I'd rather watch the movie than read the book

Geographers have been using film as a pedagogic device for some time, but it is not until recently that the full power of this medium has been recognised within the discipline as a forceful determinant of cultural norms. When using film in the classroom, I argue that there is not only a need to consider carefully the narrative of conventions followed by film‐makers but also a need for awareness of the possibility subtexts within the film which mark significant cultural and political biases. This is equally as true of ‘objective’ documentary cinema as it is of narrative or fictional cinema. Examples of movies that I have used in the classroom are discussed in order to suggest that narrative cinema can make an important contribution to the geography curriculum in higher education.