| Project Title | Open Access Teaching Dossier for “Different from the Others” |
| Principal Investigator | Ervin Malakaj |
| Faculty | Arts |
| Funding Year | 2023 |
| Project Summary | Richard Oswald’s German film “Anders als die Andern” (“Different from the Others,” 1919) is a landmark in queer cinema history. It is one of the oldest films featuring queer love, figures prominently in the scholarship on queer cinema, and has recently enjoyed significant public attention in light of its over 100-year reception history. In anticipation of its 105th anniversary in 2024, the film museum in Munich issued a remastered restoration of the film on DVD. Moreover, the project PI published an authoritative scholarly book on the film in 2023. However, teaching the film is challenging given that many historical documents relevant for its successful introduction in the classroom are not digitized and not available in English translation. The proposed project would put into place a full teaching dossier on the film, which will be published on the WeimarCinema.org project website. This publication is a peer-reviewed online depository for the teaching and research on Weimar Cinema (the era in German cinema history between 1918-1933). This dossier would include pertinent information about the film suitable for undergraduate and graduate instruction in English. The dossier would include an authoritative introductory essay on the film, a set of 8 relevant documents in German original and English translation (including contemporary film reviews, trade press announcements, and audience responses) mostly available via archival research in Germany, a list of related contemporary films to contextualize its work on the media landscape of its time, as well as an authoritative bibliography of all pertinent scholarship on the film. Finally, the dossier will include sample lessons (a one-week module) and assignments (discussion board prompts based on translated texts, close viewing assignment, and short argumentative paper with accompanying assessment rubrics) for undergraduate and graduate courses on queer film history that help instructors integrate the film into their teaching. The material will be used in GMST 335 German Cinema, which is a course offered every year at UBC (most recently in W2023 T1 capped at 100 students). The materials would enhance the course’s already existing use of library and OER, which have reduced the extra costs for student enrolment in the course to $0. Moreover, the materials would be available to instructors working at other institution interested in teaching the film but who were not able to into integrate it into their courses as a result of too few additional resources available to them and their students. |
| Grant type | OER Rapid Innovation |
| Funded Amount | $1,932 |
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