Location:

Riviere, France; Locarno, Switzerland

Program Type:

Study Abroad

Degree Level:

Undergraduate

Term:

Summer

Program Overview

Program Description:

Arrive Date: 8/5/2013 End Date: 9/7/2013

Based in Berlin, one of Europe's most exciting cities, this program examines contemporary cinema by considering the role of film festivals in producing and distributing films around the world. Berlin is one of the world's great metropolises and also an important center for the European film industry, so our two weeks there will include tours of the city, guest speakers, and visiting important film institutions in the city. The highlight of our time will be the Locarno Film Festival, an A-level festival set in the lovely, Italian-speaking lake region of southern Switzerland/northern Italy (near Lake Como). Perched between Cannes (in the spring) and Venice (in the fall), Locarno's is the most important film festival of the summer and generally considered the fourth most important in Europe (behind Cannes, Venice, and Berlin). In addition to a full film festival pass at Locarno, program includes tours of Berlin, Locarno, and Milan, where the program meets and starts before traveling to Locarno. Program also includes ferry, train, and even a tram ride in the Swiss high Alps region (as well as a full transit ticket in Berlin).

COURSES
Film Studies 142/German 142. New German Cinema (4 units) Lecture/discussion—3 hours; extensive writing. German filmmakers of the 1960s-1980s such as Fassbinder, Herzog, Syberberg, Brückner, Schlöndorf, Kluge, Wenders. Knowledge of German not required. May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor.
AND
Film Studies 198/German 198. Directed Group Study (4 units)(P/NP grading only.)

The Locarno Film festival in Locarno, Switzerland. The Locarno festival is an international festival, usually regarded as the most important between the Cannes festival in May and the Venice festival in September. Like those two festivals, it is in a very scenic location: Locarno is in the "lake region" of southern Switzerland/northern Italy, near Lakes Lugano and Como (on which George Clooney has his Italian villa).

Excursions include tours of Berlin and Potsdam and a trip to a film museum.

Upper-division units (open to freshmen through graduates). Taught in English. UC Davis courses taught by University of California, Davis faculty.

Please contact UC Davis Summer Abroad for the most up-to-date information concerning program costs. Programs start around $4,000.

All students enrolled in a Summer Abroad program (Davis and Non-Davis) will have the opportunity to apply for a Travel Award ($500 - $1,500.) Travel award deadline: March 5, 2013. Enrollment deadline is April 5, 2013.

Setting Description:

The program will begin in Berlin and students will stay in a hostel. The last part of the program students will move to Locarno, Switzerland and will stay in a youth hostel.

Locarno is the capital of the Locarno district, located on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore (Lago Maggiore) in the Swiss canton of Ticino, close to Ascona at the foot of the Alps. It has a population of about 15,000[1] (60'000 for the urban area including Ascona). The official language of Locarno is Italian. It is the 74th biggest city in Switzerland by population[citation needed] and the 3rd biggest of the canton Ticino, after Lugano and Bellinzona. An important film festival, the Locarno International Film Festival, takes place every year in August in the Piazza Grande. In January 2004, the Italian historian Marino Vigano speculated that Locarno's castle may have been designed by Leonardo da Vinci.