Film Studies Course
Offerings: Spring 2007
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 should contact:
Office: “G” 202B Phone: 718-997-2962
Office hours: (Spring 2007) W 11:00--1:00 PM and by appointment.
R = required course for Film
Studies major and minor E =
elective course
ARTH 200: Japanese Anime (E) 3 hr, 3 cr
TH 6:30-9:20 PM Prof. Xiaoping Lin
This course is an introduction to anime, a unique style of animation developed in Japan and characterized by stylized colorful imagery and futuristic settings. The course examines major works of contemporary Japanese animation, such as Akira, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, which portray important social and cultural issues concerning both Japan and our growing global community. All animated films will be shown with English subtitles, and no prior knowledge of Japanese language and arts is expected.
Focus on major social and cultural developments in modern China through cinematic representations of themes, including ritual, family, gender, state, ideology and revolution. Course will provide students with a foundation in the visual literacy of Chinese film through screenings, readings and analysis. No Chinese required. (Satisfies Humanities I, Tier 2 and Pre-Industrial and/or Non-Western Civilization).
CMAL: Japanese 250: “Modern Japanese Film and Fiction” (E) 3hr, 3 cr
Tuesday 5:30-8:20 PM Prof. Cook
NOTE: Prereq.: Sophomore standing.
The course will focus on the works of directors who brought the Japanese cinema to maturity and established its claim to international recognition as one of the most creative, translatable and exportable products of post-war Japanese culture. Readings for the course will include selected works of modern Japanese fiction as well as critical essays on Post-war cinema. No Japanese required. (Satisfies Humanities I, Tier 2
CMLIT 228: “Third Cinema ” 3 hr, 3 cr
Tuesday 1:40-5:30 PM Prof. Andrea Khalil and Jonathan Buchsbaum
In this course, we will begin by explaining how this term, “third cinema”, has come to travel throughout the world. Understandably, its original meanings have changed over time and geography. First conceived in the heady struggles of decolonization, “third cinema” followed the trajectory of post-colonial struggles to include issues of gender, national identity, and tradition impact those forces of rebellion against colonialism. Third cinema now encompasses politically engaged filmmaking consciously made in opposition to the dominant Hollywood model, of “first cinema.” Although many global regions are impacted by the third cinema phenomenon, this course will focus on two regional third cinema movements, namely those of Latin America and the Middle East/North Africa. Examining the film production of these regions in the post-colonial period, one can observe a consistent and deliberate engagement of filmmakers with the history and politics of de-colonization.
HISTORY 370: "Film and History" (E) 3 hr, 3 cr
Wednesday 1:30 - 4:20 PM Prof. Peter Connolly-Smith
Film has documented, and has itself been part of some of the major social, political, and cultural transformations of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Major topics for this class include Victorianism, Soviet Bolshevism, Germany between the world wars, and post-WWII U.S. domestic policy. Aside from article-length readings in both film and history, students will purchase and read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Bordwell and Thompson’s Film Art (7th edition).
The course will begin with the birth of the medium in 1895 and examine its immediate challenge to the dominant Victorian ideology of both Europe and the United States. Then on to its use as a medium of both propaganda and ideological commentary in the contexts of the Bolshevik movement in Soviet Russia and German social democracy during the Weimar Republic (texts include the writings of Eisenstein, Kuleshov, and Siegfried Kracauer, as well as historical writings on early Soviet Russia and the Weimar Republic). The course concludes with a thematic bloc on post-World War II domestic policy, paying special attention to the gender and political anxieties of the early Cold War, as portrayed in film noir. Readings for this section include the writings of Laura Mulvey, Betty Friedan, and Susan Faludi.
Movies, to be shown either in their entirety or in the form of brief clips, will include, among others: Muybridge motion studies photography, Lumiere, Edison, Porter, and D.W. Griffith shorts, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931), clips from Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Spellbound as well as Battleship Potemkin, October, Strike, The Fall of St. Petersburg (for Soviet montage/Bolshevism), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, The Golem, The Student of Prague (for German Expressionsm/Weimar republic), and, for the final section of the course, Double Indemnity, the Killers, and Strangers on a Train.
History 370: “Film and History: Women in Film and Hollywood, On and Off the Screen” (E) 3 hr, 3 cr
Thursday 4:30 - 7:10 PM Prof. Harriet Davis-Cram
GENERAL TOPICS may include the star system; the gossip industry; the movie magazine industry; the representation of working class women; early movies and the working/immigrant class; censorship by the Catholic Church, local governments and the industry itself; representation of women from ethnic groups, and Hollywood’s influence on women’s fashions, behaviors, etc., among others.
READINGS:
Jeanine Basinger, A Woman’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women, 1930– 1960
Mollie Gregory,Women Who Run the Show and
Selected Readings on Reserve and Available in a Packet
MEDST 143: “History of Cinema II (1895-1930)” (E) 4hr, 3 cr
Wednesday 1:40 - 5:20 PM Prof. Kelly Kessler
After more than a century of change and development, film—whether watched in the theatre, on DVD, on an ipod, or online—remains a significant element of cultural expression. This course will examine the popular art and entertainment form from its inception. Beginning with pre-cinematic development of technologies that led to the motion picture industry as we know it and continuing on through the emergence of sound, this course will examine the rise of cinema—focusing mainly on European and American industries—and discuss the ways in which historical, social, technological, and industrial phenomena helped to mold content, form, and spectatorship. (Yes, this means that everything will be in black and white and much will be without sound as we currently conceptualize it; regardless, hopefully everyone will find something exciting in these early forms that led us to what we watch today.) The class will include readings, discussions, and screenings related to and illustrating the emergence of various world cinemas. Representative readings will likely come from works such as David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's Film History and Tino Balio's American Film Industry. We'll be watching early sound and silent films from around the world (in part or in their entirety) such as The Battleship Potemkin, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and The Jazz Singer (no, not the one with Neil Diamond!).
