An Interdepartmental Program in Film, Television and Interactive Media
Last updated: September 19, 2022 at 2:34 PM
Programs of Study
- Minor
- Major (BA)
Objectives
The Film, Television and Interactive Media major exemplifies interdepartmental inquiry and multi-cultural exploration. The course of study is not a pre-professional one, but rather a liberal arts field of scholarly inquiry. In the program, the study of Film, Television and Interactive Media offers interdisciplinary insight into motion picture media. Broadly understood to encompass inquiry into the aesthetics, history, and cultural meanings of the moving image, the major has two primary goals: to provide an informed background in motion picture history and to develop a critical appreciation of the cultural meanings of film.
This humanities-driven course of study stresses analysis of film style and content, film history, and the relationships between cinema and culture. The curriculum is designed to provide a broad overview of the history of the moving image, to promote 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. Students develop an awareness of cinema as a complex narrative form and as an art. They learn the rhetorical and syntactical conventions of moving images and how this language has developed historically. No more than three courses in production can count towards the nine classes required.
Learning Goals
Film, Television, and Interactive Media draws on faculty in the Humanities, the Social Sciences, the Creative Arts, and Computer Science, to offer liberal arts courses in cinema and television as well as in film production. The major provides a distinctive and innovative setting for the education and training of students in the newer media and of fiction and documentary filmmakers. We empower graduates with deep knowledge of cinematic history and culture, and foster their technical skills and creative abilities in media capture, editing, sound, lighting, directing, cinematography and screenwriting. We prepare students to apply their understanding of conventional film and television to new domains in interactive media, such as movies for mobile devices and games with a strong narrative and visual appeal. In short, we teach majors to understand and respect the creative process and artists to value and learn from scholarship.
Knowledge
Students completing the major in Film, Television and Interactive Media will come away with a strong understanding of:
- American and international cultures of the moving image
- Film criticism, auteurial cinema, independent film, and the studio system
- Appreciation of film as text and narrative
- Global, national and regional cinemas
- Implications of the new and emerging technologies for the creative process
- Economic and business dimensions of the industry
Core Skills
- The creative aspects of film production, including screenwriting, editing, interactive media, 3D animation, sound design, and digital media capture, as they relate to film, gaming, and web-delivered visual work
- Techniques and the art of production
- Ability to provide insightful criticism of film, television, and enriched media
Upon Graduating
A Brandeis student with a Film, Television and Interactive Media major will be prepared to:
- Undertake graduate study or a career in the cinematic arts
- Work in production
- Pursue, as many of our concentrators have done, careers in law, business, entertainment, journalism, and media-based endeavors
How to Become a Major
The program is open to all undergraduates. To declare and design a major or a minor in Film, Television and Interactive Media, a student should first meet with the undergraduate advising head. Together they will select as an adviser a faculty member who seems best suited to that student's area of scholarly or creative interests.
Committee
Alice Kelikian, Chair and Undergraduate Advising Head
(History)
Patricia Alvarez Astacio
(Anthropology)
Gannit Ankori
(Fine Arts)
Steven Burg
(Politics)
Tory Fair
(Fine Arts)
Timothy Hickey
(Computer Science)
Paul Morrison
(English)
Fernando Rosenberg
(Romance Studies)
Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)
Steven Burg (Politics)
Timothy Hickey (Computer Science)
Alice Kelikian (History)
Paul Morrison (English)
Requirements for the Minor
Students must complete six courses, including:
- FILM 100a (Introduction to the Moving Image)
- One course in World Cinema (see course list below).
- One course in the creative aspects of film production (see course list below).
- Three courses selected from the World Cinema, creative aspects of film production, and elective course lists (see below); however only two courses may be from the creative aspects of film production list.
- Students may double-count no more than three courses used to fulfill the minor in Film, Television and Interactive Media with another major or minor.
No course with a final grade below C can count toward the minor nor any course graded on a pass/fail basis.
Requirements for the Major
Students must complete nine courses, including:
- FILM 100a (Introduction to the Moving Image)
- One course in World Cinema (see course list below).
- One course in the creative aspects of film production (see course list below).
