Cinematic Creativity in Spain: Authorship, Industry, Politics

Is film a fruit of collaborative creative effort or does it reflect the sensibility of a single author? Who deserves more credit: the director, the writer, the star?
A variety of controversies related to filmic creation are explored in examples from Spanish cinema. Creativity in film industry is studied through CIFESA studios (1932-1961). French auteurs theory, favoring the film-director as the principal creator, is presented through the
works of Camus and Berlanga. Criticism of auteur’s importance is implicit in postmodern examples (Almodovar, Medem). Political controversies involve creativity under dictatorship, cultural politics of Spanish democracy and women’s contributions. Contemporary discussions tackle innovative approaches to realism (Sorogoyen, Lacuesta), appropriation of filmic creativity by digital media and recent theories on film as collaborative art (Sellors, 2007, Simonton, 2011). Students will have an opportunity to do creative tasks in form of course assignments.