AFST B210  BLACK HISTORY IN AMERICAN CINEMA  (1.0 Credit)

This course will serve as an overview of the history of Black Cinema and the portrayals of persons of African descent in cinema from the early 1900s to the present. This includes developments from Hollywood, independent filmmakers, and experimental foreign films. Additionally, and more importantly, we will venture to gain a deeper comprehension of the politics of film, as well as the ways that cinema has been used as a form of socialization, and/or self-expression.

ARCH B246  CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN MOVIES  (1.0 Credit)

Rocco Palermo

This course explores the visual representations and the narratives of the Graeco-Roman times on screen. From silent films to modern Hollywood productions through Netflix, Amazon, and other streaming services productions, students will discuss the impact of classical antiquity in the film-making industry. We will be looking into how the depiction of different aspects of the Greek and Roman past (literature, history, art, archaeology) are used (and misused) on screen and in which way these productions influence the way we understand the ancient world.

CRWT B266  SCREENWRITING  (1.0 Credit)

Daniel Torday

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An introduction to screenwriting. Issues basic to the art of storytelling in film will be addressed and analyzed: character, dramatic structure, theme, setting, image, sound. The course focuses on the film adaptation; readings include novels, screenplays, and short stories. Films adapted from the readings will be screened. In the course of the semester, students will be expected to outline and complete the first act of an adapted screenplay of their own.

ENGL B228  POST-NUCLEAR LITERATURE AND FILM  (1.0 Credit)

Devin Daniels

Since the first nuclear explosions rocked the world in 1945, from the Indigenous lands of New Mexico to the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, literature and film have had to reckon with the fact that the potential destructions of the literary archive—not to mention the world itself—no longer required divine intervention or literary speculation: apocalypse had moved from the realm of fiction to the realm of fact. Since that day, fiction and film have explored the impact these weapons have had on politics, the environment, and billions of lifeforms, human and nonhuman alike. By reading such works, we’ll consider the nuclear not only as an isolated event but as a continuous process, from the extraction of uranium on Indigenous lands, to production and testing, to the accumulation of nuclear materials and waste. We’ll also explore how novels and films have had to contort their forms to properly represent the time-bending reality of the bomb, by looking at Indigenous novels from both the Americas and the Pacific, Japanese historical fiction and monster movies, major Hollywood productions, Soviet cinema, and postmodern fiction. Students will leave the class with a sense of the nuclear issue’s past and ongoing importance while practicing and learning literary and film analysis. Likely authors include Masuji Ibuse, Thomas Pynchon, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Albert Wendt, and likely films include Godzilla, Hiroshima mon amour, Oppenheimer, Stalker, and footage of nuclear testing itself.

ENGL B231  HORROR FILM  (1.0 Credit)

Devin Daniels

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

How has cinema visualized monsters, death, spectral presences, and all that is beyond human comprehension? How (and why) has it sought to elicit fear, revulsion, and horror from its viewers? In this class, we’ll explore these and other questions through a broad survey of the horror film across cinematic history. We’ll consider a wide range of films and subgenres, including gothic silent films, “golden age” monster movies, 80s slasher films, and found footage horror. We’ll also watch contemporary examples of how filmmakers like Jordan Peele, Ana Lily Amirpour, and Matt Farley have used the horror genre to produce independent, original, and critically acclaimed movies in an era dominated by franchises and high budgets. We’ll pay particular attention to how the vampires, zombies, killers, and victims of horror are racialized, gendered, and classed, showing us how horror seeks (and often fails) to contain societal fears and anxieties within the realm of the fantastic. Likely films will include The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Night of the Living Dead, Get Out, and A Girl Walks Home at Night, among others. This course presumes no prior knowledge of film studies, and we’ll read film criticism and scholarship to learn how to think, talk, and write about movies generally and horror films specifically. CW: Given the subject of the course, we will be watching a number of films that include disturbing or frightening imagery or themes. That said, the professor will happily provide content warnings on specific topics or themes if desired.