- Six courses selected from the World Cinema, creative aspects of film production, and elective course lists (see below); however only two courses may be from the creative aspects of film production list. One semester of FILM 92 may be taken for credit towards the major.
- Foundational Literacies: As part of completing the Film, Television and Interactive Media major, students must:
- Fulfill the writing intensive requirement by successfully completing one of the following: ENG 79a, ENG 139b, ENG 149a, ENG 159a, HISP 193b, HIST 131a, and HIST 170a.
- Fulfill the oral communication requirement by successfully completing one of the following: ENG 139b or GER 103a.
- Fulfill the digital literacy requirement by successfully completing one of the following: FILM 110a, FILM 110b, FILM 120a, HIST 170a, COSI 155b, or COSI 164a.
- Candidates for departmental honor considerations must satisfactorily complete FILM 99d (Senior Thesis) under the supervision of a member of the executive committee and may count two semesters towards the required courses for the major.
- Students may double-count no more than four courses used to fulfill the major in Film, Television and Interactive Media with another major or minor.
- No course with a final grade below C can count toward the major nor any course graded on a pass/fail basis. Courses cross-listed in Creative Writing, which are credit/non-credit courses, may be counted towards the major.
Courses of Instruction
(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students
FILM
92a
Internship in Film Studies
Usually offered every year.
Staff
FILM
98a
Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff
FILM
98b
Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff
FILM
99d
Senior Thesis
Students who are candidates for degrees with honors in Film, Television and Interactive Media must register for this full-year course. Usually offered every year.
Staff
(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students
FILM
100a
Introduction to the Moving Image
[
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 streaming media. Open to all undergraduates as an elective, it is the introductory course for the major and minor in film, television and interactive media. Usually offered every year.
Staff
FILM
110a
Film Production I
[
ca
dl
ss
]
Preference given to Film,Television and Interactive Media majors and minors.
An introduction to the basic principles and techniques of fictional narrative motion picture production. Each student will produce three short films. The films will emphasize dramatic development and creative storytelling through image composition, camera movement, editing, and sound. Usually offered every year.
Staff
FILM
110b
Motion Picture Editing
[
dl
ss
]
Preference given to Film, Television and Interactive Media majors and minors.
Students will develop visual literacy through a study of the editor's role in cinematic storytelling. The course provides an overview of the craft's history and theory and offers practical training in editing digital video with Adobe Premiere Pro. Usually offered every year.
Staff
FILM
114a
Genre Films in Cinema and Television
[
hum
]
Explores the analytical framework for understanding genre film. From Steven Spielberg's Jaws to Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Tim Story's Barbershop, genre films break box office records and have lasting cultural significance in cinema. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
FILM
120a
Cinematography
[
ca
dl
]
Gives students the ability learn lighting, media capture techniques, camera and subject movement choreography in both analog and digital formats. They will gain knowledge of axis and frames, dynamic editing points and creating a motion picture as an essay tapestry. Usually offered every year.
Staff
FTIM Digital Literacy
COSI
155b
Computer Graphics
[
dl
sn
]
Prerequisite: COSI 12b.
An introduction to the art of displaying computer-generated images and to the design of graphical user interfaces. Topics include graphic primitives; representations of curves, surfaces, and solids; and the mathematics of two- and three-dimensional transformations. Usually offered every third year.
Timothy Hickey
COSI
164a
Introduction to 3-D Animation
[
dl
sn
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took COSI 65a in prior years.
Covers the fundamental concepts of 3-D animation and teaches both the theory underlying 3-D animation as well as the skills needed to create 3-D movies. Students demonstrate their understanding of the concepts by creating several short animated movies. Usually offered every third year.
Timothy Hickey
FILM
110a
Film Production I
[
ca
dl
ss
]
Preference given to Film,Television and Interactive Media majors and minors.
An introduction to the basic principles and techniques of fictional narrative motion picture production. Each student will produce three short films. The films will emphasize dramatic development and creative storytelling through image composition, camera movement, editing, and sound. Usually offered every year.
Staff
FILM
110b
Motion Picture Editing
[
dl
ss
]
Preference given to Film, Television and Interactive Media majors and minors.
