Cinema Studies Course Descriptions SPRING 2022
01:175:202 Intro to Film 2
Course Description:
The discipline of film studies has a rich and varied history, and as film study moves into a digital age it continues to evolve as a body of knowledge. This course provides an introduction to many questions that have been foundational to the field: What are the fundamental properties that define film as a medium? What are the cinema’s psychological, affective, and social effects? How do we understand filmic representation with respect to race, gender, and sexuality? And what are the implications for the study of film today, when movies are more often streamed on digital platforms than projected in cinemas? These and similar questions will guide our study of a diverse body of films and the critical theories that have been developed to account for the medium’s various political, economic, cultural, and aesthetic uses. By learning how to “read” a film and use terminology specific to the study of cinema, students will be able to discuss with intelligence and confidence how movies make meaning and impact us on multiple levels.
Instructor: FRESKO
01:175:316 American Cinema II
Course Description:
This course surveys the major trends in American cinema from the 1940s to the present, a
period in film history that witnessed the decline of the Hollywood studio system and the rise of television, independent filmmaking, and the blockbuster. While examining these large scale industrial changes, we will consider how a range of films and movements—including the American New Wave and slasher horror, as well as animation and digital effects—shaped and were shaped by broader questions about everything from politics, race, and gender to youth culture, suburbanization, and techno-scientific innovation. Our goal in the process is to develop an understanding of the diversity of forms that American cinema has taken and the ways
it continues to evolve, both nationally and globally.
Instructor: WILLIAMSON
01:175:321 World Cinema II
Course Description:
This course will explore some of the major currents in filmmaking from around the globe since World War II. We will consider the validity of a number of concepts such as world cinema, counter cinema, first, second and third cinema, and third-world cinema, focusing in particular on the interplay between local traditions and transnational industrial and artistic practices. Readings as well as class lectures and discussions will focus on the historical and cultural contexts of production and reception of the individual films studied, and on close textual analysis.
We will study films from around the globe (likely including Russia, Italy, France, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Cuba, Argentina, Colombia, Mali, South Africa, Iran, India, Japan, and China). In class, we will explore how films from these diverse contexts engage with many issues of contemporary importance, relating to gender, sexuality, race, religion, terrorism, war, migration, political systems, economic policies, poverty, consumerism, and the environment.
This course satisfies two goals from the SAS Core Curriculum: Areas of Inquiry: Arts and Humanities [AHp]; and Contemporary Challenges/Diversities and Social Inequalities [CCD].
Instructor: MARTIN-MARQUEZ
01:175:349:90 Contemporary German and European Cinema
Course Description:
Taught in English. No prerequisites.
In light of the 2008 economic crisis, the refugee and humanitarian crisis as well as the Corona pandemic, the EU has seen a troubling resurgence of inequality, racism, and political hatred. Pairing the formal and stylistic specificities of contemporary German & European filmmaking with essays, poems, and short fiction by young, post-migrant, and queer voices, we will investigate the formation of history, memory, and cultural identity in Europe today, shed light on the role of film festivals, consider the impact of streaming platforms, and reframe the concept of national cinema. The course includes several workshops to train and hone your writing skills, including workshops with a renowned journalist and critic who will be giving you professional instructions on how to write a film review. Additionally, you will get to filmmakers and producers via guest visits and virtual interviews.
Fully online, mixed asynchronous and synchronous. Course taught in English. Satisfies SAS Core requirements AHp and WCD.
Instructor: KARL
01:175:350:01 Major Filmmakers
Course Description:
A course focusing on the films of Stanley Kubrick, Jean Cocteau, Powell/Pressburger, Nicolas Roeg, David Lynch, Peter Greenaway, Wes Anderson, and others. In-depth analyses of the structure and content of films which include: 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Red Shoes, Moonrise Kingdom, Mulholland Drive, and others. Emphasis on the "mise-en-scene," narrative form, set design, sound, and special effects in the films of these celebrated filmmakers.
Warning: some films may contain nudity, sexual situations, violence, profanity, substance abuse, and disturbing images.
Instructor: NIGRIN
01:175:377:02 TPCS in World Cinema: American Animation
Course Description:
This course explores how American animated films by everyone from Winsor McCay in
the early 1900s to Walt Disney and Tim Burton have shaped and been shaped by national and international visual cultures. Deeply concerned with the labor and vision of individual artists, American animation reflects essential questions about the medium’s potential as an art of movement and transformation, an art of time, and an art of dreams, all of which are wrapped up in broader discourses on American ideals and ways of life. Our goal for the semester is to understand how animators have grappled with these questions using innovative formal and stylistic techniques that bring inanimate materials – drawings, puppets, and other objects – to life. To do this we will examine the many contexts that have shaped a wide range of films, from early hand-drawn animations and experimental films, to visual music films, realist animations, and contemporary computer animations. In the process, we will consider how American animated films intersect with the politics of race, class, and gender, as well as with other arts and media, including dance, painting, and comics.
Instructor: WILLIAMSON
16:420:678 History of French Cinema
TBA
Instructor: WILLIAMS
01:175:425 Senior Seminar in Cinema Studies:
Women and the New Wave
Course Description:
This capstone seminar treats advanced problems and issues in the study of film. For this semester, our focus will be the French New Wave, with emphasis on the positioning and critique of class, race, and gender. This is an unusual perspective and therefore it has the possibility of creating new visions of theory and practice. Not a general survey, the course will nonetheless provide an in-depth look at this revolutionizing group of films, filmmakers and theories that changed the landscape of the cinema. But we will also attempt to fill the gap left by the absence of issues surrounding marginal groups, especially women, at every level. Focused independent research will be encouraged, but group projects will also be part of the seminar.
Instructor: Flitterman-Lewis