Film Studies Course
Offerings: Spring 2006
To Students: The film courses listed below will earn credits toward either the major or minor in Film Studies. All students are responsible for checking the Queens College course bulletin to determine what prerequisites, if any, they need to enroll in any particular course.Students seeking advisement on enrollments for Film Studies courses offered during the Spring or Summer of 2006 should contact:
Professor Stuart Liebman, Coordinator, Film Studies Program
Office: “G” 202B Phone: 718-997-2962
Office hours: (Fall 2005) M/W 9:30-10:00 AM and W 1-3:00 PM, and by appointment.
R = required course for Film
Studies major and minor E =
elective course
CMAL 240W/COMPLIT241: Images
of the Middle East (E) 3 hr, 3 cr
Tuesday 6:30–9:20 PM Professor
Ammiel Alcalay
Where
do our images of the Middle East come from and what kind of meaning do we give
them? We will explore the culture, history and politics of the region, as well
as the way images of the Middle East permeate American culture, through
literary texts, graphic novels, the media, film, and archival documents. Topics
will include Biblical Epic films, African-American cultural politics, the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the impact of colonisation and decolonisation,
the civil war in Lebanon, and the global impact of 9/11.
We
will screen a range of documentary and full-length films as well as various
scenes for discussion (The Ten
Commandments; Exodus; Ben Hur; Malcolm X; Ali; Black Sunday; The Siege; The Battle of
Algiers; Bab el Oued City; West Beirut; Gaza Strip; Forget Baghdad; The
Wall, and others).
There will be frequent short writing assignments,
class presentations, and research projects; students will be graded on
attendence, participation, and the quality and effort of their writing and
research.
ELL: French 250W: French
Cinema (E) 4 hr, 3 cr
Prereq. English 110
Friday 1:00-5:00 PM Professor Drew Jones
In
this course we will examine films released in France from 1940 to the present,
starting with such directors as Cocteau and Carné, moving through important
examples from the “Nouvelle Vague” (New Wave), and continuing toward the
present. The course will be divided
into two parts. In the first, “The
Cinema in France,” we will concentrate on cinema history and the evolution of
cinema techniques. After the midterm,
we will focus on “France in the Cinema,” specifically on the ways in which
filmmakers have dealt with important issues of the last 60 years in France. The course will be conducted in English,
with written work in French for French majors, and in English for
non-majors.
MEDST 146: History of Cinema
III (1970-the present) (E) 4hr, 3 cr
Thursdays 10:15 AM- 2:05 PM Professor
Amy Herzog
Survey of the development of world cinema from the
1970s to the present. Covers economic,
institutional, aesthetic, and political changes in cinema throughout a range of
contexts: 1970s American Independents, the rise of the blockbuster, new trends
in European, Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and African cinema, and the
evolution of digital technologies.
In-class screenings will include works by Alan J. Pakula, Bob Rafelson,
Gordon Parks, Jr., Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Rainer Werner Fassbinder,
David Lynch, Pedro Almodóvar, Tsai Ming-liang, Abbas Kiarostami, and Werner
Herzog.
MEDST 200: Principles of Sound and Image (R) 4
hr, 3 cr
An examination of the
dominant conventions characteristic of most film, television and video
production. Lectures illustrated with a wide range of media examples
present the basic principles of sound and image combinations, including
technological principles, shot language, composition, editing, and
storytelling. Readings cover both practical material and theoretical
discussions of visual and audio parameters. Students apply these principles in
the production of short video projects.
MEDST 200: Principles of Sound and Image (R) 4 hr, 3 cr
M/W 6:30-8:20 PM Professors Buchsbaum/Liebman
See description above.
MEDST 240: Styles of Cinema (R) 4 hr, 3 cr
Tuesday 12:40-4:30 PM Professor Stuart Liebman
The course will introduce students to the systematic “formalist”
analysis of film stylistics in both non-narrative and narrative modes. We will
focus on the way filmmakers use the film medium’s techniques and strategies to
develop constructions of and reflections about aspects of human lives and their
societies. The major course text will be David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson’s Film
Art: An Introduction, 7th ed. and it will be supplemented by
other readings. Films of widely differing types will be screened, including The Maltese Falcon (John Huston); Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica); The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola);
Raging Bull (Martin Scorcese); and Mulholland Drive (David Lynch).
