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