In schools and colleges have used (and still use) material film for educational purposes is nothing new, but in the five or six last years this material has been introduced into the universities increasingly as part of the mandatory equipment for the teaching itself is novel. William Julius Wilson has been one of the pioneers in teaching sociology to his students at Harvard University, using viewings of the series The Wire. Also at the University of California, Berkeley, students have The Wire between your subjects. Although in Spanish universities the series The Wire has not had the same success in north american universities, Miguel ángel Alzamora, professor, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Murcia, has been used in their classes in the degree of Criminology. For his part, Ivan Rivers, professor of contemporary Philosophy at the Autonomous University of Madrid and Ethics in Alcalá de Henares, has used the series The Sopranos to teach Business Ethics. The same goes with the series Treme , and many more, as well as some of the movies-newest documentaries that try to tell aspects very current economic crisis, political and social.
This novelty in the recent introduction of film material for teaching at the university means that at least us ask one of two questions: what Is happening any kind of transformation in the universities that allow the introduction of material dummy for the teaching? Or how Something is changing in the world of film and the production of series of television that makes you pay more attention and intellectual reflection? Perhaps they are producing changes in the two environments, both in the universities as in the production companies film and tv series. However, it should be the argument that if this was not the case before maybe should be some kind of protocol to scholastic who may have been punishing any practice of mixing the fictional with the “real thing” within the universities, where is kept the greatest treasure of our modernity, that is, the science.
What dummy would be the opposite of the “real thing”, however, we must not forget that the fiction has its origin in some kind of reality. Thus, far from any saint of devotion platonic, the dummy is a representation that tries to explore the possible or impossible of the reality of the question. Thus, the films or the tv series are representations that originate (and are returning) within the social imaginary that we have on the reality (or realities, if you are a constructivist or relativistic). But the cinematic representations are also stories, speeches in the underlying some kind of ideology for a very hidden is it. Therefore, the “language of film” is a vector unavoidable “transmission of values”, whether or not the intention of the directors and film producers.
The book of Beatriz Peña Acuña, will be very useful to see how these cinematic resources in your character moralizing, that is to say, on the possibility of the transmission and reception of values through its contents.
The trial of Beatriz Peña Acuña is designed with the intent to clarify concepts and lay the theoretical foundations that serve as a foundation for the understanding of a complex process: the effective possibility of the transmission of values through the language of cinema. The novelty of the approach is that it takes into account the means of the visual language, the way the intervention of the director with his work, the effect of the same and the nature of the receiver. The present text is due to a desire to find a possible path of exploration between certain variables involved in this product is multidimensional, that is the film. Therefore, we analyze, from a historical perspective, the positions of scientific; they are supported models and concepts of theoretical solid support specifically to the hypothesis about the intentionality of the film directors, at the time of instrument of assessment of the elements of cinematic concrete that used as of the mechanisms of identification of the spectator with the hero of the film.
The dense and at the same time agile exposure of the theoretical overview, it provides the reader, so we, the common thread that allows you to venture through the approach that leads to the outcome of the transmission. We recognize, however, the more ambitious our goals. We hope that, by the contribution of thoughts-exhibitions, the reading will be a source of initiatives, creative and enriching. Rather than closing avenues of inquiry in film Studies, and in a broader sense, in the Social Sciences, we dare you to open them and inspire them with our proposals.
.
.
Brief review about the author
Beatriz Peña Acuña studied Spanish Philology, Bachelor’s degree in humanities and also Journalism. It is Extraordinary Doctorate Award by the University of Alicante. The thesis with european doctorate was entitled: “Humanism and cinema: the implementation of the treatment of human dignity in the creative work of Steven Spielberg.” He is currently a professor contracted doctor accredited in elementary education and business administration at UCAM.