Catalogue 2020-2021 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Film Department
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Chair: Shane Slattery-Quintanilla;
Professor: Mia Mask;
Associate Professor: Sophia Harveyab, Shane Slattery-Quintanilla;
Assistant Professors: Denise Irisa, Erica Stein;
Visiting Assistant Professor: Alex Kupfer;
Adjunct Instructors: Gina Abatemarco, Joseph Muszynski.
a On leave 2020/21, first semester
ab On leave 2020/21
Major
Correlate Sequence in Film
The correlate sequence in Film offers the opportunity to investigate Film as an adjunct to another major through a coherent sequence of study. Through the progression of courses at the 100-, 200-, and 300-level, students develop a foundational understanding of cinema studies methodology and–if room allows– basic filmmaking and/or screenwriting techniques. Film: I. Introductory
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FILM 175 - Introduction to Screen Arts Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
An introductory exploration of central features of film and television aesthetics, including formal and stylistic elements, such as color, lighting, editing, sound, narrative structure, etc. Students are exposed to a wide spectrum of types of films and television shows, including: silent, abstract, non-narrative, foreign, and documentaries, and the artistic choices manifested by each. We look at issues pertaining to production, distribution, and exhibition. Subjects are treated topically rather than historically, and emphasis is placed on mastering key vocabulary and concepts. Erica Stein.
Open only to first-year students.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS
Film: II. Intermediate
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FILM 209 - World Cinema Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
An international history of film with a greater emphasis on world cinemas from the 1930s to the contemporary period. The course focuses on major directors, industrial organization, and the contributions of various national movements. In addition to the historical survey, this course introduces students to the major issues of classical and contemporary film theory. Mia Mask.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 212 - Genre: The Musical
1 unit(s)
Examines the development of American film musicals from The Jazz Singer to the present day. The course looks at major stars such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, and Judy Garland, and the contributions of directors such as Vincente Minnelli and Bob Fosse. Students examine the interrelationships between Broadway and Hollywood, the influence of the rise and fall of the Production Code, the shaping hand of different studios, the tensions between narrative and spectacle, sincerity and camp. Reading assignments expose students to a wide range of literature about film, from production histories to feminist theory. Sarah Kozloff.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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FILM 214 - Genre: The War Film
1 unit(s)
An examination of how American films have represented World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War and the Gulf Wars. Films chosen include both those made while the conflicts rages (Bataan, 1942), and those made many years later (Saving Private Ryan, 1998, and Three Kings, 1999). This class focuses on such issues as: propaganda and patriotism, pacifism and sensationalism, the reliance on genre conventions and the role of changing film technologies. For comparison, we look also at documentaries, television, “home front” stories at war-time poetry, posters, and music. Reading assignments cover topics such as the government’s Office of War Information, the influence of John Wayne, the racism of the Vietnam films, the ways in which the Iraq war movies have been influenced by the genre. Sarah Kozloff.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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FILM 215 - Genre: Science Fiction
1 unit(s)
The course presents a survey of global science-fiction cinema from its beginnings in the silent period to the advent of digital technologies. Topics include subgenres (end of the world, time travel, space exploration, cyborgs), the relation of science-fiction films to their socio-political context and their function in popular culture. We contextualize these topics within discourses of postmodernism, postcolonialism, and feminism. Screenings may include: Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927, Germany), Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987, USA), Enthiran (S. Shankar, 2010, India), Cyber Wars (Kuo Jian Hong, 2004, Singapore) and Nuoc 2030 (Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo, 2014, Vietnam). Sophia Harvey.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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FILM 216 - Genre: Romantic Comedy
1 unit(s)