Students will develop visual literacy through a study of the editor's role in cinematic storytelling. The course provides an overview of the craft's history and theory and offers practical training in editing digital video with Adobe Premiere Pro. Usually offered every year.
Staff
FILM
120a
Cinematography
[
ca
dl
]
Gives students the ability learn lighting, media capture techniques, camera and subject movement choreography in both analog and digital formats. They will gain knowledge of axis and frames, dynamic editing points and creating a motion picture as an essay tapestry. Usually offered every year.
Staff
HIST
170a
Italian Films, Italian Histories
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Explores the relationship between Italian history and Italian film from unification to 1975. Topics include socialism, fascism, the deportation of Jews, the Resistance, the Mafia, and the emergence of an American-style star fixation in the 1960s. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
FTIM Oral Communication
ENG
139b
Screenwriting Workshop: Intermediate Screenwriting
[
hum
oc
wi
]
Prerequisites: ENG 79a. Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
In this writing-intensive course, students build on screenwriting basics and delve more deeply into the creative process. Participants read and critique each other's work, study screenplays and view films, and submit original written material on a biweekly basis. At the conclusion of the course each student will have completed the first draft of a screenplay (100-120 pages). Usually offered every second year.
Marc Weinberg
GER
103a
German Culture Through Film
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: GER 30a.
Approaches an understanding of contemporary German culture through film by focusing on one of the most fascinating and turbulent of national cinemas. Landmark films from the 1920s to the present and pertinent essays, articles and studies will provide a historical perspective on decisive social and cultural phenomena. Major themes include Vergangenheitsbewältigung, multi-ethnic societies, terrorism, life in the GDR, and cultural trends at the beginning of the 21st century. Students learn also about the technical side of filmmaking and produce their own short film under professional guidance. Usually offered every second year.
Kathrin Breuer
FTIM Writing Intensive
ENG
79a
Screenwriting Workshop: Beginning Screenplay
[
dl
hum
wi
]
Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
Fundamentals of screenwriting: structure, plot, conflict, character, and dialogue. Students read screenwriting theory, scripts, analyze files, and produce an outline and the first act of an original screenplay. Usually offered every third year.
Marc Weinberg
ENG
139b
Screenwriting Workshop: Intermediate Screenwriting
[
hum
oc
wi
]
Prerequisites: ENG 79a. Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
In this writing-intensive course, students build on screenwriting basics and delve more deeply into the creative process. Participants read and critique each other's work, study screenplays and view films, and submit original written material on a biweekly basis. At the conclusion of the course each student will have completed the first draft of a screenplay (100-120 pages). Usually offered every second year.
Marc Weinberg
ENG
149a
Screenwriting Workshop: Writing for Television
[
dl
hum
wi
]
Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
Introduces students to the craft of writing for a variety of television programming formats, including episodic, late-night, and public service announcements. Students will read and view examples and create their own works within each genre. Usually offered every second year.
Marc Weinberg
ENG
159a
Screenwriting Workshop: The Short Film and the Web Series
[
hum
wi
]
Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
Introduces writing and producing of short films for independent production. In this class we will also discuss writing for formats including a YouTube or Vimeo narrative series, IGTV narrative series and other independent production platforms. Topics will include introduction to screenwriting, script format, loglines, pitch pages, beat sheets & outlines, short form structure, and the planning involved in pre-production. Usually offered every year.
Paloma Valenzuela
HISP
193b
Topics in Cinema
[
fl
hum
]
Open to all students; conducted in Spanish. Course may be repeated for credit. Does not fulfill writing intensive beginning fall 2020.
