JAN 112 - How to Live, What to Do: Ten Short Films about the Ten Commandments

Level:  Lower Division (100 Level): For First-Year Students ONLY

Course Times:  12:00pm - 2:40pm

Note: See the Jan Term website for meeting days if not specified here.

Course Materials Fee:  $10

Instructor(s):  Ebenkamp, Paul

Email:  pe1@stmarys-ca.edu

This course is a meditation on Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Dekalog” film cycle: ten short films about the Ten Commandments. Long considered a “holy grail” of world cinema, in this class, we will have the uncommon pleasure of studying and appreciating all ten films as a class community. The many different perspectives each of us bring to the world around us every day-including but not limited to aesthetics, spirituality and religion, history, politics, identity, and difference-will form our basis for thinking through real-life ethics with compassion, humor, and curiosity. 

We will learn some basics of cinematography and film theory to allow us to hone in on the films’ meanings and messages. We will watch, absorb, enjoy, and explore the modern conflicts faced by Kieslowski’s characters, with their brave, lonely, sad, funny, weird, drastic and surprising yet always plausible ways of negotiating an individualistic world still deeply informed by the laws of those ancient books, Exodus and Deuteronomy. 

Students of any and all academic and spiritual disciplines are encouraged to enroll. The Dekalog films are intense, austere, and occasionally disturbing. This is an intellectually and emotionally challenging class designed for adventurous souls. 

 See this link for a Dekalog trailer: https://vimeo.com/178495846

Prerequisites & Notes
None

Credits: 3-CU