MEDST 200: “Principles of Sound and Image” (R) 4 hr, 3 cr
M/W 10:15-12:05 AM Prof. Buchsbaum
An examination of the dominant visual and sound 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. Students apply these principles in the production of two short video projects. Students are also introduced to the fundamentals of the FINAL CUT PRO editing software program, which they will use to edit their second video project. Readings cover both practical material and theoretical discussions of visual and audio parameters.
MEDST 240: “Styles of Cinema” (R) 4 hr, 3 cr
Tuesday 1:40-5:20 PM Prof. Julian Cornell
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, 8th ed. and it will be supplemented by other readings. Films of widely differing types will be screened, including A wide variety of films will be screened including Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock); Citizen Kane (Orson Welles); 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick); Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard); All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk) and The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel) among others.
MEDST 245: “Screenwriting” (E) 3 hr, 3 cr
Friday 1:40-4:30 PM Prof. Vetere
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 263: “The American Film Industry” (E) 4 hr, 3 cr
Wednesday 6:30-10:20 PM Prof. Kelly Kessler
This course will examine the shifting structure, markets, and products of the American motion picture industry from the heyday before the Paramount Decision to the rise (and somewhat demise) of “independent” film. From the television’s attack on the motion picture audience to conglomerates consolidated grip on the culture industry, this course will seek to survey the landscape of the industry that helped to reflect and define a continuously changing American culture. A reading packed comprised of texts by scholars such as Douglas Gomery, Thomas Schatz, and John Belton will augment class discussion and the screening of mainstream Hollywood blockbusters and niche/renegade films such as Salt of the Earth, Teenage Doll, and Easy Rider.
MEDST 265: “Producing Independent Movies and Media” (E) 3 hr, 3 cr
Thursday 1:40-4:30 PM Prof. 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 6:00-9:00 PM DATES TBA Profs. Beloff, Buchsbaum, Hendershot, Herzog, Liebman
Students are introduced to five of the premier venues for film screenings in New York City on five evenings, TBA. Venues include the Museum of Modern Art, Anthology Film Archives, the Walter Reade Theatre, and Film Forum, among others. Students are required to attend all five sessions. One or more articles will be assigned for each film 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.
MEDST 281: “New York in the Movies”
SEE: Sociology 240
MEDST 311: “Film Culture, New York” (E) 3 hr, 1 cr
Thursday 6:00-9:00 PM DATES TBA Profs. Beloff, Buchsbaum, Hendershot, Herzog, Liebman
Students are introduced to five of the premier venues for film screenings in New York City on five evenings, TBA. Venues include the Museum of Modern Art, Anthology Film Archives, the Walter Reade Theatre, and Film Forum, among others. Students are required to attend all five sessions. One or more articles will be assigned for each film 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 require
MEDST 342W: “Genre: Film Noir” (E) 4hr, 3cr
Tuesday 11:15 AM -3:05 PM Prof. Julian Cornell
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) 4hr, 3cr
Monday 7:10--9:40 PM Prof. 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 346W: “African Americans in Film and Television (E) 3 hr, 3 cr
Wednesday 9:15 AM--12:05 PM Prof. Roopali Mukherjee
This course surveys the history of African Americans in film and television to examine issues of representation and cultural identity, marginality and difference, and the lingering “problem of the color line” in contemporary American society. Readings and discussions are organized around weekly film screenings that mark major developments in black film production and consumption, and key shifts in the larger social contexts of race, gender and class in the United States. Writing assignments emphasize critical reading and interpretation of media texts ranging from situation comedies to motion pictures.
A tentative list of films to be screened includes Ethnic Notions (Marlon Riggs, 1986, 57 min); The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915, 125 min); Within Our Gates (Oscar Micheaux, 1920, 79 min); Imitation of Life (John M. Stahl, 1934, 111 min); In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison, 1967; 110 min); Color Adjustment (Marlon Riggs, 1989, 86 min); Superfly (Gordon Parks Jr., 1972, 93 min), The Spook Who Sat By the Door (Ivan Dixon, 1973; 102 min), Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977, 83 min), Do the RightThing (Spike Lee, 1989, 120 min); Watermelon Woman (Cheryl Dunye, 1996, 90 min); Barbershop (Tim Story, 2002, 102 min), and Crash (Paul Haggis, 2004, 113 min).
Sociology 381W: “Alfred Hitchcock: A Case Study in the Sociology of the Movies” (E) 3 hr, 3 cr
Wednesday 6:30—9:20PM Prof. Robert Kapsis
This course will examine the films and career of Alfred Hitchcock from a variety of sociological perspectives. We will analyze Hitchcock’s motion pictures as well as his popular television series in relation to the network of influences which combined to produce them, including Hitchcock's personal eccentricities, the contexts of the thriller genre, the film industry, the film art world, and the wider society. We will also explore how Hitchcock's work has influenced the careers of important American directors, especially Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, M. Night Shyamalan, and Jonathan Demme. Students will learn how to analyze films from a number of social, historical, and aesthetic perspectives and to develop the analytic skills for discussing films and other cultural products in relation to contemporary social life.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Truffaut, F., Hitchcock. Revised Edition. Simon and Schuster, 1985.
Kapsis, R., Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Kapsis, R., Multimedia Hitchcock, DVD/ROM Disc, 2003, Available from instructor.
Wood, R., Hitchcock's Films Revisited. Revised Edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
Belton, J. Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Corrigan, T. A Short Guide to Writing about Film. Pearson Longman, 2007.