This class studies the genre of romantic comedy in American film from the “screwball comedies” of the 1930s (It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby) to the resurgence of the genre in the 1990s and the 21st century. The course focuses on the work of major stars such as Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Meg Ryan, as well as the contribution of such directors as Ernst Lubitsch, George Cukor, Preston Sturges, Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, or Nora Ephron. We place these films in the context of other representations of romance—such as Shakespeare’s comedies—and in the context of the changes in American culture, particularly in the role of women. Readings lead students to a deeper understanding of the history of American film, genre, and the star system. Sarah Kozloff.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 217 - Video Art Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 217 ) Video continues to document, illuminate, and instruct our lives daily. New channels of accessibility have opened it to a broad range of alternative practices, always in relation to its online or televised utility. In this studio, students make videos to better understand the affects and formal potential of video as an opportunity for critique. Technical experimentation covers the major tools of video production and post-production. Workshops examine set, keying, montage, sound, pacing, composition, and the cut. Regular assignments address a range of structural problems, at once conceptual and plastic (topics include the question of the subject, politics of visibility, satire, abjection, abstraction, psychedelia, performance and humiliation). Work by artists who have harnessed or perverted video’s components is screened bi-weekly. Abigail Gunnels.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Two 2-hour periods.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 218 - Genre: The Western
1 unit(s)
This course offers an historical and cultural exploration of the Western film genre. There is emphasis on the relationship between the Western and the central myths of the American experience. The changing nature of masculinity, the representation of violence, and the roles designated to women are addressed. The course examines Westerns directed by filmmakers D. W. Griffith, John Ford, Howard Hawks, George Stevens, John Huston, Fred Zinnemann, Sidney Poitier, Sam Peckinpah, and Clint Eastwood. Mia Mask.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 221 - American Avant-Garde Film
1 unit(s)
This course offers a survey of American avant-garde film in all its modes, ranging from experimental work like Jennifer Proctor’s Jen Proctor: A Movie, to surrealist-influenced documentary like Joshua Yates’s The Bags, to innovative narrative cinema like Agnes Varda’s Lions Love (…and Lies). While the course covers major avant-garde movements like mytho-poeticism and structuralism, it is organized thematically rather than chronologically. The course is divided into three units, each of which interrogates one of the terms in the title. The first unit explores films that expand our perception of what it means to be American and challenge received ideas about individual and collective identity. The second unit examines how the avant-garde constitutes itself both in opposition to commercial film and as its own industrial form. The third unit investigates film itself – how and why medium specificity and technology are important to these moving images. Assignments include an historical presentation, a short analytic essay, a take-home exam, and a final position paper on the future of the American avant-garde film. Erica Stein.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.
Corequisite(s): FILM 222 .
Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 222 - Curating Microcinemas
0.5 unit(s)
The course meets for a total of six weeks, two weeks in the first third of the semester, and the final four weeks of the semester. In this intensive component, students learn about microcinemas, a key exhibition site in contemporary American avant-garde film, and then develop and program their own at an off-campus site. Students have the responsibility of selecting, pitching, and securing the titles to be screened, developing the space, performing audience outreach, composing program notes, and introducing the films at the screening. The intensive component is configured as one hour of additional in-class workshop and consultations plus three hours of independent research, outreach, and pitching during the initial two weeks of the intensive. During the last four weeks, the intensive is configured as half-hour small-group check-ins with the professor every week, as well as independent, out-of-class work to financially and logistically assemble the microcinema, finalize programming, publicize the screening, and produce the program. Erica Stein.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 .
Corequisite(s): FILM 221 .
Required for students enrolled in FILM 221 American Avant-Garde Film .
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: INT -
FILM 230 - European Women’s Cinema
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 230 ) This course examines contemporary European culture and history through film; various critical theories (feminist, queer, post-colonial), are studied and applied to films, through selected readings and other relevant resources. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the purpose of this course is to provide critical models for interpreting social and cultural constructions of meaning. We consider the ways in which images of women and the concept of “woman” are invested with culturally and historically specific meanings that intersect with other categories of difference/identity such as: class, sexual orientation, excess, war, and the state. Essential to the discussion of difference will be the analysis of the cultural and linguistic differences introduced by the otherness of film itself, and of the specific films we study. Cinematic interpretive skills are developed through visual and linguistic exercises, group projects, and film-making. Film directors may include: Lina Wertmüller, Liliana Cavani, Margarethe von Trotta, Monika Treut, Ulrike Öttinger, Claire Denis, Coline Serreau, Céline Sciamma, Gurinder Chadha, Ngozi Onwurah. Rodica Blumenfeld.
Prerequisite(s): WMST 130 preferable but not obligatory.
