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.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

ARTD B220  SCREENDANCE: MOVEMENT AND THE CAMERA  (1.0 Credit)

Brittany Fishel

Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

This course is a practical introduction to Screendance for students interested in extending their experience or interest in dance and movement into a new realm. Also known as dancefilm, cinedance, videodance and/or dance for the camera, Screendance connects film (and filmmaking) with dance (and dancemaking) in an evolving hybrid performative practice. For both the maker and audience, the inquiry is the adventure of discovering what the coming together of dance and screen can be. Screendance can be described as diverse, global, emergent, alive, active, trans-media, continually evolving. Through class screenings, exercises, readings and discussion, students will learn approaches to combining dance and the moving image. Students will work alone and in small collaborative groups to create their own works integrating dance and video. Through creative projects, students will develop their own cinematic style and an increased proficiency with both filming and editing movement.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

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.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

EALC B240  TOPICS IN CHINESE FILM  (1.0 Credit)

Shiamin Kwa

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

ENGL B205  INTRODUCTION TO FILM  (1.0 Credit)

Pardis Dabashi

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

This course is intended to provide students with the tools of critical film analysis. Through readings of images and sounds, sections of films and entire narratives, students will cultivate the habits of critical viewing and establish a foundation for focused work in film studies. The course introduces formal and technical units of cinematic meaning and categories of genre and history that add up to the experiences and meanings we call cinema. Although much of the course material will focus on the Hollywood style of film, examples will be drawn from the history of cinema. Attendance at weekly screenings is mandatory.

ENGL B213  GLOBAL CINEMA  (1.0 Credit)

Pardis Dabashi

Division: Humanities

This course introduces students to one possible history of global cinema. We will discuss and analyze a variety of filmmakers and film movements from around the world. Students will be exposed to the discipline of film studies as it is specifically related to the cinema of East Asia, South Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. We will study these works with special emphasis on film language, aesthetics, and politics, as well as film style and genre. Along the way, we will explore a number of key terms and concepts, including colonialism, postcolonialism, form, realism, surrealism, futurism, orientalism, modernity, postmodernity, hegemony, the subaltern, and globalization. Filmmakers will include, among others, Wong Kar-wai, Satyajit Ray, Shirin Neshat, Fernando Mereilles, Agnès Varda, and Werner Herzog.

ENGL B231  THEORIZING AFFECT, WATCHING TELEVISION  (1.0 Credit)

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

This course examines television through the lens of affect theory. Within humanities scholarship, the turn toward affect has offered new ways to study the cultural, economic, and political functions of literature and art. In our wider cultural moment, television programming has become a source of shared fascination. The course will pair readings from affect studies (by scholars such as Lauren Berlant and Sianne Ngai) with select examples of television shows (including Black Mirror, Mad Men, and The Wire). We will also read scholarly and public writing about television and consider the interplay between cultural feelings and televisual forms such as seriality, situation comedy, and bottle episodes.

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.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

ENGL B294  IRANIAN CINEMA: BEFORE AND AFTER THE REVOLUTION  (1.0 Credit)

Pardis Dabashi

One of the most celebrated global cinemas to date, Iranian cinema has been recognized in film festivals around the world for its unique aesthetic vision, political complexities, and social import. This course will expose students to major masterpieces of Iranian cinema both prior to and after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Along the way, students will learn to meaningfully engage topics such as film form, colonialism, imperialism, labor migration, realism, expressionism, and issues concerning the politics of gender, race, ethnicity, and religion.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

ENGL B336  TOPICS IN FILM  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

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

This is a topics course and description varies according to the topic.

ENGL B357  A STAR IS BORN: RACE, GENDER, AND CELEBRITY  (1.0 Credit)

Pardis Dabashi

Division: Humanities

This course will explore the concept of celebrity in cinema and cinematic culture from the standpoint of race and gender. Focusing on, but not limiting ourselves to, the classical Hollywood cinema (about the 1910s to the 1960s), we will approach the topic of stardom from theoretical and institutional perspectives. We will quickly discover that the study of celebrity opens out onto broad questions about the distinction between art and reality. What is the distinction, for instance, between a person and a character? What is it about celebrities that makes this question especially salient? What are we doing, precisely, when we identify with a character on screen, and, moreover, when that character is played by someone extremely famous? What are the racial, sexual, and gendered performances that go into the construction of celebrity? What political operations are at work in the formal construction of identification? Under what circumstances is identification something to be complicated, challenged, or avoided altogether? Celebrity also seems to hold within it the promise of its own demise. The extremely famous, for instance, are susceptible to infamy—or worse, irrelevance. How do race, gender, and sexuality intersect with fame’s fundamental fragility, the way that celebrity seems to court obsolescence? We will examine these and other questions by way of classical and contemporary stars such as Josephine Baker, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Judy Garland, Anna May Wong, Beyoncé, and Lady Gaga.

