This course will examine the representation of racial and ethnic identity in film via the work of Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee. We will approach this topic first by briefly looking at the historical emergence of the Italian-American and African-American communities via immigration and U.S. migration during the early twentieth century. We’ll examine the representations of Italian- and African-Americans in the U.S. cinema, and how visual and narrative conventions have been used to construct and reinforce ethnic stereotypes of these two groups. The course will then focus on two historical events from which the work of these two directors emerge; first, the establishment of film studies as an academic discipline and second, the civil rights and countercultural movements of the 1960s and the subsequent rise of identity politics. These two events result in a new self-reflexivity on the part of filmmakers working after the 1960s in terms of their knowledge of film history and aesthetics, the use of film to interrogate ethnic identity, and to narrate specific cultural milieus. Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee have often narrated the racial dynamics between the African- and Italian American communities in New York City, often depicting their relation within the urban landscape in terms of prejudice, xenophobia and the difficulties engendered from assimilation into American society. By examining the work of these two filmmakers, we will investigate the construction and influence of ethnic stereotypes, and the ways in which these filmmakers employ, re-evaluate, challenge, and sometimes re-inscribe these constructs.