Film and Media Studies (B.A.)

Required Courses

FILM 150b, Introduction to Film Studies  John MacKay

A survey of film studies concentrating on theory, analysis, and criticism. Students learn the critical and technical vocabulary of the subject and study important films in weekly screenings. Prerequisite for the major.  WR, HU
TTh 1pm-2:15pm, T 7pm-10pm

FILM 160a / ENGL 196a, Introduction to Media  Robert Williams

Introduction to the long history of media as understood in classical and foundational (and even more recent experimental) theories. Topics involve the technologies of modernity, reproduction, and commodity, as well as questions regarding knowledge, representation, public spheres, and spectatorship. Special attention given to philosophies of language, visuality, and the environment, including how digital culture continues to shape these realms.  WR, HU
MW 1pm-2:15pm

* FILM 320a / HSAR 490a, Close Analysis of Film  Oksana Chefranova

The goal of this intensive seminar is to develop tools of close analysis of film as a significant art form by learning to identify elements of cinematic representation (mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, sound, and the basic vocabulary associated with each aspect) and to demonstrate how these constituents combine to create meaning. Through developing a deeper understanding of a particular film, we transition from specific instances to broader considerations such as aesthetic and historical context or ideological critique. The course also traces the history of the close analysis method from structural semiotics and neoformalist analysis to digital humanities. We study films ranging from Hollywood and American filmmaking (Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch) and European modernism (Robert Bresson and Jean-Luc Godard) to films that use expressive codes and cultural conventions less familiar to us (Lars von Trier and Hou Hsiao-hsien). Topics include genre, the digital image, landscape, body and face, gesture and screen performance, and cinematic atmosphere. Prerequisite: FILM 150.  HU
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

* FILM 243a / MGRK 218a / WGSS 245a, Family in Greek Literature and Film  George Syrimis

The structure and multiple appropriations of the family unit, with a focus on the Greek tradition. The influence of aesthetic forms, including folk literature, short stories, novels, and film, and of political ideologies such as nationalism, Marxism, and totalitarianism. Issues related to gender, sibling rivalry, dowries and other economic factors, political allegories, feminism, and sexual and social violence both within and beyond the family.  WR, HU  Tr
HTBA

* FILM 304a / EALL 281a, Japanese Cinema and Its Others  Aaron Gerow

Critical inquiry into the myth of a homogeneous Japan through analysis of how Japanese film and media historically represents “others” of different races, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, and sexualities, including blacks, ethnic Koreans, Okinawans, Ainu, undocumented immigrants, LGBT minorities, the disabled, youth, and monstrous others like ghosts.  HU
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

* FILM 319a / GMAN 273a / LITR 368a, The Third Reich in Postwar German Film, 1945-2007  Jan Hagens

Close study of the intersection of aesthetics and ethics with regard to how German films, since 1945, have dealt with Nazi history. Through the study of German-language films (with subtitles), produced in postwar East, West, and unified Germany through 2007, students consider and challenge perspectives on the Third Reich and postwar Germany, while learning basic categories of film studies.  HU
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

* FILM 363a / LITR 360a, Radical Cinemas of Latin America  Moira Fradinger

Introduction to Latin American cinema, with an emphasis on post–World War II films produced in Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. Examination of each film in its historical and aesthetic aspects, and in light of questions concerning national cinema and "third cinema." Examples from both pre-1945 and contemporary films. Conducted in English; knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese helpful but not required.  HU
W 7pm-8:50pm

* FILM 409a / LITR 306a / RSEE 327a / RUSS 327a, The Danube in Literature and Film  Marijeta Bozovic

The Danube River in the film, art, and literature of various Danubian cultural traditions, from the late nineteenth century to the present. Geography and history of the region that includes the river's shores and watershed; physical, historical, and metaphoric uses of the Danube; the region as a contested multilingual, multicultural, and multinational space, and as a quintessential site of cross-cultural engagement. Readings and discussion in English.  WR, HU  Tr
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

* FILM 412a / LITR 385, The Horror Film, 1960-1991  Brigitte Peucker

An examination of the horror film genre, primarily in American cinema. Psychosocial determinants; spectatorship, affect, and identification; the uncanny and the monstrous; the body; abjection. Films by Hitchcock, Romero, Friedkin, De Palma, Carpenter, Kubrick, Cronenberg, Demme, and others.  HU
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

* FILM 416b / FREN 394b / LITR 366b, French Cinema through the New Wave  Dudley Andrew

The history of French cinema c. 1930 to 1970, from the onset of sound through the New Wave movement. The New Wave "idea of cinema"; the relation of cinema to national self-perception and state policy in France.  HU  RP
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

* FILM 442b / LITR 403b / RUSS 403b, The City in Literature and Film  Katerina Clark

