentation: A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet, 2012
Reading: Anthony Downs, “Up and Down with Ecology-the Issue-Attention Cycle,” The
Public Interest (Summer 1972): 38-50.
PAST NATURES
R Aug. 6: Finding Eden in Wilderness
Presentation: Episode 2: “The Last Refuge (1890–1915),” in Ken Burns’ National Parks,
2009
Reading: William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong
Nature,” Environmental History 1 (1996): 7-55.
Week Two
T, Aug. 11: Ecological Indians
Presentations: Ecological Indian PSA, 1971; Avatar, 2009
Reading: Shepard Krech, “Introduction,” and “Epilogue,” in Ecological Indian: Myth and
History, 15-28, 211-29.
R, Aug. 13: Green Imperialism
Presentation: King Kong, 1933
Reading: Howie Movshovitz, “The Myths and Men Behind King Kong” National Public
Radio (11 December 2005): npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5048064
Key Terms Quiz Today, Thursday, August 13
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Week Three
T, Aug. 18: New Deal Natures
Presentation: The Plow That Broke the Plains, 1936; The River, 1937
Reading: William Cronon, “A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative,” Journal of
American History 78 (1992): 1347-76.
R, Aug. 20: Disney Postwar Fantasies
Presentations: Bambi, 1942; Nature’s Half-Acre, 1951
Reading: Matt Cartmill, “The Bambi Syndrome,” in A View to a Death in the Morning:
Hunting and Nature through History, 161-88.
PRESENT NATURES
Week Four
T, Aug. 25: Hunting the Hunters
Presentation: Jaws, 1975; Grizzly Man, 2005
Reading: Val Plumwood, “Being Prey,” Utne Reader (July/August 2000). Available at
http://www.utne.com/arts/being-prey.aspx#axzz357vUfV8i
John Berger, “Why Look at Animals?” in About Looking (1980), 3-28. Available on
Gauchospace.
R, Aug. 27: Fishing the Oceans
Presentations: End of the Line, 2009; Leviathan, 2012
Reading: Callum Roberts, “Mare Incognitum,” and “Ecosystems at Your Service,” In The
Ocean of Life, 213-40.
Critical Film Review Essay Due Today, Thursday, August 27
Week Five
T, Sept. 1: Politics of Food
Presentation: Food, Inc., 2008
Reading: “Reforming Fast Food Nation: A Conversation with Eric Schlosser,” and
“Exploring the Corporate Powers Behind the Way We Eat,” in Food Inc.: A Participant
Guide: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer-And What You Can Do
About It, 3-18, 27-40.
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FUTURE NATURES
R, Sept. 3: Industrial Sublime: Land/Water, Movement/Repose, and Socialism/ Capitalism
Presentations: Manufactured Landscapes, 2006; Forgotten Space, 2010
Reading: Philip E. Steinberg, Review of The Forgotten Space, Society and Space, Accessible
at http://societyandspace.com/reviews/film-reviews/sekula/
Manohla Dargis, “Industrial China’s Ravaging of Nature, Made Disturbingly Sublime,” New
York Times (20 June 2007)
Week Six
T, Sept. 8: Energy
Presentation: China Syndrome, 1979
Reading: Marsha Weisiger, “When Life Imitates Art,” Environmental History 12 (2007):38385.
R, Sept. 10: Knowing Climate Futures
Presentation: Merchants of Doubt, 2014
Reading: Naomi Oreskes, “Playing Dumb on Climate Change,” New York Times (3 January
2015).
Take-Home Essays Due By Friday, September 11, 12 pm, in HSSB 3239.
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Film Options for Critical Film Review Essay
1910 Roosevelt in Africa
1922 Nanook of the North
1923 Simba: King of the Beast
1925 White Fang
1928 Simba
1930 The Silent Enemy
1934 Man of Aran
1938 The Adventures of Chico
1942 The Land
1948 Seal Island
1954 Them!
1954 Salt of the Earth
1956 Moby Dick
1956 The Silent World
1958 Roots of Heaven
1959 On the Beach
1960 Harvest of Shame
1966 Born Free
1966 Namu, the Killer Whale
1972 Deliverance
1973 Soylent Green
1976 Day of the Animals
1976 Harlan County, USA
1981 The Road Warrior
1988 Yosemite: The Fate of Heaven
1988 L’Our (The Bear)
1988 Gorillas in the Mist
1990 Dances with Wolves
1991 The Living Planet
1992 Imaging Indians
1994 The Lion King
1996 Microcosmos
1997 Princess Mononoke
1999 Bhopal Express
2000 Erin Brockovich
2000 Stranger with a Camera
2000 The Return of the Navajo Boy
2001 The Blue Planet
2004 Day After Tomorrow
2004 The Yes Men
2005 Our Daily Bread
2006 Sharkwater
2006 Children of Men
2006 An Inconvenient Truth
2006 Blue Vinyl
2006 Losers and Winners
2007 Into the Wild
2007 King Corn
2008 Milking the Rhino
2008 The Greening of Southie
2008 Upstream Battle
2008 Trouble the Water
2008 Sleep Dealer
2008 Wall E
2008 Birdemic: Shock and Terror
2009 The Cove
2009 The National Parks: America’s Best
Idea, by Ken Burns
2009 The Road
2009 The Yes Men Fix the World
2010 Waste Land
2010 Cave of Forgotten Dreams
2010 Divine Pig
2010 Into Eternity
2010 Pit No. 8
2010 Detroit Wild City
2011 Sun Come Up
2011 Semper Fi: Always Faithful
2011 If A Tree Falls
2011 The City Dark
2012 The Dust Bowl, A Film by Ken
Burns
2012 Chasing Ice
2012 Beasts of the Southern Wild
2012 Leviathan
2013 Blackfish
2013 Powerless
2013 Pandora’s Promise
2013 Watermark
2014 DamNation
2014 Wild
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