Open to Sophomores and above.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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FILM 231 - Minorities in the Media
1 unit(s)
This course examines the dynamics of race, class, gender and sexuality as they are represented in American society. Throughout the semester, we analyze films, television programs, videos and advertisements, as well as other mediated discourse, to assess the way categories of “minority” identity have been constructed in mainstream society. In addition to examining images of those persons collective known as “minorities,” we consider the representation of those defined as “majority” Americans. In addition to scholarship by black British cultural theorists, African American scholars, critical race theorists and sociologists, this course enlists scholarship from the growing field of whiteness studies. Issues and topics may include “model minorities” (Henry Louis Gates, Jennifer Lopez, Rahm Emmanuel, Tiger Woods, Ellen DeGeneres, The Williams Sisters, Barack Obama), global advertising, racial profiling, police brutality (Rodney King, Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell), Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice), the Proposition 209 conflict, the WNBA, gay marriage, Islamaphobia, and the representation of the Middle East. Readings, screenings and papers required. Mia Mask.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 232 - African American Cinema
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 232 ) This course provides a survey of the history and theory of African American representation in cinema. It begins with the silent films of Oscar Micheaux and examines early Black cast westerns (Harlem Rides the Range, The Bronze Buckaroo, Harlem on the Prairie) and musicals (St. Louis Blues, Black and Tan, Hi De Ho, Sweethearts of Rhythm). Political debate circulating around cross over stars (Paul Robeson, Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Eartha Kitt, and Harry Belafonte) are central to the course. Special consideration is given to Blaxploitation cinema of the seventies (Shaft, Coffy, Foxy Brown, Cleopatra Jones) in an attempt to understand its impact on filmmakers and the historical contexts for contemporary filmmaking. The course covers “Los Angeles Rebellion” filmmakers such as Julie Dash, Charles Burnett, and Haile Gerima. Realist cinema of the 80’s and 90’s (Do the Right Thing, Boyz N the Hood, Menace II Society, and Set it off),is examined before the transition to Black romantic comedies, family films, and genre pictures (Coming to America, Love and Basketball, The Best Man, Akeelah and the Bee, 12 Years a Slave, The Great Debaters). Mia Mask.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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FILM 233 - The McCarthy Era and Film
1 unit(s)
This class focuses both on the history of anti-communist involvement with the American film industry and on the reflection of this troubled era in post-war films. We trace the factors that led to The House on Un-American Activities Committee’s investigation of communist influence in Hollywood, the case of the Hollywood Ten, the operation of the blacklist and its final demise at the end of the 1950s. We look at films overtly taking sides in this ideological conflict, such as the anti-Communist I Was a Communist for the FBI and the pro-labor Salt of the Earth, as well as the indirect allegories in film noirs and science fiction. Reading assignments are drawn from a wide range of sources, including HUAC transcripts, government documents, production histories, and genre studies. The course concludes with a look at how more contemporary films such as Good Night and Good Luck have sought to frame our understanding of this era. Sarah Kozloff.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 210 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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FILM 234 - The Coen Brothers as Postmodern Auteurs Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This class considers the career and work of Joel and Ethan Coen from Blood Simple (1984) to The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) through the lenses of industry, culture, and aesthetics. We learn how the Coens came to typify the association of auteurism with festival-based promotional strategies and revisionist genre films in post-classical Hollywood. At the same time, we also discuss the two ways in which they question and destabilize the very notion of auteurism. First, as we explore the role adaptation, quotation, and genre mixing play in their acquisition and development of film properties, we ask how these prototypically postmodern qualities call the notion of the director as author into question. Second, as we investigate the formal aspects of their films, we ask how their work critiques the notion of any kind of authorial or authority figure being present or useful in modern life. Assignments include short reaction papers, a genre or adaptation presentation, and a final research paper. Erica Stein.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 238 - Music in Film
1 unit(s)
(Same as MUSI 238 ) A study of music in sound cinema from the 1920s to the present. The course focuses on the expressive, formal, and semiotic functions that film music serves, either as sound experienced by the protagonists, or as another layer of commentary to be heard only by the viewer, or some mixture of the two. Composers studied include Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman and others as well as film scores that rely upon a range of musical resources including classical, popular, and non-Western music. Specific topics to be considered this semester include music in film noir and the movie musical. Brian Mann.
Prerequisite(s): One course in Music (not performance) or Film.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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FILM 240 - Sculpting Images in Time Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course introduces students to the basic concepts and skills involved in digital film production such as camerawork and video editing. We begin with the image, exploring in great detail its formal qualities: composition, light, color, movement, mise-en-scène, juxtapositions and temporal dimensions. Sound is introduced as a way to complicate the image – first as sound design and finally as dialogue. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Corequisite(s): FILM 209 can be taken concurrently.
