This course explores Global and Transnational Cinemas as alternative traditions to the dominant Hollywood-centered accounts of film history. Students will grapple with the historical, social, and political motivations of cinematic projects that critique traditions of national cinema, or that resist the hegemonic force of neocolonial cultural centers. Italian Neo-realism and the French New Wave will be examined as movements that challenge politics and mass culture. Third Cinema in Latin America and pan-African cinematic movements will be examined through their struggles with both colonialism and the rise of post-colonial dictatorships. Indian and Japanese cinemas of the 50s & 60s will mark out new possibilities of filmmaking and distribution. Finally, counter-hegemonic and experimental movements in U.S.-based film, such as the L.A. Rebellion and Fluxus, will allow students to understand how opposition to Hollywood style could exist within the very centers of cultural power while also reaching out to larger global communities.