Undergrad years are tough for almost everyone and I've tried to be reasonably understanding of that as a teacher. But I've also tried not to shirk away from showing my students films that I think are crucial, regardless of the "traumatizing" content. I've shown my classes (some might say inflicted them with) Cronenberg's THE FLY, Jarman's THE LAST OF ENGLAND, Fassbinder's IN A YEAR OF THIRTEEN MOONS, Bergman's THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY and SHAME, Godard's WEEKEND, Todd Haynes POISON, to name just a few, and have never had much trouble. I should say that it's been my experience that it's the Politically Correct (in the bad sense of the term) *grad* students who tend to be more of a problem... When I was working on my masters degree a few years ago, some of the other grad students were about ready to kill one of our (very best) professors for showing SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT, GOOD WOMAN OF BANCOCK, and TRIUMPH OF THE WILL... as if, somehow by showing those film (in courses on US Independent Cinema, cross cultural representation in film, and documentary cinema respectively), it meant that this professor was pro-rape, pro objectification of women, and pro Nazi... even though it was very much in the spirit of those courses that the issues of misogyny, cinematic objectification of "the other", and fascism be brought up so that they could be discussed in a scholarly and rational way! As for the undergrads I've taught, it seems that when I've *prepared* them for a shocking film, made sure they were ready for it , and then *validated* their sense of shock... much of the potential for disaster has been alleviated. After showing WEEKEND once, a (very upset) student said: "That seems like the kind of film Charles Manson would have made!" I told this student immediately that I thought hers was a very good observation. We then talked about the concept of the "implied author", how WEEKEND might well be seen as a text that actually tries to *imply* a kind of "Charles Manson" mind-set behind its creation. At the end of the day this student gave me a very good evaluation and told me she liked my course very much... And when I showed the documentary SILVERLAKE LIFE: THE VIEW FROM HERE in a Homosexuality in Film course, our class had the best discussion of the entire year, despite the fact that it shows--in excruciating detail--a man die of HIV disease right in front of the audiences' eyes. A student "came out" as having nursed his lover till the end of the lover's life, and another student came out as HIV positive in front of 60 other kids. It was, in a way, the most amazing hour I ever spent in front of a class and yet I almost canceled the screening to show something less harrowing, like PHILADELPHIA or JEFFREY. I must say, finally, that it can get somewhat silly to worry too much about all of this, though. I know that--at least in the recent past--Brigham Young University, in my home state of Utah, hasn't been able to show "R" rated films to their students, something that a couple of their professors I've talked with are deeply embarrassed about. Can you imagine teaching film history without showing a single R rated film? No PSYCHO, THE GODFATHER, NASHVILLE, TAXI DRIVER, BLADE RUNNER, SCHINDLER'S LIST, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN?... (Maybe things have changed there. It was six or seven years ago when I had this discussion....) But my favorite example of film school self-censorship has to be the one that a colleague of mine told me about a few years ago. (This again involves the much-maligned Ingmar Bergman...) When I mentioned to this fellow teacher that I had shown (gasp!) three Bergman films in a class on European Art Cinema, he said: "You know at *my* school we had a Bergman seminar... until a student who was taking it committed suicide one year... WE'VE NEVER TAUGHT A BERGMAN COURSE AGAIN." Good Grief! I hope they also banished Fassbinder, Bresson, Cassavetes, Imamura and Antonioni at the same time, and that the school in question made a vow to never give anything lower than a B+ to any of their students, since students--from time to time--have been known to commit suicide after having received bad grades. I don't want this to sound too flippant, but I really mean it when I say that sometimes the presentation of a topic can make all the difference in the world. If the tone of the class is happy and light and conducive to debate and validating of the students' concerns, one can usually show the most harrowing of films. And if a student is going to be closed minded and announce, simply, that they "will not watch an 'R' rated movie!" I don't really think I can have much sympathy for that level of prejudice... Daniel Isaac Humphrey Department of Art & Art History University of Rochester 424 Morey Hall Rochester NY 14627-0456 www.rochester.edu/College/AAH/people/grad/humphrey.html ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]