One 3-hour period; additional lab time required.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 241 - Sound and Sight Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The course introduces students to basic concepts and skills involved in film production but inverts the usual priority granted to the visual over the aural in film: here we focus on sound as the generative kernel behind a cinematic work. The course explores how sound can function as the driving force of story, character, and world-building, and the moving image is introduced as a way to extend the expressive possibilities of sound. Shane Slattery-Quintanilla.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Corequisite(s): FILM 209 can be taken concurrently.
One 3-hour period; additional lab time required.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 254 - Emotional Engagement with Film
1 unit(s)
(Same as MEDS 254 and PSYC 254 ) While movies engage our emotions in psychologically significant ways, scholarship on the psychological allure and impact of film has existed primarily at the interdisciplinary margins. This course aims to bring such scholarship into the foreground. We begin with a careful examination of the appeal and power of narrative, as well as processes of identification and imagined intimacy with characters, before taking a closer analytical look at specific film genres (e.g., melodrama, horror, comedy, action, social commentary) both in their own right and in terms of their psychological significance (e.g., why do we enjoy sad movies? How do violent movies influence viewer aggression? How might socially conscious films inspire activism or altruism?) In addition to delving into theoretical and empirical papers, a secondary goal of the course is to engage students as collaborators; brainstorm and propose innovative experimental methods for testing research questions and hypotheses that emerge in step with course materials. Dara Greenwood and Sarah Kozloff.
Prerequisite(s): For Psychology majors - PSYC 105 ; for Film majors - FILM 175 or FILM 209 ; for Media Studies majors - MEDS 160 .
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 255 - Four Italian Filmmakers (in English) Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ITAL 255 ) Close analysis of the narrative and visual styles of Bernardo Bertolucci, Federico Fellini, Gianni Amelio and Nanni Moretti, in the context of post-war Italian cinema and culture. Theoretical literature on these directors and on approaches to the interpretation of film-such as psychoanalytic film theory, feminist theory, deconstruction, and post-colonial analyses of dominant discourses-aid us in addressing questions of style and of political and social significance. Cinematic interpretive skills are developed through visual and linguistic exercises, group projects, and film-making. Conducted in English. Rodica Blumenfeld.
Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. May be counted towards the Italian major.
Two 75-minute periods and two film screenings.
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FILM 256 - American Television History Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as MEDS 256 ) This course surveys the history of television in the United States from the 1940s to the present. It examines the social and industrial significance of television and its impact on issues such as class, race, gender, consumerism, and national identity. We investigate changes in televisual aesthetics and narrative paradigms and the ways that television responded to significant cultural, political and technological changes in American society. Throughout the semester we draw upon a range of critical frameworks including media industry studies, genre theory, and celebrity studies as we address topics such as the attempts to develop alternate models of broadcasting, networks’ efforts to bolster television’s cultural status, media convergence, and the formal characteristics of different television genres. Screenings include I Love Lucy, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Orange is the New Black. Alex Kupfer.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 for students registering for FILM 256. MEDS 160 for students registering for MEDS 256.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 260 - Documentary: History and Aesthetics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course explores the history, theory, and aesthetics of documentary cinema from its emergence to the present day. We examine the ways that cultural, political and technological factors have shaped the development of non-fiction film. In addition, the interrelationships between documentary and narrative cinema as well as other media including photography, comic books, and television are considered. The class places documentary in its broader contexts to include forms such as sponsored, experimental, scientific, and amateur films. Throughout the semester, students read primary historical sources along with scholarly approaches to the development, uses, and meanings of documentary cinema. Screenings include films by Michael Moore, George Stoney, Robert Drew, Agnes Varda, Chick Strand, Errol Morris, and many others. Alexander Kupfer.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 265 - German Film in English Translation
1 unit(s)
(Same as GERM 265 ) Silke von der Emde.
Readings and discussions are in English, and all films have English subtitles.
