Motels and Margins in Film | Ryan Ranch

Course Description:

Motels in film settings are much more than location; they often serve as characters themselves. Motels house disenfranchised lives, the homeless, transients, alternative communities, as well as vacationers while also providing a recognizable and intentional architecture. The films we'll study are based in this marginal world; they'll permit us to ask questions about the lives, struggles and hopes of people who either choose motel life, visit motels, or have been (self) exiled to these roadside structures. Films and streaming series for discussion may include "Memento," "American Honey," "Fool for Love," "Schitt's Creek," "The Florida Project," "To Leslie," and others.