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The World According to Movies

An exploration into how Sci-Fi films reflect the time period in which they were made.

Essential Questions:

  • How do sci-fi movies reflect the time period they are made in?

  • How does the villain reflect common societal fears?

Key Goals:

  • ​Students will be able to watch movies from a critical lens to explore how they influence and comment on current societal problems.

  • Students will understand that media can be used to reflect society as well as influence society.

  • Students will be able to develop teamwork in a high stress situation such as making a movie.

Final Product:

​By the end of this project students will have created a short film using the genre of sci-fi to make commentary on the world we are living in today.

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Answering questions such as:

  • What are we scared of as a society?

  • How do we find hope when we are scared?

  • How do we create otherness using aliens?

Critical Pedagogy Component:

  • This will be an opportunity to look at sci-fi that is not what we see in mainstream media

    • Explore Afrofuterism, Native America sci-fi as well as Asian-American Sci-fi

  • We will also explore the concept of otherness and how aliens are used in sci-fi and the real world to dehumanize people

Possible Anchor Texts:

  • Readings

    • Trail of Lightening​

    • The Power

    • Carrie Fisher's Memior

    • Robopocalypse

    • The Gauntlet

    • Star Wars and the 4 Ways Science Fiction Handles Race

      • The genre has no problem imagining a future full of spaceships and aliens. A racially integrated society, though?

    • The Ultimate Guide To Creating An Authentic Villain

    • Challenge options:

      • Boundaries and Otherness in Science Fiction: We Cannot Escape the Human Condition

  • Videos

    • Star Wars

    • Episodes from Star Trek

    • Big Bang Theory

    • Black Panther

    • Pumzi

    • Raising Dion

    • Attack the Block​-Rated R

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