Open to all classes.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 266 - Genre: Asian Horror
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 266 ) This course examines contemporary Asian horror. Using a variety of critical perspectives, we deconstruct the pantheon of vampires, monsters, ghosts, and vampire ghosts inhabiting such diverse regions as Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines to explore constructions of national/cultural identity, gender, race, class, and sexuality. We ground these observations within a discussion of the nature of horror and the implications of horror as a trans/national genre. Sophia Harvey.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 280 - Exhibitions and Festivals Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
In the age of streaming and multi-platform content, how are films publicly exhibited? What role do festivals play when distribution is decentered and can be instantaneous? In this year-long intensive, students travel to a variety of exhibition sites and experience several modes, which may include a drive-in or a live-event broadcast. The course concentrates on New York state film festivals, ranging from niche or local festivals like Save & Project or Coney Island Film Festival as well as a major industry-centric event like the New York Film Festival. The course concludes with an overnight trip to the Nitrate Picture Show in Rochester, where the subject of the festival is the very material of celluloid itself. Students explore how the venues where we encounter films define our experience and expectations of them, asking how (and where) cinema attempts to articulate itself as an art form, historical object, class and/or cultural marker. Requirements include journal responses to each site visited, readings, and in-class meetings once per month for group discussion. Erica Stein.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 , strong preference given to students who have taken FILM 175 , and permission of the instructor.
Yearlong course 280-FILM 281 .
Course Format: INT -
FILM 281 - Exhibitions and Festivals Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
In the age of streaming and multi-platform content, how are films publicly exhibited? What role do festivals play when distribution is decentered and can be instantaneous? In this year-long intensive, students travel to a variety of exhibition sites and experience several modes, which may include a drive-in or a live-event broadcast. The course concentrates on New York state film festivals, ranging from niche or local festivals like Save & Project or Coney Island Film Festival as well as a major industry-centric event like the New York Film Festival. The course concludes with an overnight trip to the Nitrate Picture Show in Rochester, where the subject of the festival is the very material of celluloid itself. Students explore how the venues where we encounter films define our experience and expectations of them, asking how (and where) cinema attempts to articulate itself as an art form, historical object, class and/or cultural marker. Requirements include journal responses to each site visited, readings, and in-class meetings once per month for group discussion. Erica Stein.
Yearlong course FILM 280 -281.
Course Format: INT -
FILM 283 - Fandom and Sports Media
1 unit(s)
(Same as MEDS 283 ) This course examines the historical and cultural development of sports media in the United States. It explores the definitions of sports media as a generic and industrial label and the transformation of audiences into fan communities. Throughout the semester, we examine how producers, leagues, and fans have used media to engage with cultural, political and technological changes in American society. We also consider more recent forms of cultural production and participation that engage the varied social practices associated with fandom. Special attention is paid to the connections between media consumption and performances of identity and community. The course places sports media in a broader industrial context that will include forms such as sponsored, experimental, amateur, and documentary films and television series. Screenings include Moneyball, Senna, Jim Thorpe All-American, Hoop Dreams, Raging Bull, The Jackie Robinson Story, and O.J.: Made in America. Since this course focuses on the relationship between media and fandom, students do not need to have any knowledge of sports to enroll. This course is not open to first-year students. Alexander Kupfer.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 or MEDS 160 .
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 284 - The Liberation Arts Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
What does it really mean to be free? Does one need to learn it? If so, how? In this intensive we reimagine the liberal arts as the arts of liberation: over the course of the semester, various students, staff, faculty, and guests will introduce us to the creative practices that best serve them in their pursuit of freedom, however they choose (or refuse) to define it. In addition to participating in the workshops, students play a role in documenting, through sound, image, and text, the various perspectives and practices we encounter. This documentation culminates in a final collaborative process of weaving these audiovisual materials into a work of art that reflects upon our shared experiences and discoveries. This intensive foregrounds experiential, interdisciplinary, and non-hierarchical collaborative practices. Shane Slattery-Quintanilla.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT -
FILM 285 - Fragile Presence: The Ultra Short Film as a Diaristic Practice Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
Can we use filmmaking to cultivate attentiveness and a playful sense of presence in everyday life? What does it mean to have a cinematic practice, a laboratory of ongoing audiovisual exploration? In this intensive, we search for the poetry, whimsy and depth of meaning in the daily unfolding of our outer and inner lives. Experimenting with different approaches that blur the boundaries between documentary and fiction, students create six 1 min. films in six weeks. This intensive replaces classroom instruction, discussion, and viewing of film clips with site-specific shooting and improvisational editing experiences. We meet at various locations around campus and vicinity for hands-on exercises based on weekly prompts. Outside meeting times, students shoot and edit on their own and respond to their classmates’ work on a Moodle forum.