Consideration of the architecture, town planning, and symbolic functions of various cities in Europe, Latin America, the United States, and East Asia. Discussion of the representation of these cities in literature and film. Works include older Soviet and Chinese films about Shanghai and contemporary films about Hong Kong and Beijing.  HU
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

* FILM 461a / ENGL 384a / LITR 364a / THST 416a, British Cinema  Katie Trumpener

Survey of the British film tradition, emphasizing overlap with literature, drama, and art; visual modernism; documentary's role in defining national identity; "heritage" filmmaking and alternative approaches to tradition; and auteur and actors' cinema.  HU  RP
M 1:30pm-3:20pm, U 7pm-10pm

FILM 232a, Classical Hollywood Narrative 1920–1960  Camille Thomasson

Survey of Classical Hollywood films. Topics include history of the studio system; origin and development of genres; the film classics of the Classical Hollywood period, and the producers, screenwriters, directors, and cinematographers who created them.  WR, HU
TTh 2:30pm-3:20pm, T 7pm-9pm

* FILM 235a / HUMS 218a, Storytelling and Contemporary TV  Staff

If Shakespeare were alive today, he would be writing for TV. So would Jane Austen. With the advent of cable, DVDs, the internet, and live streaming, TV—once considered a “vast wasteland”—has become the most dynamic and creative medium for storytelling, attracting talented writers, directors, and actors. This course explores the innovative narrative strategies that have transformed that wasteland into fertile terrain and ushered in a new Golden Age of TV. Careful visual and textual analysis of episodes is complemented by critical readings and comparisons to literature and cinema. We also consider technical and business pressures on the creative process behind today's "complex TV." The first part of the term focuses on the AMC series Breaking Bad. The second part considers episodes from a range of shows in order to highlight the significance of title sequences, pilots, dialogue, subjective narration, jumbled chronology, and problematic endings. The third part examines the HBO series The Young Pope, which brings narrative and visual effects from cinema to the small screen.  HU
HTBA

* FILM 242a / ENGL 308a / HUMS 454a / LITR 398a, Interpreting Film Masterpieces  David Bromwich and Dudley Andrew

Exploration of seven auteurs from Europe and Hollywood, 1937–1967. Assessment of methods that deepen appreciation of the films and the medium.  WR, HU
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

* FILM 305a / LITR 361a, Animation, Disney and Beyond  Aaron Gerow

Survey of the history and theory of animation. Examples from around the world, from various traditions, and from different periods.  HU
MW 11:35am-12:50pm, T 7pm-10pm

FILM 306b / EALL 270b, Anime and the Posthuman  Seth Jacobowitz

Japanese anime and its conceptions of the posthuman condition made possible by advances in science and technology. The persistence of myth, archetype, and humanist philosophy.  HU
HTBA

* FILM 344b, Landscape, Film, Architecture  Staff

Movement through landscapes and cityscapes as a key to understanding them. Simulation of travel, using movie cameras and other visual-verbal means, as a way to expand historical, aesthetic, and sociological inquiries into how places are inhabited and experienced. Exploration of both real and imaginary places traversed in works by Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, César Aira, Georges Rodenbach, Patrick Keiller, Georges Perec, and Andrei Tarkovsky.  HU
Th 9:25am-11:15am

* FILM 411b / LITR 380b, The Films of Alfred Hitchcock  Brigitte Peucker

An examination of Hitchcock's career as a filmmaker from Blackmail to Frenzy, with close attention to the wide variety of critical and theoretical approaches to his work. Topics include the status of the image; the representation of the feminine and of the body; spectatorship; painterliness and theatricality; generic and psychoanalytic issues.  HU
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

* FILM 433a / AFAM 216a, Family Narratives/Cultural Shifts  Thomas Allen Harris

This course looks at films that are redefining ideas around family and family narratives in relation to larger social movements. We focus on personal films by filmmakers who consider themselves artists, activists, or agents of change but are united in their use of the nonfiction format to speak truth to power. In different ways, these films use media to build community and build family and ultimately, to build family albums and archives that future generations can use to build their own practices. Just as the family album seeks to unite people across time, space, and difference, the films and texts explored in this course are also journeys that culminate in linkages, helping us understand nuances of identity while illuminating personal relationships to larger cultural, social, and historical movements.  HU
M 1:30pm-3:20pm, U 7pm-10pm

* FILM 445b / LITR 450b, Film and Fiction in Interaction  Dudley Andrew

The dynamic exchange or relay between fiction and film, recognized by theorists just after WWII, while obvious in adaptations, also exists in the evolution of the styles and topics of both forms of cultural production. The French term "ecriture, " applied to films after 1948, is newly relevant in today's open cultural field where writers make films and where many adaptations begin as interpretations. Advanced course in literary or film studies.  HU  RP
Th 9:25am-11:15am