MEDST 245:
Screenwriting (E) 3 hr, 3 cr
Friday 1:40-4:30 PM Professor
Spiegel-Grote
This class will help students develop a screenplay
from an original idea to the first act of a finished script. In a simulation of
Hollywood's story development process, students will begin with a pitch, move
to a treatment of their screen story, then act one of their scripts. Special attention will be paid to the fundamentals of
storytelling, including creating memorable characters; three-act structure; and
story points, such as the "inciting action" and the
"climax." This will be acheived through an in-class writing workshop
and exercises; screening mainstream, foreign, and independent films; reading
film and TV scripts from accomplished writers such as Ted Tally and Larry
David; and studying excerpts from screenwriting bibles, including Robert
McKee's Story and William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade.
MEDST 265: Producing
Independent Movies and Media (E) 3 hr, 3 cr
W/F 9:25-10:40 AM Professor Rachel Lyon
For
motivated and matriculating students, launching their own independent projects
represents the single most likely path to a successful career behind the
camera. Producing Independent Movies & Media will allow matriculating and
advanced students learn how to create independent movies, programs, series, and
other media within the current media business environment. They will learn
about researching and writing compelling treatments, budgeting, and the actual
presentation and "pitching" of projects in a professional manner.
Additionally, students will study legal issues in filmmaking, resumé writing
techniques, and the basic practices of fundraising. Students come out of the
course with one project, ready for development, funding, and pre-production.
MEDST 311: Film Culture, New York (E) 3 hr, 1 cr
Thursday 6-30-9:00 Professors Beloff,
Hendershot, Herzog, Liebman & TBA
Students are introduced to
five of the premier venues for film screenings in New York City on five
evenings, TBA. Venues may include the Museum of Modern Art, Anthology Film
Archives, the Walter Reade Theatre, the American Museum of the Moving Image, and
Film Forum, among others. Students are
required to attend all five sessions. An article for each film will be
assigned and discussed with the professor who accompanies the students to each
screening. A short final paper surveying what students learned about
non-commercial programming and exhibition practices will also be required. Interested students should speak with the
Film Studies program Coordinator before enrolling.
MEDST 315: Film Production (E) 4 hr, 3 cr
Thursday 9:15 AM to1:05 PM Professor Zoe Beloff
This course is an
introduction to 16mm film production. It covers basic cinematography: types of
lens, exposure, black and white as well as color photography and basic lighting
techniques for film. Special effects unique to film are also covered. Students
are also introduced to basic narrative storytelling and shot construction.
Classic narrative films as well as more experimental works are screened and critiqued.
Each student completes two short silent narrative projects during the semester
and also works as an assistant cameraperson on two of their classmates’ films.
Films to be screened: The Little Fugitive; A Bronx Morning; Fallen Angels (excerpt); The
Matrix (excerpt); The Lonedale
Operator; Fall of the House of Usher;
Un Chien Andalou; The Wizard of Oz (excerpt); Buffalo
66 (excerpt)
Text Book: Cinematography
by J. Kris Malkiewicz
Media Studies 326W: Media and Activism (E)
3 hr, 3 cr
Tuesday 11:25 AM - 2:15 PM Professor Roopali Mukherjee
It is the mark of a
democratic society that its citizens have the right to organize and bring
dissenting opinions to the attention of those in political and economic power.
Over its history, the United States has witnessed a range of social movements
addressing the relations between government and citizens, between so-called
powerful and powerless groups in society. From the earliest influences of
Thomas Paine’s revolutionary pamphlets to student anti-war efforts and civil
rights struggles during the sixties and seventies, American society has been
shaped by a long and vibrant history of social activism, and the media have
played a key role in these efforts. Since the attacks of September 11th, 2001
and the ensuing “war on terror,” we find a resurgence of these traditions of
protest.
This course provides an
introduction to the role of the media—print, television, and film—in activist
efforts past and present. Highlighting questions of human and civil rights, state
power and dissent, and the activist potential of mainstream and alternative
media, the course explores the relations between mass media and social activism
in the United States.
Readings include excerpts from Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, Antonio Gramsci, Herbert
Marcuse, James C. Scott, Audre Lorde, Gloria Steinem, Susan Faludi, Martin
Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Edward Said, Noam Chomsky,
Mahmood Mamdani, and Arundhati Roy.
