1997-98 University Bulletin Entry for:

Film Studies Program

S = Objectives

Film Studies is an interdisciplinary liberal arts program offering insight into motion picture media. Broadly understood to encompass inquiry into the aesthetics, history, and cultural meanings of the moving image, the Film Studies Program has two primary goals: to offer an informed background in motion picture history and to develop a critical appreciation of the cultural meanings of film. It is not a pre-professional program emphasizing technical skills but a humanities-based course of study stressing inquiry into film style and content, film history, and the relationships between film and culture.

The curriculum is designed to provide a broad overview of the history of the moving image, to develop expertise in cinematic style and cultural meaning, to lend theoretical sophistication to an understanding of the moving image, and to ensure some appreciation of the practical and technical side of motion picture production. A field especially congenial to interdisciplinary inquiry, film studies is a practical complement to a range of established concentrations for which an expertise in visual style and motion picture history is becoming ever more important--American studies, English and American literature, fine arts, history, politics, sociology, and theater arts.

S = How to Become a Program Member

The program is open to all Brandeis undergraduates. To enroll in the program, consult with a member of the film studies committee and fill out declaration forms from the Office of Academic Affairs. Students who complete the requirements of the program receive film studies certificates and notations on their transcripts.

S = Committee

Thomas Doherty, Chair

(American Studies)

Pamela Allara

(Fine Arts)

Eric Chasalow

(Music)

Sylvia Fishman

(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)

Eberhard Frey

(Germanic and Slavic Languages)

Erica Harth

(Romance and Comparative Literature)

James Mandrell

(Romance and Comparative Literature)

Robert Szulkin

(Germanic and Slavic Languages)

S = Requirements for the Program

Students must complete six courses:

A. Core course: FILM 100a (Introduction to the Moving Image).

B. An approved film studies seminar or research project usually taken in the senior year. The senior seminar or research project, which requires permission of the instructor, is designed to function as a capstone experience to the Film Studies Program, an occasion to demonstrate a sophisticated mastery of the history, style, and cultural impact of the moving image.

C. Four additional courses from the approved film studies curriculum, which must include one course in a non-American cinema and one course in some creative aspect of film production.

S = Courses of Instruction

S = (1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students

FILM 92a Internship in Film Studies

Signature of the instructor required.

Usually offered every year.

Staff

FILM 92b Internship in Film Studies

Signature of the instructor required.

Usually offered every year.

Staff

FILM 97a Readings in Film Studies

Signature of the instructor required.

Usually offered every year.

Staff

FILM 97b Readings in Film Studies

Signature of the instructor required.

Usually offered every year.

Staff

G = (100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students

FILM 100a Introduction to the Moving Image

[ cl13 cl35 ca hum ]

An interdisciplinary course surveying the history of moving image media from 1895 to the present, from the earliest silent cinema to the age of the 500-channel cable television. Open to all undergraduates as an elective, it is the introductory course for the Film Studies Program. Usually offered every year.

Ms. Allara

L =

Electives

The following courses are approved for the program. Not all are given in any one year, so the Course Schedule for each semester should be consulted.

AMST 111a

Images of the American West in Film and Culture

AMST 112b

American Film and Culture of the 1950s

AMST 113a

American Film and Culture of the 1940s

AMST 113b

American Film and Culture of the 1930s

AMST 114a

American Film and Culture of the 1920s

AMST 130b

Television in America

AMST 131b

News on Screen

ANTH 26a

Communication and Media

COML 135b

Sexualities and Cinema

FA 71a

Modern Art and Modern Culture

NEJS 190b

Images of Jews on Film

NEJS 191b

Revisioning Jewish Life in Film and Fiction

NEJS 194b

Film and the Holocaust

THA 126b

American Musical Theater and Film

L =

Courses in Non-American Cinema

FECS 157a

Topics in French Film

GECS 165a

German Film in Cultural Context

GECS 166b

Dreams and Nightmares: The Third Reich on Film

HBRW 104a

Israeli Films

RECS 143b

History of Russian and Soviet Film

RECS 149b

Twentieth-Century Russian Literature, Art, Film, and Theater

SECS 183a

Spanish Fictions and Films of Modern Life

L =

Courses in Creative Aspects of Film Production

AMST 196d

Film Workshop: Recording America

MUS 107a

Introduction to Electro-Acoustic Music

THA 50b

Sound for Theater, Film, and Television

THA 52b

Fundamentals of Lighting

L =

Senior Seminars

AMST 120b

Film Theory and Criticism

COML 195a

Feminism and Film

FA 102a

American Avant-Garde Film and Video