Course Catalog

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PARIS ATTRACTION: MODERNIST EXPERIMENTS IN MIGRATION (ES3043)

Explores the work of Anglo-American modernist writers in Paris, concentrating on the works of Ernest Hemingway, Wyndham Lewis, Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, Jean Rhys, and other writers. Relates their formal experimentation to the visual arts and to the psychic dynamics of exile: the experience of liberation from the constraints of one culture and an alienated relation to the new environment.

MODERN FILMS & THEIR MEANINGS (FM1010)

How does the unique language of cinema make meaning and convey emotions? This course provides multiple answers to that question by introducing the formal characteristics of film and enables the students to acquire the key vocabulary necessary to critically describe, analyse and interpret contemporary cinema. Each week, classes will focus on a foundational concept, ranging from principles of narration to different components of film style, and from why cinema matters to issues of spectatorship. Throughout the course, students will encounter a wide array of feature films from different genres around the globe. Students will also have the opportunity to practise close textual analysis through
assignments, and during class discussions delve deep into interpreting the dramatic functions of elements of style in the context of a single film.
Students are expected to participate in these activities in order to build their confidence and command over technical terminology, and work towards attaining their own carefully reasoned interpretations of film texts. In addition, students will learn about Parisian film culture and different approaches to film criticism through lectures and assignments.

PRINCIPLES OF VIDEO PRODUCTION (FM1019)

This course is designed to give you strong technical and conceptual skills in video production. This course will prepare you for future video work in film, journalism, media and communications, studio art, and can be useful across many other disciplines. You will learn to create several complete film and audio projects, each challenging you to explore new skills. Class time will be divided into lectures, screenings, and mostly in-class labs and critique. Homework will consist of readings, writing responses, shooting, editing and screenings.

FIRSTBRIDGE IN FILM STUDIES (FM1099)

Firstbridge courses are offered to degree seeking freshmen and registration is done via webform in pre-arrival checklist.

TOPICS IN FILM STUDIES (FM1910)

Topics vary by semester

SCREENWRITING FOR TELEVISION (FM2018)

Over the past twenty years, Granada, HBO, and the BBC have been creating series such as The Singing Detective, Cracker, MI5, The Sopranos, and The Wire that are much darker and more persuasive and perverse than anything else on television or on the big screen. Students will examine these 'visual texts,' and will also outline one or two series of their own, working on individual scenes that will be dramatized in class.

THE ART OF SCREENWRITING (FM2028)

In Art of Screenwriting students consider the elements necessary for successful screenwriting practices, with close attention to the theory of screenwriting as influenced by other arts. In particular, a close emphasis of the course is on the art of narrative and the central role played by adaptation of novels in screenwriting practice. Character development, structure, dialogue and conflict are analyzed through exemplary scripting such as in the works of Jane Campion, Roman Polanski and others. The course culminates in a hands-on guided approach to scriptwriting by students.

DOCUMENTARIES IN ACTION: THE ART OF THE REAL (FM2032)

Course divided into theoretical and practical sections. The practical half of the course includes daily exercises in "hands-on" documentary research, scripting, sketching and shooting in the streets of Paris, with small video cameras, producing work that will then be critiqued in class. The theoretical component surveys the history of documentary film and different approaches to making documentaries.

FILM HISTORY I: FROM SILENT TO SOUND (FM2075)

This course surveys the earliest periods of cinema from its inception in the late-19th century up to its consolidation as a form of mass art by the beginning of World War II. At its point of origin,cinema was considered "an invention without a future" by its makers, but we will put this idea to test by exploring the uncanny shocks of the very first short films, through the development of visual storytelling across decades of experimentation, culminating in the extravagant, technically dazzling productions of the 1920s. From then onwards, we will investigate the late silent and early sound cinema through a global lens, making transnational discoveries on how the invention of cinema travelled alongside radical ideas at a time of political upheaval. Through readings and select primary materials, the students will learn about the contextual study of film by considering the technological, economic, aesthetic and social factors that shaped the circumstances of the films' production, exhibition and reception.

FILM HISTORY II: POSTWAR NEW WAVES (FM2076)

This course surveys the richest and most alluring
period of cinema from its peak following the end of World War II, through the global movements that revitalized its decline, to its subsequent reformation by digital technologies at the turn of the century. It was by no coincidence that cinema was dubbed the art of the 20th century: taking advantage of technological advancements, newer generations of filmmakers reinvented the expressive possibilities of cinema by turning their cameras directly onto social realities and into individual psyches. Each week, the course will explore key developments in international film cultures by situating films within broader social, political, and cultural contexts. The course will also map the influential aesthetic trends,significant critical developments, and fundamental institutional factors that altogether configured cinema as a voice for political comment as well as a medium of entertainment. Through weekly readings and class discussions, students will learn about the irresistible power of international cinemas and the differing national traditions that resisted the ideological and commercial
dominance of Hollywood.