ENGL B232  RACE ON FILM: FROM STUDENT MOVEMENTS TO BLM  (1.0 Credit)

Devin Daniels

Division: Humanities

This course will introduce students to cinematic representations of and engagements with race since the late 1960s. In the years following the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the student movements of the late 1960s, struggles for racial justice evolved in response to the development of new “colorblind” forms of oppression and the persistence of racial and economic inequality in spite of the Civil Rights movement’s significant political victories. Filmmakers of color experimented with how best to represent and intervene in this struggle while Hollywood production companies sought to incorporate racial difference into their market share. We will watch a large variety of films, with a particular focus on Black cinema, from documentaries of the 1960s social movements, to early Blaxploitation films, to the L.A. Rebellion, to contemporary responses to the Black Lives Matter movement, alongside examples of Asian-American cinema, Chicanx cinema, New Queer Cinema, and Indigenous science fiction. We will ask questions about the importance and limitations of representation, the relationship between political movements and art, and the intersections of race with gender, sexuality, and economic class. We will pair short theoretical and critical readings with films by, among others, Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, Cheryl Duyne, Spike Lee, Gregory Nava, and Wayne Wang.

FREN B208  LA DIVERSITÉ DANS LE CINÉMA FRANÇAIS CONTEMPORAIN  (1.0 Credit)

Julien Suaudeau

Until the closing years of the 20th century, ethnic diversity was virtually absent from French cinema. While Francophone directors from Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa debunked colonialism and neocolonialism in their films, minorities hardly appeared on French screens. Movies were made by white filmmakers for a white audience. Since the 1980's and the 1990's, minorities have become more visible in French films. Are French Blacks and Arabs portrayed in French cinema beyond stereotypes, or are they still objects of a euro-centric gaze? Have minorities gained agency in storytelling, not just as actors, but as directors? What is the national narrative at play in the recent French films that focus on diversity? Is it still "us against them", or has the new generation of French filmmakers found a way to include the different components of French identity into a collective subject? From Bouchareb to Gomis, from Kechiche to Benyamina and Jean-Baptiste, this course will map out the visual fault lines of the French self and examine the prospects for a post-republican sense of community. This course will be taught in French. Open to non-majors. There will be a weekly screening on Sunday, 7:00pm-9:00pm.

FREN B233  LES MÉTAMORPHOSES DU REGARD FÉMININ DANS LE CINÉMA FRANÇAIS  (1.0 Credit)

Julien Suaudeau

The male gaze is, in many ways, consubstantial to film as a language and as a cultural medium. Although French cinema is not an exception, female French filmmakers have, for decades, sought to disrupt the codes and the power structure of a traditionally male-dominated industry, both by moving away from conventional narratives and by inventing a female gaze that would be organic to their films and to the characters that they portray. How has the representation of women and womanhood in French film evolved since the New Wave? Have women gained agency in storytelling, not just as actresses, but also behind-the-scenes, as directors, screenwriters, producers? To what extent has their work affected the stories told by male filmmakers? From Agnès Varda to Alice Diop, from Laurence Ferreira-Barbosa to Céline Sciamma and Justine Triet, this course will be paired with the Women in Trouble French and Francophone Film Festival at Bryn Mawr Film Institute and VCAM. This course will be taught in French. Open to non-majors. There will be a weekly screening on Sunday, 7:00pm-9:00pm. Prerequisite: Completion of 100-level sequence.

GNST B237  INTRODUCTION TO THE FILM MEDIUM  (1.0 Credit)

Rachel McCabe

This course provides students with an introduction to the language and practices of film analysis. It gives students exposure to formal and cultural issues important to the analysis of film. The course approaches film as both art and cultural artefact by focusing on film form, history, genre, theory, and production. In order to gain familiarity with the different aspects of cinematic style and narrative form, the course will explore a variety of films ranging from classic Hollywood, global cinema, to contemporary films. Assignments will ask students to reflect the course concepts through written assignments and multimodal projects. Attendance at weekly screenings is mandatory.