Priority given to students with some shooting and editing experience. Denise Iris.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT -
FILM 287 - Music in Classic French Cinema: 1930-1960 Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as MUSI 287 ) The scholarly study of film music is a burgeoning topic. And yet a bias towards more recent film scores, taken together with Hollywood’s overwhelming influence, has tended to overshadow the accomplishments of European composers. This course examines a number of French films whose reputations rest in no small measure on their scores. We begin with an introduction to the terminology of film music studies, and then proceed to the works themselves, examining in detail the various uses to which music is put. Musical literacy is not required. Brian Mann.
Prerequisite(s): One course in either Music or Film Studies.
First six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 288 - Women and/in Cinema: a French Perspective Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as FFS 288 and WMST 288 ) Alice Guy-Blaché (1873-1968) is not a household name in the 21st century; it might surprise many of us to learn that she was a pioneer in filmmaking, and is credited with directing as early as 1896 one of the first fictional narrative films, La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy). Many French cinéastes have followed in her footsteps, making films that foreground women’s perspectives. This course highlights the long but not-always-recognized legacy of Guy-Blaché by considering the ways in which French cinematographers have harnessed the power of the cinematic medium to interrogate what it means to be “feminist.” Focusing on discussions of the effects of patriarchy on perceptions of gender and sexuality in France and by paying attention to (post)colonial histories that have shaped that nation’s complex response to the feminist turn, we analyze themes such as migration, class, gender politics and the roles that personal choice and ethics play in shaping women’s narratives. Possible filmmakers and films (in French, with English Subtitles) include: Agnès Varda (One Sings the Other Doesn’t [1977]), Brigitte Roüan (Outremer [1990]), Claire Denis (I can’t Sleep [1994]), Philippe Faucon (Dans la vie [2008], Fatima [2016]), Céline Sciamma (Girlhood [2014], Portrait of a Lady on Fire [2019]) Catherine Corsini (Summer Hours [2015]). Knowledge of French is welcome, but not required. Vinay Swamy.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 2 unit(s)
To be elected in consultation with the adviser and the Office of Community-Engaged Learning.
May not be used toward the Major requirements.
Course Format: INT -
FILM 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
To be elected in consultation with the adviser.
Course Format: OTH
Film: III. Advanced
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FILM 300 - Film Research Thesis Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
An academic thesis in film history or theory, written under the supervision of a member of the department. Since writing a thesis during fall semester is preferable, film majors should talk to their advisers spring of junior year. In Film, a research thesis is recommended but not required, especially for those students not writing a FILM 301 or enrolled in FILM 327 Senior Project: Fiction or FILM 326 Senior Project: Non-Fiction . The Department.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 , two additional courses in film history and theory, and permission of the instructor.
Course Format: OTH -
FILM 301 - Film Screenplay Thesis Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
The creation of a feature-length original screenplay. Open only to students electing the concentration in film. Senior status required. Students wishing to write a screenplay instead of a research thesis must have produced work of distinction in FILM 317 Introduction to Screenwriting and FILM 319 Advanced Screenwriting . No correlates are eligible to write a screenplay thesis. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: OTH -
FILM 310 - Film Authorship
1 unit(s)
This course examines the complications of authorship in film by analyzing various competing theoretical models. Then it tests these models against the work on an auteur. Students are expected to attend screenings, conduct independent research, and keep up with wide variety of historical and theoretical readings. Sarah Kozloff.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 .
Note that this class does not replace the major requirement of FILM 392 .
One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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FILM 317 - Introduction to Screenwriting Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as DRAM 317 ) Study of dramatic construction as it applies to film, plus practice in story development and screenwriting. Joseph Muszynski.
Prerequisite(s): DRAM 102 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.
Writing sample required two weeks before preregistration.
Open only to juniors and seniors.
One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 319 - Advanced Screenwriting Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
An in-depth exploration of the screenplay as a dramatic form and a workshop aimed at the development, writing, and rewriting of a feature-length screenplay. Students study the work of noted screenwriters and are required to complete a feature-length screenplay as their final project in the course. Film majors who have produced works of distinction in FILM 317 are given first priority. This course is not open to Film correlates. Joseph Muszynski.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 , DRAM 317 or FILM 317 , and permission of the instructor. Film Majors are given first priority.