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.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

GERM H320  IMPOSSIBLE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE HOLOCAUST IN GERMAN DRAMA AND FILM  (1.0 Credit)

Imke Brust

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course will provide a historical overview of the Holocaust, its origins, process, and outcomes, and how it has served as a mental map for the construction of contemporary German national identity. In this context, we will explore such topics as notions of memory, collective guilt, trauma, and mourning. In addition, the course will critically engage issues of portrayal and representation of historical memory within the context of Holocaust commemoration by discussing several different plays and films that can be contextualized within the German Vergangenheitsaufarbeitung (working through the past) and more recently ‘memory contests’. Lastly, this course will also explore the tragedy and remembrance of the Holocaust as a transnational phenomenon in the contemporary world. The course is taught in English with an extra session in German. Cross-listed: German, Comparative Literature

GNST B255  VIDEO PRODUCTION  (1.0 Credit)

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

This course will explore aesthetic strategies utilized by low-budget film and video makers as each student works throughout the semester to complete a 7-15 minute film or video project. Course requirements include weekly screenings, reading assignments, and class screenings of rushes and roughcuts of student projects. Prerequisites: Some prior film course experience necessary, instructor discretion.

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.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

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.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

HART B376  TOPICS IN INTERPRETATION AND THEORY  (1.0 Credit)

Homay King

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.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

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.

HIST B284  MOVIES AND AMERICA: THE PAST LIVES FOREVER  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Movies are one of the most important means by which Americans come to know – or think they know—their own history. We look to old movies to tell us about a world we never knew but think we can access through film. And Hollywood often reaches into the past to tell a good story. How can we understand the impact of our love affair with movies on our understanding of what happened in this country? In this course we will examine the complex cultural relationship between film and American historical self-fashioning.

ITAL B238  ITALIAN SOCIETY IN FILM  (1.0 Credit)

Daria Bozzato

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.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

ITAL B325  LITERATURE AND FILM, LITERATURE INTO FILMS AND BACK  (1.0 Credit)

Roberta Ricci

This course is a critical analysis of Modern Italian society through cinematic production and literature, from the Risorgimento to the present. According to Alfred Hitchock’s little stories, two goats were eating the reel of a movie taken from a famous novel. “I liked the book better,” says one to the other. While at times we too chew on movies taken from books, our main objective will not be to compare books and films, but rather to explore the more complex relation between literature and cinema: how text is put into film, how cultural references operate with respect to issues of style, technique, and perspective. We will discuss how cinema conditions literary imagination, and how literature leaves its imprint on cinema. We will "read" films as "literary images" and "see" novels as "visual stories". Students will become acquainted with literary sources through careful readings; on viewing the corresponding film, students will consider how narrative and descriptive textual elements are transposed into cinematic audio/visual elements. An important concern of this course will be to analyze the particularity of each film/book in relation to a set of themes -gender, death, class, discrimination, history, migration- through close textual analysis. We shall use contemporary Film theory and critical methodology to access these themes.

MEST B201  SOCIETY AND CULTURE OF THE MIDDLE EAST THROUGH FILM  (1.0 Credit)

Manar Darwish

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

This course is designed so that students begin to acquire a knowledge and understanding of the contemporary Arab world through film. A main focus would be society and the representation of family life with all its intricacies. Because the region is extremely diverse and the life of its people and their experiences are, especially in the present, complex, it is necessary to select only a few of the countries in the region and their cinemas to focus on. This should allow for deeper study and meaningful conclusions. The cinemas of several Arab countries will be examined. Egypt has always been and to a large extent remains the center of Arabic-language cinema; three quarters of all Arabic-language feature films having been produced there. Films by famous directors such as Youssef Chahine and Shadi Abdel Salam, among others, will be appropriate to consider. But films from other Arab countries, e.g., from North Africa and the Middle East, will also be included for comparison and a more comprehensive picture.

RUSS B258  SOVIET AND EASTERN EUROPEAN CINEMA OF THE 1960S  (1.0 Credit)

Timothy Harte

This course examines 1960s Soviet and Eastern European “New Wave” cinema, which won worldwide acclaim through its treatment of war, gender, and aesthetics. Films from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Yugoslavia will be viewed and analyzed, accompanied by readings on film history and theory. All films shown with subtitles; no knowledge of Russian or previous study of film required.

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.) Course is taught in Spanish

(Offered: Fall 2023)

VIST H209  FILM ON PHOTOGRAPHY: THEORY AND PRACTICE  (1.0 Credit)

John Muse

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

An introduction to media production. Students will study the relationship between film and photography by viewing, reading about, and making films that feature photographs as either evidence, icons, memento mori, or as the atom of cinematic form, that is to say, the single film frame, stilled. Crosslisted: Independent College Programs, Film Studies Limited Enrollment 12