Topics vary from year to year but might include consideration of a specific director, an outline of the history of a national cinema, a particular moment in film history, or Hollywood cinema in Spanish. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
131a
Hitler's Europe in Film
[
ss
wi
]
Takes a critical look as how Hitler's Europe has been represented and misrepresented since its time by documentary and entertainment films of different countries beginning with Germany itself. Movies, individual reports, discussions, and a littler reading. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
170a
Italian Films, Italian Histories
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Explores the relationship between Italian history and Italian film from unification to 1975. Topics include socialism, fascism, the deportation of Jews, the Resistance, the Mafia, and the emergence of an American-style star fixation in the 1960s. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
FTIM Elective Courses
AAPI/WGS
137b
Performing Asian/American Women on Screen and Scene
[
deis-us
ss
]
Examines performances of Asian/American women and how they have changed over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We analyze American film, television, and stage performances to trace the shifting, yet continuous participation of Asian/American women on screen and scene in the United States. Important issues include Orientalism and representation, race and racism, immigration and diasporas, militarisms and empire, gender and hypersexuality, yellow face practices then and now, as well as assimilation and resistance. We ask: what have dominant representations of Asian/American been like from the silent film era to the current digital age? How have the figures of the lotus blossom, the dragon lady, the trafficked woman, the geisha, the war bride, the military prostitute, the orphan, among other problematic tropes emerged to represent Asian/American women? How has the changing political, social, and cultural position of Asian/Americans shaped their participation in media production, as well as their media representations in the United States broadly speaking? Usually offered every second year.
Yuri Doolan
AMST
35a
Hollywood and American Culture
[
ss
]
This is an interdisciplinary course in Hollywood cinema and American culture that aims to do justice to both arenas. Students will learn the terms of filmic grammar, the meanings of visual style, and the contexts of Hollywood cinema from The Birth of a Nation (1915) to last weekend's top box office grosser. They will also master the major economic, social, and political realities that make up the American experience of the dominant medium of our time, the moving image, as purveyed by Hollywood. Usually offered every second year.
Thomas Doherty
AMST
36b
Television and American Culture
[
ss
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 130b in prior years.
An interdisciplinary course with three main lines of discussion and investigation: an aesthetic inquiry into the meaning of television style and genre; a historical consideration of the medium and its role in American life; and a technological study of televisual communication. Usually offered every second year.
Thomas Doherty
AMST
116b
Race and American Cinema
[
hum
]
From its earliest beginnings, the history of American cinema has been inextricably--and controversially--tied to the racial politics of the United States. This course explores how images of racial and ethnic minorities such as African Americans, Jews, Asians, Native Americans, and Latino/as are reflected on the screen, as well as the ways that minorities in the entertainment industry have responded to often limiting representations. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
AMST
129a
From American Movie Musicals to Music Videos
[
ss
]
Examines the spectacle of song and dance in movie musicals and music videos, beginning with the earliest talking pictures in the late 1920's and continuing to the present. Particular emphasis will be on technological change, race, gender and the commodification of culture, among other topics. Usually offered every second year.
James Mandrell
AMST
131b
News on Screen
[
ss
]
An interdisciplinary course exploring how journalistic practice is mediated by moving image--cinematic, televisual, and digital. The historical survey will span material from the late-nineteenth-century "actualities" of Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers to the viral environment of the World Wide Web, a rich tradition that includes newsreels, expeditionary films, screen magazines, combat reports, government information films, news broadcasts, live telecasts, television documentaries, amateur video, and the myriad blogs, vlogs, and webcasts of the digital age. Usually offered every second year.
Thomas Doherty
AMST
136a
Planet Hollywood: American Cinema in Global Perspective
[
hum
ss
]
Examines the global reach of Hollywood cinema as an art, business, and purveyor of American values, tracking how Hollywood has absorbed foreign influences and how other nations have adapted and resisted the Hollywood juggernaut. Usually offered every second year.
Thomas Doherty
AMST/MUS
55a
Music in Film: Hearing American Cinema
[
ca
oc
]
Formerly offered as MUS 55a.
Examines the aesthetics and the history of music in film. Through lecture, class discussions, screenings, and readings, the course teaches students how to critically read image, script, and music as an integrated cultural text, ultimately helping one understand and appreciate the progression of film and sound technology from the 1890s to the present. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
ANTH
26a
Communication and Media
[
dl
ss
]
An exploration of human communication and mass media from a cross-cultural perspective. Examines communication codes based on language and visual signs. The global impact of revolutions in media technology, including theories of cultural imperialism and indigenous uses of media is discussed. Usually offered every second year.