One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 325 - Writing the Short Film Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
A screenwriting course that explores and celebrates the possibilities of the short form, not simply as subordinate or preliminary to the work of feature filmmaking, but as its own vital approach to the moving arts.
Those wishing to take FILM 327 are strongly encouraged to take FILM 325. Shane Slattery-Quintanilla.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 240 or FILM 241 and permission of the instructor. This course is closed to Film correlates.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 326 - Senior Project: Non-Fiction Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Students create short nonfiction films, from concept to final delivery. Participants offer reciprocal support of their peers’ projects by filling crew positions. Students wishing to enroll in the course must submit a project proposal in the preceding semester. Shane Slattery-Quintanilla.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 240 or FILM 241 and permission of the instructor. Strong preference given to students who have completed FILM-383 Cinema Modes. This course is closed to Film correlates.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 327 - Senior Project: Fiction Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Students create short fiction films, from concept to final delivery. Participants offer reciprocal support of their peers’ projects by filling crew positions. Students wishing to enroll in the course must submit a project proposal in the preceding semester. Those wishing to make narrative films are strongly encouraged to take FILM 325 Writing the Short Film . Denise Iris.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 240 or FILM 241 and permission of the instructor.
This course is not open to Film correlates.
One 3-hour period.
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FILM 335 - Celebrity and Power: Stardom in Contemporary Culture
1 unit(s)
Celebrity fascinates Americans. It informs popular culture, professional sport and national politics. Yet what defines celebrity? How are stars manufactured by the Culture Industry? Why is the ubiquitous cult of celebrity so important in contemporary Western culture and across global mediascapes? Through classic and contemporary theoretical writings, the course examines stardom and various brands of star charisma. We interrogate conventional forms of celebrity power as well as the conversion of entertainment industry charisma into forms of political charisma and cultural capital (i.e., the careers of Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sidney Poitier, Jennifer Lopez, John Leguizamo, the Brangelina trademark, and Beyonce Knowles). The course will address the rise of reality television celebrities. As intertextual signs, stars reveal the instabilities, ambiguities and contradictions within a given culture. The changing configuration of American society is revealed in an examination of celebrity and stardom as social phenomena. This course transverses from Mary Pickford to Oprah Winfrey and beyond. Readings, screenings and writing assignments required. Mia Mask.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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FILM 336 - African Cinema: A Continental Survey Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
African national cinemas reflect the rich, complex history of the continent. These films from lands as diverse as Chad, Senegal, and South Africa reveal the various ways filmmakers have challenged the representation of Africa and Africans while simultaneously revising conventional cinematic syntax. This survey course examines the internal gaze of African-born auteurs like Ousmane Sembene (La Noir De, Xala, Mandabi), Djbril Diop Mambety (Hyenes), Desire Ecare (Faces of Women), Manthia Diawara (Conakry Kas), and Mahmat-Saleh Haroun (Bye-Bye Africa). It places these films alongside the external gaze of practitioners Euzan Palcy (A Dry White Season), Jean-Jacques Annaud (Noir et Blancs en Couleur) and Raoul Peck (Lumumba). The films of documentary filmmakers Anne Laure Folly, Ngozi Onwurah and Pratibah Parmaar are also examined. This course utilizes the post-colonial film theory and scholarship of Imruh Bakari, Mbye Cham, Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike and Manthia Diawara. Screenings, readings and papers required. Mia Mask.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.