* FILM 161b / ART 241b, Introductory Film Writing and Directing  Sandra Luckow

Problems and aesthetics of film studied in practice as well as in theory. In addition to exploring movement, image, montage, point of view, and narrative structure, students photograph and edit their own short videotapes. Emphasis on the writing and production of short dramatic scenes. Priority to majors in Art and in Film & Media Studies. Materials fee: $150. Prerequisite for all majors: ART 142; additional prerequisite for Film & Media Studies majors: FILM 150.  RP
HTBA

* FILM 162a / ART 142a, Introductory Documentary Filmmaking  Sandra Luckow

The art and craft of documentary filmmaking. Basic technological and creative tools for capturing and editing moving images. The processes of research, planning, interviewing, writing, and gathering of visual elements to tell a compelling story with integrity and responsibility toward the subject. The creation of nonfiction narratives. Issues include creative discipline, ethical questions, space, the recreation of time, and how to represent "the truth." Materials fee: $150.  RP
HTBA

* FILM 330b, The Screenwriter's Craft  Camille Thomasson

A rigorous writer's workshop. Students conjure, write, rewrite, and study films. Read screenplays, view movie clips, parse films, and develop characters and a scenario for a feature length screenplay. By the end of term, each student will have created a story outline and written a minimum of fifteen pages of an original script. All majors welcome.
T 2:30pm-4:30pm

* FILM 350a or b, Screenwriting  Marc Lapadula

A beginning course in screenplay writing. Foundations of the craft introduced through the reading of professional scripts and the analysis of classic films. A series of classroom exercises culminates in intensive scene work. Prerequisite: FILM 150. Not open to freshmen.
HTBA

FILM 355b / ART 341b, Intermediate Film Writing and Directing  Jonathan Andrews

In the first half of the term, students write three-scene short films and learn the tools and techniques of staging, lighting, and capturing and editing the dramatic scene. In the second half of the term, students work collaboratively to produce their films. Focus on using the tools of cinema to tell meaningful dramatic stories. Materials fee: $150. Enrollment limited to 8. Priority to majors in Art and in Film & Media Studies. Prerequisites: ART 241.  RP
HTBA

FILM 356a / ART 342a, Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking  Sandra Luckow

Students explore the storytelling potential of the film medium by making documentary art. The class concentrates on finding and capturing intriguing, complex scenarios in the world and then adapting them to the film form. Questions of truth, objectivity, style, and the filmmaker's ethics are considered using examples of students' work. Exercises in storytelling principles. Materials fee: $150. Limited enrollment. Priority to majors in Art and in Film & Media Studies. Prerequisites: ART 141 or 142, and FILM 150.  HU  RP
HTBA

* FILM 395b, Intermediate Screenwriting  Marc Lapadula

A workshop in writing short screenplays. Frequent revisions of each student's script focus on uniting narrative, well-delineated characters, dramatic action, tone, and dialogue into a polished final screenplay. Prerequisite: FILM 350. Priority to majors in Film & Media Studies.
M 7pm-8:50pm

* FILM 434b / AFAM 220b, Archive Aesthetics and Community Storytelling  Thomas Allen Harris

This production course explores strategies of archive aesthetics and community storytelling in film and media. It allows students to create projects that draw from archives—including news sources, personal narratives, and found archives—to produce collaborative community storytelling. Conducted as a production workshop, the course explores the use of archives in constructing real and fictive narratives across a variety of disciplines, such as—participants create and develop autobiographies, biographies, or fiction-based projects, tailored to their own work in film/new media around Natalie Goldberg’s concept that “our lives are at once ordinary and mythical.”  HU
M 1:30pm-3:20pm, U 7pm-10pm

* FILM 455a and FILM 456b / AMST 463a and AMST 464b / EVST 463a and EVST 464b, Documentary Film Workshop  Charles Musser

A yearlong workshop designed primarily for majors in Film and Media Studies or American Studies who are making documentaries as senior projects. Seniors in other majors admitted as space permits.  RP
W 10:30am-1:20pm, T 7pm-10pm

* FILM 483a and FILM 484b / ART 442a and ART 443b, Advanced Film Writing and Directing  Jonathan Andrews

A yearlong workshop designed primarily for majors in Art and in Film & Media Studies making senior projects. Each student writes and directs a short fiction film. The first term focuses on the screenplay, production schedule, storyboards, casting, budget, and locations. In the second term students rehearse, shoot, edit, and screen the film. Materials fee: $150. Enrollment limited to 8. Priority to majors in Art and in Film & Media Studies. Prerequisite: ART 341.
HTBA

* FILM 487a and FILM 488b, Advanced Screenwriting  Marc Lapadula

Students write a feature-length screenplay. Emphasis on multiple drafts and revision. Admission in the fall term based on acceptance of a complete step-sheet outline for the story to be written during the coming year. Primarily for Film & Media Studies majors working on senior projects. Prerequisite: FILM 395 or permission of instructor.
M 1:30pm-3:20pm