Film to be screened include:
11’09”01 – September 11 (Youssef Chahine and Amos Gitai, 2002, 134 min)
The War At Home (Glenn Silber and Barry Alexander Brown, 1986, 120 min)
Sisters of ’77 (Cynthia Salzman Mondell and Allen Mondell, 2004, 60 min)
The Murder of Fred Hampton (Howard Alk, 1971, 88 min)
The Weather Underground (Sam Green and Bill Siegel, 2002, 92 min)
Life and Debt (Stephanie Black, 2001, 80 min)
A Narmada Diary (Anand Patwardhan and Simantini Dhuru, 1995, 60 min)
The Take (Avi Lewis, 2004, 87 min)
MEDST 342W: Genre: Film Noir (E) 4 hr
, 3 cr
Tuesday 6:30-10:20 PM Professor Julian Cornell
“DARK
ALLEYS, DEAD ENDS AND DOOMED LIVES”
This
course will examine one of the most evocative and complex genres of Hollywood
Cinema – Film Noir. The term itself instantly conjures images of dark shadows,
romantic doomed protagonists, deadly but alluring femme fatales, tough,
world-weary private investigators and bewilderingly complex narratives. Whether
one considers film noir a genre, style or cycle, film noir continues to be one
of the enduring types of American filmmaking. Students will be asked to
consider the films in terms of aesthetics, ideology, gender and narrative and
to explore the historical contexts and cultural attributes of the form. We
will scrutinize the European antecedents of the genre, the fertile period of
the 1940s and 1950s and consider the continuing influence of film noir through
its reinvention as neo-noir and retro-noir.
Films
to be screened will include Double
Indemnity, The Big Sleep, Out of the Past, Gilda, Mildred Pierce, Raw Deal,
Pick Up on South Street, The Locket, Gun Crazy, Touch of Evil, Kiss Me Deadly,
The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, To Live And Die in L.A., and L.A. Confidential.
Readings
will be drawn from a variety of sources including The Film Noir Reader, Women of Film Noir, More Than Night: Film Noir in its
Contexts and Shades of Noir.
MEDST 343W: Non-fiction Forms (E) 4 hr, 3 cr
T 2:40-4:20; Th 3:40-4:30 Professor Julian Cornell
The
focus of this course is contemporary film and television documentary practice,
theory and aesthetics. We will engage a wide variety of films which are
primarily considered documentaries and non-fiction television texts, such as
newscasts, talk shows, docu-dramas and reality TV, which may or may not be
commonly referred to as documentary. The emphasis of this class will be
investigating how these texts construct reality, truth and non-fiction.
In this course students will be asked to reflect on the conceptual issues
intrinsic to documentary, including the idea of Realism as both ideological
position and creative method. Three aesthetic modes in particular will be
examined: documentary as genre, documentary as the representation of “reality,”
and documentary as a mode of reception. We will also examine the relationship
between historical reality and historical event, and the way in which these
films construct narratives of history and memory. Films to be screened will
include: Nanook of the North, Man With A
Movie Camera, Don’t Look Back, Thin Blue Line, The Atomic Café, Baraka, 4 Little Girls, Roger and Me, The Trials of
Henry Kissinger, U2: Rattle and Hum,
Sans Soleil, The Civil War and contemporary reality based television
shows. Readings will be drawn from a variety of sources including Barry
Keith Grant’s Documenting the Documentary, Bill Nichols’ Introduction to Documentary and A New
History of Documentary Film by Jack Ellis and Betsy McLane.
MEDST 344W: National Cinemas—Germany (E) 4hr, 3cr
Monday 6:30-10:20 PM Professor Julian Cornell
The
question “What is the ‘national’ in national cinema?” will be a central issue
in this course. Utilizing a wide selection of films from Germany as specific
cultural and historical manifestations and ‘evidence’ this class will examine
how a given country’s cinematic production can be understood as an active
intervention in the creation of that particular country’s national
identity. We will investigate the process by which these films envision,
imagine and critique German identity during critical points in its history.
In particular, the course will be concerned with the role of the artist and
filmmaker as a social critic. We will also investigate how a given film
addresses the question of what their country’s unique historical and political
experience might mean. In addition, we will consider how politically
engaged filmmakers have addressed the Nazi period and the totalitarian
Communist government of East Germany. While there will be some discussion
of film technique and form, the primary focus is on narrative and ideological
critique, and film as a form of as social, historical document. Films to be
screened will include The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis, Berlin: Symphony of a City, Fear Eats the
Soul, The Marriage of Maria Braun, The Legend of Paul and Paula, Jakob, der
Lügner, Aguirre, The Wrath of God, Every Man For Himself and God Against All,
The Tin Drum, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, Das Boot, Wings of Desire,
Goodbye Lenin and Run Lola Run.
