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If there's one thing I've learned in my limited experience with preparing a film course syllabus it is this: you never end up with the films you begin with.
When I found out that I had successfully lobbied for my Cult film course (due to begin in July), I was ecstatic. I had so many films that I wanted to show! I broke them down into categories: by genre, by director, by media, by decade, etc. It feels like the cinematic equivalent of a kid in a candy store: there are so many options it's hard to think of where to begin.
And then the shine comes off...quickly.
What initially seems like the most exciting aspect of preparing a course rapidly becomes the equivalent of Sophie's choice as you have to jettison your choice films for a variety of reasons. The unfortunate truth (and I'm still struggling with this) is that you can't just show the films you like and you think other people should watch. Instead you have to do right by the course and pick the best films for your particular topic.
Oh sure, you can squeeze in a few films that make sense and you happen to adore (in fact I'm dedicating the final week to films I think should be cult films and asking students to think about why they should or should not be included). But for the most part you can't do this because you're doing a disservice to your students. Just because you like something does not mean that it is the best fit!
What you end up with is a Frankenstein hybrid of your ideal course: some films you love and other films you end sitting at the back of the class, wincing in pain, wondering if students will hate you because you forced them to sit through this schlock. For my first go around in the slasher course, this was the Canadian week when they were forced to endure Ripper: Letter From Hell (which is a truly atrocious film in terms of editing, acting and narrative). Ultimately it served the right purpose for the week, but it was hard to get up in front of students the next class and talk about it, especially when the damn film turned out to be 1/2 hr longer than I remembered and the class ran late!
And so, as I sit here on my self-imposed day off to work on the course, I'm still trying to make my Sophie's choice film list: do I try to include a "women in prison film" (Caged Heat) and if I do is it at the expense of my blaxploitation film (Coffy)? Can I cram Rocky Horror Picture Show into the first week (at 2.5 hrs) and can I justify an entire week of Takashi Miike films (Audition/Ichi, the killer) instead of spreading out the love to David Lynch and David Cronenberg?
The answer is that I just don't know - this is definitely still a work in progress...
Look for many more updates as the weekend continues. The boy is gone to MTL, so this is what I'll be working on for the next two days.
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