Broadcast: 8 – 9 January, 2021

Duration: 5 hours 52 minutes

PROJECTIONS: David Bowie Music Videos and Filmography

The passing of David Bowie in January 2016 left planet Earth decidedly blue. “It’s been five years, what a surprise…” Dystopia, extraterrestrials, surrealism, and androgyny are some of the recurrent themes in Bowie’s avant-garde artistry that endeared him to mavericks and weirdos the world over. He mastered musical genres as diverse as folk, glam, soul, rock, funk, drum & bass, industrial, and jazz, updating his image with every ground-breaking step. Bowie’s enduring impact reaches beyond music, influencing the fields of the internet, fashion, cinema, painting, dance, and theatre; we lost a veritable multi-media virtuoso. His embodiment and shedding of various alter egos (Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Thin White Duke) became a symbol of bold experimentation; these characters were masks he initially relied on as a performer to cover up shyness and crippling stage fright.

In this 2-part online course, we will turn to psychoanalytic theory to establish the interpretive framework of David Bowie’s music videos and filmography, with a focus on his personas, experience of childhood trauma, struggle with mental illness, addiction, isolation, resilience, and creative autonomy. This course is a celebration of a unique musical genius, our dearly departed glamorous alien, one so evolved that he confronted his own mortality with unimaginable courage, turning death into a work of art.

Advance viewing is optional. Scenes from films, music videos, and televised interviews will be broadcast in the livestream sessions.

Part 1: MUSIC VIDEOS

Exploring Bowie’s game-changing music video legacy, from the radical early years (Life On Mars), to the innovative Berlin period (Heroes), New Romantic phase (Ashes To Ashes), mainstream chart-topping success (Let’s Dance), via house, jungle, and techno (Little Wonder), culminating in the neo-classical era of a nostalgic artist reconnecting with modern culture (Where Are We Now?).

Part 2: FILMOGRAPHY

Examining Bowie’s acting career and how his star status was reflected and elevated in documentaries and feature film roles, including Cracked Actor, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Just A Gigolo, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, The Hunger, Absolute Beginners, Labyrinth, Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me, and The Prestige.

 

PROJECTIONS is psychoanalysis for film interpretation. PROJECTIONS empowers film spectators to express subjective associations they consider to be meaningful. Expertise in psychoanalytic theory is not necessary – the only prerequisite is the desire to enter and inhabit the imaginary world of film, which is itself a psychoanalytic act. MARY WILD, a Freudian cinephile from Montreal, is the creator of PROJECTIONS.

 

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