Primary textbooks will include Siegfried Kracauer’s From Caligari to Hitler, Sabine Hake’s German National Cinema, and BFI’s The German Cinema Book.
MEDST 345W: “Great Directors of European
“Art Cinema”: Bergman, Antonioni, Fassbinder, Kieślowski”
Thursday 6:30-10:20 PM Professor Julian
Cornell
This
course will introduce students to the works of four of Europe’s best-known
cinematic artists: Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy),
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Germany) and Krzysztof Kieslowski (Poland). Students
will be asked to consider each director’s films from two complementary
perspectives. First, each artist’s work will be examined in terms of its
distinctive aesthetic attributes. How does a given film express the
unique vision of the director in terms of cinematic technique, approach to
narrative and recurring thematic preoccupations? Second, the director and
their films will be discussed in light of the larger historical, political and
cultural contexts. The course will employ a rough chronological format,
studying each director’s works within a ten year period. Bergman in the 1950s;
Antonioni in the 1960s; Fassbinder in the 1970s; and Kieślowski in the
1980s/90s. Therefore, we will consider each artist in relation to their
times and view their films in light of the political and cultural developments
of the day. How do the films function as a form of social criticism and
attempt to define their given society’s history and culture, and their country’s
relation to the rest of Europe? Films to be screened will include: Bergman: The
Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries,
Smiles of a Summer Night, Through a Glass Darkly; Antonioni: L’Avventura, L’Eclisse, Blow Up;
Fassbinder: Fontane Effi Briest, The Marriage
of Maria Braun, Fear Eats the Soul; and Kieślowski: Blind Chance, A Short Film About Killing, A Short Film About Love and The Double Life of Veronique, among
others. Readings will be drawn from a number of sources including Joseph
Kickasola’s The Films of Krzysztof Kieślowski, Seymour Chatman’s Antonioni,
or the Surface of the World, Jesse Kalin’s The Films of Ingmar Bergman
and Fassbinder’s Germany by Thomas Elsaesser.
Tuesday 1:40-5:30 PM Professor John Matturri
Since the late 1960s the
films of Martin Scorsese have dealt with themes relating to the nature of
community, the relation of the individual and community, the nature of the good
life, redemption, and the question of why be good given opportunities to
seemingly profit from doing evil. Although Scorsese deals with these issues in
a concrete manner, these issues are also central to social and ethical
philosophy. This course will bring together the films with both classical and
contemporary philosophical thought to allow the films to shed light on the
philosophical ideas and the philosophy to help us better appreciate the films.
In engaging in this exploration the films will be examined as works of art with
their own integrity, not simply as illustrations of philosophical points.
Although the emphasis of the course will be on ethical and social concerns, we
will also consider issues in film aesthetics, including the use editing,
acting, and particularly music. The course will emphasize Scorsese’s more
personal films. Among the philosophers to be read will be Plato, Aristotle,
Hobbes, Frankfurt, and MacIntyre. No previous study of philosophy is necessary
for this introduction.
SOCIOLOGY 249: New York in the Movies (E) 4
hr, 3 cr
Tuesday 12:00-3:50 PM Professor Robert Kapsis
This course explores the
relationship between two New Yorks: the real place and the mythic city born of
the movies. It will analyze how filmic
representations of New York compare to the external “real” New York, and focus
on two issues: (1) aspects of New York’s reality as presented in popular films
compared with aspects that are neglected or ignored and (2) the means by which
creators of movies use their films to comment on the real social world or on
the direction they believe society is heading. The work of four
quintessentially New York filmmakers will be highlighted: Martin Scorsese,
Woody Allen, Spike Lee, and Sidney Lumet.
Students will complete 4 writing assignments. The combined output for each student will total a minimum of 25
pages or approximately 5000 words.
Major Texts: Sanders, James. Celluloid
Skyline: New York and the Movies (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001).
Blake, Richard A. Street Smart: The New York of Lumet,
Allen, Scorsese, and Lee. (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky.
2005).
Films to be Screened:
King Kong (1932); Dead End (1937); Naked City (1948); On the Town (1949); Rear Window (1954); Serpico (1973); Taxi Driver (1975); Saturday Night Fever (1977); The Warriors (1979); Manhattan (1979); Do the Right Thing (1989); The Hudsucker Proxy (1994); and Basquiat (1996).