Janet McIntosh
ANTH
130a
Filming Culture: Ethnographic and Documentary Filmmaking
[
djw
dl
nw
ss
]
Introduces the history, theory and production of ethnographic and documentary filmmaking. This course traces how ethnographic and culturally-inflected filmmakers have sought to depict cultural difference, social organization, and lived experiences. Students will learn the basics of non-fiction film production. Usually offered every second year.
Patricia Alvarez Astacio
COML/ENG
70b
Environmental Film, Environmental Justice
[
djw
hum
]
Examines films that address nature, environmental crisis, and green activism. Asks how world cinema can best advance the goals of social and environmental justice. Includes films by major directors and festival award winners. Usually offered every third year.
Caren Irr
ENG
27b
Classic Hollywood Cinema
[
hum
]
A critical examination of the history of mainstream U.S. cinema from the 1930s to the present. Focuses on major developments in film content and form, the rise and fall of the studio and star system, the changing nature of spectatorship, and the social context of film production and reception. Usually offered every second year.
Paul Morrison
ENG
30b
American Film Auteurs of the 1970s
[
deis-us
hum
]
Interrogates idea of cinematic style. Examines works by directors such as Robert Altman, Peter Bogdanovich, Bob Fosse, Roman Polanski, and Martin Scorsese. Usually offered every third year.
Caren Irr
ENG
50b
American Independent Film
[
hum
]
Explores non-studio filmmaking in the United States. Defines an indie aesthetic and alternative methods of financing, producing, and distributing films. Special attention given to adaptations of major film genres, such as noir thrillers, domestic comedy, and horror. Usually offered every third year.
Caren Irr
ENG
61b
Philosophical Approaches to Film Theory
[
hum
]
Studies a philosophical approach to film theory, examining both what philosophy has to say about film and what effects the existence and experience of film can have on philosophical thinking about reality, perception, judgment, and other minds. Usually offered every third year.
William Flesch
ENG
62a
Documentary: Techniques and Controversies
[
hum
]
An introduction to documentary, covering major works of nonfiction prose and film. Focuses on the variety of documentary techniques in both media and controversies surrounding efforts to represent the real. Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Diouf
ENG
70a
The Birth of the Movies: From Silent Film to Hollywood
[
hum
]
Explores the birth of moving pictures, from Edison and Lumiere's experiments to "Birth of a Nation" and "The Jazz Singer". Traces film's roots in the photographic experiments, visual spectacles and magical lanterns of late nineteenth-century France, England, and America, and its relationship to the era's literary experiments. Filmmakers include: Georges Melies, Abel Ganz, Sergei Eisentein, D W Griffiths, Charlie Chaplin. Usually offered every third year.
John Plotz
ENG
128a
Race and US Cinema
[
deis-us
hum
]
Explores the central role film plays in the construction and policing of racialized identities in the US. We will focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the Black/white binarism. The course is structured as a survey. US cinema originates in the white depiction of Blacks or in the white deployment of blackface, and racialized bodies continue to serve as a ubiquitous (if frequently unacknowledged) source of fascination and anxiety in contemporary cinema. We will begin with early 'whitewashing' films and D.W. Griffith's foundational epic, The Birth of a Nation, and conclude with new queer Black cinema and contemporary Black filmmakers. Usually offered third year.
Paul Morrison
ENG
147a
Film Noir
[
hum
]
A study of classics of the genre (The Killers, The Maltese Falcon, Touch of Evil) as well as more recent variations (Chinatown, Bladerunner). Readings include source fiction (Hemingway, Hammett) and essays in criticism and theory. Usually offered every third year.
Paul Morrison
ENG
150a
Sex and Cinema
[
hum
]
Studies the construction and representation of sexuality, both normative and deviant, in film from the 1930's to the present day. We will pay particular attention to evolving strategies of censorship and resistance to it. Usually offered every third year.
Paul Morrison
ENG
177a
Hitchcock's Movies
[
hum
]
A study of thirteen films covering the whole trajectory of Hitchcock's career, as well as interviews and critical responses. Usually offered every second year.
