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Film Studies Courses

Film Studies Courses

FILM 124 Introduction to Film

This course introduces students to film as a distinct art form with its own language. Films selected represent a variety of cinematic movements or technical advances and are studied from historical, theoretical, and formal perspectives.

FILM 151 German History on Film

This course will examine German films (alongside some graphic novels and other texts) which take as their subject historical moments and events. We will examine the manner in which German culture views its own history via mass, popular media such as film. Such media necessarily generate collective memories and historical imaginaries which may or may not comport with historical fact. Themes may include (but aren't limited to) the legacy of the Holocaust and World War II, the division and unification of Germany, and migrants' experiences.

FILM 156 German Society and Film

See description for GERM 156.

FILM 213 Documentary and Truth

Documentary film is, like thinking more generally, oriented and organized by truth. But what makes a representation truthful? What norms govern activities involving truth-telling? Above all, why is truth-telling so important to us? We examine these and related issues in the context of the history of documentary films. In watching documentaries and reading related philosophical and critical texts, we investigate the norms of truth-telling at work in documenting an event and in representing a particular way of life.

FILM 225 Introduction to Chinese Film

This course is an introduction to Chinese cinema in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, with emphasis on the ways film represents China, Chinese identity, cultural heritage, and Chinese modernity The course will include weekly film viewings and in-class discussion.

FILM 234 Digital Video Production

This course introduces students to the conceptual foundations and technical skills needed to produce and understand three primary approaches to film: documentary, narrative, and experimental/video art. Students will learn the aesthetics and mechanics of shooting digital video, pre-production, recording high quality audio, field and studio production, along with basic nonlinear editing. Coursework includes short assignments, discussions, critiques, screenings, and a final collaborative project

FILM 240 Introduction to French Cinema

The French often assert that in the domain of international cinema French films represent the only serious challenge to Hollywood's hegemony. Regardless of the truth of this assertion, it is true that film as an art form occupies a privileged position in France. The purpose of this course is to examine the evolution of filmmaking in France by studying a number of the most important periods, movements, styles and artists in the history of French cinema.

FILM 246 Philosophy of Film

Popular movies characteristically depict actions, with a climactic action or event giving significance and structure to the earlier events in the movie. What are the implications of the centrality of action and action representation in movies for our understanding of film and of action? How do movies help us to understand the relation between a world and the actions that are possible in that world? How do the movies allow us to think about actions and the inner lives of the agents who carry them out? How have the kinds of actions shown in popular movies developed and changed? How does the representation of action on film shed light on the nature of time?

FILM 261 Women and Film

This is a course examining the representation of women in the cinematic medium. We will especially focus on the intersection of two interpretive theories, psychoanalysis and feminism, and their multi-varied application to the literary text that is cinema, with particular interest in questions of dream, hysteria and transference.

FILM 270 Psychology and Film

This course is an introduction to psychology and film. We will study this topic from a number of perspectives: the psychology of making movies, the effect of film on the audience, and the representation of psychological topics in film. The focus of the course will be on watching and discussing films, as well as on reading and writing about psychological aspects of film.

FILM 295 Special Topics 1/2 or 1

Courses offered occasionally to students in special areas of Film not covered in the usual curriculum.

FILM 309 Contemporary Latin American Cinema

A survey of contemporary cinema of Spanish speaking countries of Latin America. We follow a trend starting with the avant-garde cinema of the political revolutionary turbulence of the 1960's, the "New Latin American Cinema", which continues today with a series of films that originated as a reaction to the neo-liberal and globalized capitalism of the 1990's. The films are treated as visual texts, studying the film as a genre with particular stylistic forms and techniques to represent social reality ideologically and in the context of social and cinematic history.

FILM 323 Visual Culture Theory

This course examines the emerging interdisciplinary field of Visual Culture Theory and will introduce students to a study of modern and post-modern discourses on vision and visuality. Drawing from art history, sociology, psychology, film and media studies, Marxism, feminist and post-colonial theory, Visual Culture Theory analyzes the role of visual images in shaping philosophical, cultural, poliical, racial and sexual notions of identity. The course also investigates the meaning of images in relation to such popular media as photography, film, television, video, animation, advertising, pornography and the digital culture of the web.

FILM 363 Film Theories

This course explores some of the main currents in film theory, which may include Formalist, Structuralist, Psychoanalytic, Feminist, or Poststructuralist approaches. Specific offerings vary from year to year. Possible topics include "Genre versus Auteur," "Psychoanalysis and Film," "Narrative of Film," "Experimental Film," and "Noir."

FILM 363 Jane Austin & Lizzie Bennet

Jane Austen has fascinated both audiences and artists for the past two hundred years. In this course, we will explore Austen's more popular novels and the adaptations they have inspired. These adaptations-in literature, film, and other contemporary media-extend from Bridget Jones's Diary, to the BBC and Colin Firth, to Keira Knightly, and to graphic novels. Along with these texts, we will read contemporary theories of adaptation, film, narrative, and narration.

FILM 395 Special Topics 1/2 or 1

Courses offered occasionally in special areas not covered in the usual curriculum. May be repeated for credit if different topics are offered.

FILM 400 1/2 or 1

See College Honors Program.