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From colonialist fictions of the 1920s and 1930s and politically engaged works of the 1960s, to family sagas and personal essays looking back in the new century on a conflicted past, Algeria has featured prominently in France's cinematographic imaginary. In the six decades since gaining independence, Algeria has likewise produced compelling narratives that address the colonial legacy, the armed liberation struggle and its aftermath, up to and including the institution of one-party rule and the outbreak of the “invisible war” of the 1990s. This seminar in transnational film study addresses from both sides of the Mediterranean an entangled political and cultural history. It examines conflicting screen representations as well as the institutions, individuals, and publics associated with them. We will ask how choice of source material, generic conventions, narrative viewpoint, and ideological bias make of each work a discrete historiographical act. How do groups of spectators selectively construct divergent “screen memories” along the lines of gender, nationality, or other subgroups? Seminar in English; reading knowledge of French required. Films will be screened with English or French subtitles whenever available.