Paul Morrison
ENG
180b
Romantic Comedy / Matrimonial Tragedy
[
hum
]
A genre study of romantic comedy, from early to recent cinema. How does its narrative machinery work and what social functions does it serve? An exploration of comedic pleasure as strategy for fashioning gender identities, sexualities, marriages, and anti-marriages. Usually offered every third year.
David Sherman
FA
8a
Introduction to Video Art
[
ca
dl
]
Explores producing moving images as fine art. While a basic overview of Adobe Premiere software is offered, emphasis is on conceptual framework and cultivating methodologies that best suit ideas. Students will experiment with materials, modes of production (performance, experimental documentation, appropriation, non-linear narrative), and exhibition (video monitors, projection, theatrical, installation, Internet) in order to consider the effect of these decisions on generating meaning and to better communicate one's statement through the genre. Usually offered every semester.
lauren woods
FILM
114a
Genre Films in Cinema and Television
[
hum
]
Explores the analytical framework for understanding genre film. From Steven Spielberg's Jaws to Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Tim Story's Barbershop, genre films break box office records and have lasting cultural significance in cinema. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
NEJS
181b
Film and the Holocaust
[
hum
]
Open to all students.
Examines the medium of film, propaganda, documentary, and narrative fiction relevant to the history of the Holocaust. The use of film to shape, justify, document, interpret, and imagine the Holocaust. Beginning with the films produced by the Third Reich, the course includes films produced immediately after the events, as well as contemporary feature films. The focus will be how the film medium, as a medium, works to (re)present meaning(s). Usually offered every second year.
Sharon Rivo
THA
155a
Icons of Masculinity: Media Images of Men
[
ca
]
Using icons from movies, fiction, theater, and television who represent manhood, this course explores how American men have defined and performed their masculinity. Various archetypes, including the cowboy, the gangster, the rogue cop, the athlete, the buddy, the lover, and Woody Allen are examined. Usually offered every second year.
Arthur Holmberg
FTIM Courses in World Cinema
AAAS
102a
African Cinema
[
nw
ss
]
Explores the foundation and development of African cinema in the context of African history, culture and politics. Examines issues of social change, gender, class, tradition, and modernization through various African cinematic genres. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
CHIN
130b
China on Film: The Changes of Chinese Culture
[
hum
nw
]
Taught in English. All films viewed have English subtitles.
Focuses on the enormous changes under way in Chinese society, politics, and culture. Helps students to identify and understand these fundamental transformations through a representative, exciting selection of readings and films. Usually offered every second spring.
Staff
ENG
20a
Bollywood: Popular Film, Genre, and Society
[
djw
hum
nw
]
An introduction to popular Hindi cinema through a survey of the most important Bollywood films from the 1950s until today. Topics include melodrama, song and dance, love and sex, stardom, nationalism, religion, diasporic migration, and globalization. Usually offered every third year.
Ulka Anjaria
ENG
170a
The Globalization of Nollywood
[
hum
nw
]
Introduces students to Nigeria's film industry, one of the world's largest. It focuses on both the form and the content of Nollywood films. Examines how Nollywood films project local, national, and regional issues onto global screens. Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Diouf
FREN
141b
Introduction to French Cinema: un certain regard
[
fl
hum
]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Introduces students to the major trends in French cinema since the forties (New Wave, "cinema du Look," feminist cinema, cartoons, "comédie à la française," beur cinema, etc.) Students will learn the critical vocabulary necessary to describe the formal aspects of film and to analyze films from a variety of theoretical approaches. Films will also be viewed as cultural products influenced by their social, political contexts and their modes of production and diffusion ("l'exception française.") Usually offered every third year.
Staff
GER
103a
German Culture Through Film
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: GER 30a.
Approaches an understanding of contemporary German culture through film by focusing on one of the most fascinating and turbulent of national cinemas. Landmark films from the 1920s to the present and pertinent essays, articles and studies will provide a historical perspective on decisive social and cultural phenomena. Major themes include Vergangenheitsbewältigung, multi-ethnic societies, terrorism, life in the GDR, and cultural trends at the beginning of the 21st century. Students learn also about the technical side of filmmaking and produce their own short film under professional guidance. Usually offered every second year.