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FILM 337 - Indian National Cinema
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 337 ) This course is designed to introduce students to the dynamic and diverse film traditions of India. It examines how these texts imagine and image the Indian nation and problematizes the “national” through an engagement with regional cinemas within India as well as those produced within the Indian diaspora. Readings are drawn from contemporary film theory, post-colonial theory, and Indian cultural studies. Screenings may include Meghe Dhaka Tara / The Cloud-Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak, 1960), Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1957), Shatranj Ke Khilari / The Chess Players (Satyajit Ray, 1977), Sholay (Ramesh Sippy, 1975), Bombay (Mani Ratnam, 1995), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham/ Happiness and Tears (Karan Johar, 2001), Bride and Prejudice (Gurinder Chadha, 2004), and Mission Kashmir (Vidhu Vinod Chopra, 2000). Sophia Harvey.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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FILM 339 - Contemporary Southeast Asian Cinemas
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 339 ) This survey course is designed to introduce students to the dynamic and diverse film texts emerging from and about Southeast Asia. It examines how these texts imagine and image Southeast Asia and/or particular nations within the region. More specifically, the course focuses on the themes of urban spaces and memory/trauma as they operate within texts about Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Timor-Leste. The course reading material is designed to provide (1) theoretical insights, (2) general socio-cultural and/or political overviews, and (3) more specific analyses of film texts and/or filmmakers. Sophia Harvey.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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FILM 379 - Computer Animation: Art, Science and Criticism
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 379 , CMPU 379 , and MEDS 379 ) An interdisciplinary course in Computer Animation aimed at students with previous experience in Computer Science, Studio Art, or Media Studies. The course introduces students to mathematical and computational principles and techniques for describing the shape, motion and shading of three-dimensional figures in Computer Animation. It introduces students to artistic principles and techniques used in drawing, painting and sculpture, as they are translated into the context of Computer Animation. It also encourages students to critically examine Computer Animation as a medium of communication. Finally, the course exposes students to issues that arise when people from different scholarly cultures attempt to collaborate on a project of mutual interest. The course is structured as a series of animation projects interleaved with screenings and classroom discussions. Thomas Ellman, Harry Roseman.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Two 2-hour periods.
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 383 - Cinema Modes Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The course exposes students to narrative, documentary, and experimental approaches and explores how these modes mutually inform and fertilize one another. Prepares students for senior-level work as they create one narrative, one documentary, and one experimental film. The course culminates in a final project that can be any of the three modes or hybrid that fruitfully overlaps or evades these categories. Denise Iris.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 240 or FILM 241 and permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 391 - Sensuous Theory Writing Workshop
0.5 unit(s)
This intensive is attached to FILM 392 . The writing workshop is based upon peer review, works-in-progress presentations, writing accountability groups, in-workshop writing sessions, and end of the semester paper presentations. This intensive meets with the instructor five times throughout the semester. Sophia Harvey.
Corequisite(s): FILM 392 .
Required for students enrolled in FILM 392 Research Seminar in Film History and Theory .
Not offered in 2020/21.
Course Format: INT -
FILM 392 - Research Seminar in Film History and Theory Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
This course is designed as an in-depth exploration of a theoretical topic. Students contribute to the class through research projects and oral presentations. Their work culminates in lengthy research papers. Because topics change, students are permitted (encouraged) to take this course more than once. Preference is given to film majors who must take this class during their senior year; junior majors and others admitted if space permits.
Topic for 2020/21a: Film and History. How do we imagine and record history? Cinema is one of the major ways in which we visualize and internalize historical events and narratives. At the same time, cinema developed in part as a way to preserve everything that tends to escape history – the textures andrhythms of daily life. This course examines the relationship of film and history through two approaches. The first is history on film. In this unit we explore the wide variety of filmed historical fiction, from traditional costume dramas like Elizabeth (Kapur, 1998) to Brechtian-influenced, experimental work like Queer Edward II (Jarman, 1992). The second approach is film as history. In this unit we will deal with films that document daily life (Spare Time, Jennings, 1939) and those that reimagine lost histories through the lens of the quotidian (12:08 East of Bucharest, Porumboiu, 2006). A key consideration throughout is how films have used innovative aesthetic or generic approaches to negotiate historical events that resist normative representation. Assignments may include a short analysis paper on the historicist aesthetic, group presentations on the production histories and cultural impact of given films, discussion leadership, and a final research paper. Erica Stein.
Topic for 2020/21b: Artist, Auteur: Spike Lee. The son of a musician and a teacher, Shelton Jackson Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Nicknamed “Spike”, he grew up in a household that valued education as well as the arts. With the release of his first feature film, Lee initiated another cinematic revolution. He demonstrated to Hollywood studios that serious contemporary African-American films were not only aesthetically innovative, they were also commercially profitable. His success has created opportunity for other writers, directors, actors and technicians. Over the last twenty years Spike Lee has directed an array of challenging, innovative and provocative features, documentaries and commercials. The themes embedded in his work are often culled from news headlines, making him one of the most politically engaged filmmakers of his generation. This course is a senior seminar in which the films of Lee are rigorously examined. Mia Mask.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 ; two additional units in film history and theory, and permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS -
FILM 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
To be elected in consultation with the adviser.
Course Format: OTH
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