HART B170  HISTORY OF NARRATIVE CINEMA, 1945 TO THE PRESENT  (1.0 Credit)

Homay King

Division: Humanities

This course surveys the history of narrative film from 1945 to the present. We will analyze a chronological series of styles and national cinemas, including Classical Hollywood, Italian Neorealism, the French New Wave, and other post-war movements and genres. Viewings of canonical films will be supplemented by more recent examples of global cinema. While historical in approach, this course emphasizes the theory and criticism of the sound film, and we will consider various methodological approaches to the aesthetic, socio-political, and psychological dimensions of cinema. Readings will provide historical context, and will introduce students to key concepts in film studies such as realism, formalism, spectatorship, the auteur theory, and genre studies. Fulfills the history requirement or the introductory course requirement for the Film Studies minor. This course was formerly numbered HART B299; students who previously completed HART B299 may not repeat this course.

HART B235  CRITICAL APPROACHES TO VISUAL REPRESENTATION: IDENTIFICATION IN THE CINEMA  (1.0 Credit)

Matthew Feliz

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course is writing intensive. An introduction to the analysis of film and other lensed, time-based media through particular attention to the role of the spectator. Why do moving images compel our fascination? How exactly do spectators relate to the people, objects, and places that appear on the screen? Wherein lies the power of images to move, attract, repel, persuade, or transform their viewers? Students will be introduced to film theory through the rich and complex topic of identification. We will explore how points of view are framed by the camera in still photography, film, television, video games, and other media. Prerequisite: one course in History of Art at the 100-level or permission of the instructor. Enrollment preference given to majors and minors in History of Art and Film Studies. Fulfills Film Studies Introductory or Theory course requirement. This course was formerly numbered HART B110; students who previously completed HART B110 may not repeat this course.

HART B380  TOPICS IN FILM STUDIES  (1.0 Credit)

Homay King

Division: Humanities

This is a topics course. Course content varies. Prerequisite: one course in History of Art at the 100- or 200-level or permission of the instructor. Enrollment preference given to majors and minors in History of Art and Film Studies. This course was formerly numbered HART B334.

ITAL B238  ITALY ON SCREEN: A JOURNEY THROUGH ITALIAN CINEMA  (1.0 Credit)

Giulio Genovese

This course will introduce students to contemporary Italian history and culture by viewing and discussing those films produced in Italy that most reflect the diversity of its nation and society, from the Unification to today. Group work, in-class discussions, and academic readings will foster students’ visual analysis, cross-cultural reflection, and critical thinking skills on topics such as organized crime, gender inequality, masculinity, racial and ethnic discrimination, migration, mental disability, and queer identities. Students will familiarize themselves with renowned directors such as Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini, and Marco Tullio Giordana, in addition to acquiring an interdisciplinary understanding of Italian cinema. Taught in English, with an additional hour in Italian for students seeking Italian credit. Cross-listed with Film Studies.

RUSS B365  RUSSIAN AND SOVIET FILM CULTURE  (1.0 Credit)

Marina Rojavin

Division: Humanities

This seminar explores the cultural and theoretical trends that have shaped Russian and Soviet cinema from the silent era to the present day. The focus will be on Russia’s films and film theory, with discussion of the aesthetic, ideological, and historical issues underscoring Russia’s cinematic culture. Taught in Russian. No previous study of cinema required, although RUSS 201 or the equivalent is required.

SPAN B252  COMPASSION, INDIGNATION, AND ANXIETY IN LATIN AMERICAN FILM  (1.0 Credit)

Martín Gaspar

Stereotypically, Latin Americans are viewed as "emotional people"--often a euphemism to mean irrational, impulsive, wildly heroic, fickle. This course takes this expression at face value to ask: Are there particular emotions that identify Latin Americans? And, conversely, do these "people" become such because they share certain emotions? Can we find a correlation between emotions and political trajectories? To answer these questions, we will explore three types of films that seem to have, at different times, taken hold of the Latin American imagination and feelings: melodramas (1950s-1960s), documentaries (1970s-1990s), and "low-key" comedies (since 2000s.) This course is offered in both Spanish and English. Prerequisite: SPAN 120 or permission of instructor