Kathrin Breuer
HBRW
170a
Take I: Hebrew through Israeli Cinema
[
fl
hum
wi
]
Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.
An advanced culture course that focuses on strengthening all language skills by studying the various aspects of Israeli society as portrayed in Israeli films and television. In addition to viewing films, the students will be asked to read Hebrew background materials, to participate in class discussions, and to write in Hebrew about the films. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HISP
162b
New Latin American Cinema: From Revolution to the Market
[
fl
hum
]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Studies and compares two pivotal periods of film production, both of which were considered "new waves" of Latin American cinema. On the one hand, the new cinemas of the 1960s and 1970s, which accompanied moments of radical change and movements of revolutionary insurrection. On the other hand, the film boom of the 1990s and 2000s, in which aesthetic experimentation intersected with new realities of neoliberal policies and market globalization. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando Rosenberg
HISP
192b
Latin American Global Film
[
hum
nw
]
May be taught in English or Spanish.
Studies films that re-imagine Latin America's place in the world, focusing on how images are produced and consumed transnationally. 'Traditional' topics like cultural identity are refashioned for international consumption, and local issues are dramatized as already crisscrossed by global flows of which the films themselves partake. Close analysis of visual representation and film techniques will be complemented in each case by a study of historical and cultural background. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando Rosenberg
HISP
193b
Topics in Cinema
[
fl
hum
]
Open to all students; conducted in Spanish. Course may be repeated for credit. Does not fulfill writing intensive beginning fall 2020.
Topics vary from year to year but might include consideration of a specific director, an outline of the history of a national cinema, a particular moment in film history, or Hollywood cinema in Spanish. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
HIST
131a
Hitler's Europe in Film
[
ss
wi
]
Takes a critical look as how Hitler's Europe has been represented and misrepresented since its time by documentary and entertainment films of different countries beginning with Germany itself. Movies, individual reports, discussions, and a littler reading. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
HIST
170a
Italian Films, Italian Histories
[
dl
ss
wi
]
Explores the relationship between Italian history and Italian film from unification to 1975. Topics include socialism, fascism, the deportation of Jews, the Resistance, the Mafia, and the emergence of an American-style star fixation in the 1960s. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian
IGS
173a
Asian Gangsters: Contemporary Crime Cinema
[
djw
ss
]
Studies contemporary crime films to examine modern Asian society and politics. Drawing upon film theory, cultural studies, historical and sociological research, this class considers the world's largest media market to understand the continent's rapidly changing socio-political milieu. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
JAPN
135a
Screening National Images: Japanese Film and Anime in Global Context
[
hum
nw
]
All films and readings are in English.
An introduction to some major directors and works of postwar Japanese film and anime with special attention to such issues as genre, medium, adaptation, narrative, and the circulation of national images in the global setting. Usually offered every third year.
Matthew Fraleigh
NEJS
182a
Jewish Life in Television, Film, and Fiction
[
hum
]
Film and fiction are windows through which we can view transformations in American Jewish life. This course concentrates on cinematic and literary depictions of religious, socioeconomic, and cultural change over the past half-century. It does this through films and fiction, which reflect and help to shape shifting definitions of the American Jew. Usually offered every second year.
Rachel Greenblatt
RECS
150a
Russian and Soviet Cinema
[
hum
]
Open to all students. Conducted in English. Readings in English.
Examines the Russian/Soviet cinematic tradition from the silent era to today, with special attention to cultural context and visual elements. Film masterpieces directed by Bauer, Eisenstein, Vertov, Parajanov, Tarkovsky, Mikhalkov, and others. Weekly screenings. Usually offered every second year.
David Powelstock
RECS
152a
Russian Science Fiction Literature and Film
[
hum
]
Open to all students. Conducted in English. Readings in English.
Examines the Russian science fiction tradition in the context of philosophical, historical, and political developments, with attention to topics such as futurism, science and technology, the perfectibility of humanity, the nature of time, the proximity of the unknown, and otherness. Usually offered every third year.
