Projections: Dystopia Now?

Cinematic visions of dystopian societies are typically understood as projections of imagined futures, seemingly distant worlds brutalized by the crushing hands of totalitarianism and state-sanctioned violence, made paranoid under constant, pervasive surveillance, and degraded through apocalyptic warfare and environmental collapse. 

Yet, as this Coolidge Education class will explore, genre cinema’s dystopian fictions don’t just serve as premonitory visions, but often boldly point to the present as already made rotten by abuses of power, systems and technologies of dehumanization, and ideologies of ignorance and hate. 

Over the course of five sessions, we will examine the varied ways filmmakers have historically depicted and critiqued rampant consumerism, authoritarianism, anti-intellectualism, the prying eyes of “Big Brother,” and the end-of-the-world as we know it. From biting satire (Idiocracy) and poetic provocations (Stalker), to perhaps unexpected examples of Hollywood franchise spectacle (Revenge of the Sith), our class will navigate and place into conversation films that show us the dystopian conditions that exist just beyond the frame. 

About Alex Svensson

Alex Svensson is Affiliated Faculty at Emerson College in their School of Film, Television, and Media Arts; he has also been a Lecturer of film and media studies at MIT, and has previously taught a course on found footage horror with Coolidge Education. His research primarily focuses on genre cinema, horror media, media controversies, and promotional culture. Alex's work can be found in the book Jordan Peele’s Get Out: Political Horror (ed. Dawn Keetley), as well as in New Review of Film and Television Studies, Monstrum, Horror Homeroom, in media res, and Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies. 

This Coolidge Education Class is embedded within our January rep series “Projections” and includes all Tuesday night screenings in that series. 

Classes are only available for purchase as a package, not as individual sessions.