David Powelstock
SAS
130a
Film and Fiction of Crisis
[
hum
nw
]
Examines novels and films as a response to some pivotal crisis in South Asia: Independence and Partition, Communal Riots, Insurgency and Terrorism. We will read and analyze texts from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka in an effort to examine how these moments of crisis have affected literary and cinematic form while also paying close attention to how they contest or support the narrative of the unified nation. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Singh
SAS
150b
Love, Sex, and Country: Films from India
[
djw
hum
nw
]
A study of Hindi films made in India since 1947 with a few notable exceptions from regional film, as well as some recent films made in English. Students will read Hindi films as texts/narratives of the nation to probe the occurrence of cultural, religious, historical, political, and social themes. Usually offered every third year.
Harleen Singh
FTIM Creative Aspects of Film Production
COSI
155b
Computer Graphics
[
dl
sn
]
Prerequisite: COSI 12b.
An introduction to the art of displaying computer-generated images and to the design of graphical user interfaces. Topics include graphic primitives; representations of curves, surfaces, and solids; and the mathematics of two- and three-dimensional transformations. Usually offered every third year.
Timothy Hickey
COSI
164a
Introduction to 3-D Animation
[
dl
sn
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took COSI 65a in prior years.
Covers the fundamental concepts of 3-D animation and teaches both the theory underlying 3-D animation as well as the skills needed to create 3-D movies. Students demonstrate their understanding of the concepts by creating several short animated movies. Usually offered every third year.
Timothy Hickey
ENG
79a
Screenwriting Workshop: Beginning Screenplay
[
dl
hum
wi
]
Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
Fundamentals of screenwriting: structure, plot, conflict, character, and dialogue. Students read screenwriting theory, scripts, analyze files, and produce an outline and the first act of an original screenplay. Usually offered every third year.
Marc Weinberg
ENG
139b
Screenwriting Workshop: Intermediate Screenwriting
[
hum
oc
wi
]
Prerequisites: ENG 79a. Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
In this writing-intensive course, students build on screenwriting basics and delve more deeply into the creative process. Participants read and critique each other's work, study screenplays and view films, and submit original written material on a biweekly basis. At the conclusion of the course each student will have completed the first draft of a screenplay (100-120 pages). Usually offered every second year.
Marc Weinberg
ENG
149a
Screenwriting Workshop: Writing for Television
[
dl
hum
wi
]
Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
Introduces students to the craft of writing for a variety of television programming formats, including episodic, late-night, and public service announcements. Students will read and view examples and create their own works within each genre. Usually offered every second year.
Marc Weinberg
ENG
159a
Screenwriting Workshop: The Short Film and the Web Series
[
hum
wi
]
Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
Introduces writing and producing of short films for independent production. In this class we will also discuss writing for formats including a YouTube or Vimeo narrative series, IGTV narrative series and other independent production platforms. Topics will include introduction to screenwriting, script format, loglines, pitch pages, beat sheets & outlines, short form structure, and the planning involved in pre-production. Usually offered every year.
Paloma Valenzuela
FILM
110a
Film Production I
[
ca
dl
ss
]
Preference given to Film,Television and Interactive Media majors and minors.
An introduction to the basic principles and techniques of fictional narrative motion picture production. Each student will produce three short films. The films will emphasize dramatic development and creative storytelling through image composition, camera movement, editing, and sound. Usually offered every year.
Staff
FILM
110b
Motion Picture Editing
[
dl
ss
]
Preference given to Film, Television and Interactive Media majors and minors.
Students will develop visual literacy through a study of the editor's role in cinematic storytelling. The course provides an overview of the craft's history and theory and offers practical training in editing digital video with Adobe Premiere Pro. Usually offered every year.
Staff
FILM
120a
Cinematography
[
ca
dl
]
Gives students the ability learn lighting, media capture techniques, camera and subject movement choreography in both analog and digital formats. They will gain knowledge of axis and frames, dynamic editing points and creating a motion picture as an essay tapestry. Usually offered every year.
Staff
THA
125a
Acting for the Camera
[
ca
]
A process-based acting class. Emphasis is on developing the actor's ability to work honestly and creatively in front of the camera. All work is videotaped. Students regularly review their performances in order to advance their critical understanding of the work. Usually offered two consecutive years with a third-year hiatus.
Adriann Krstansky