course description

course content: the course approaches the study of film as a means of cultural expression and explores the ways in which films represent and reflect social events and experience and reproduce the values and ideas that structure our relationship to reality. weekly film screenings and readings will introduce students to the languages, genres and styles of cinema.  our study will explore technical, formal, critical, theoretical and aesthetic aspects of film via a twinned thematic focus on culturally specific descriptions of social life and changing ideas about the representation of reality in cinema.

course objectives: the course is designed to promote active film viewing habits and aid in the formal development of the critical skills necessary for the analysis of film,  students will be introduced to the key terms and approaches in film studies and criticism and learn about the visual language of cinema, narrative form and theory, genre, realism, cinema and social identification.

required texts:    reading material will be assigned on a regular basis, made available on-line through links posted on this site.

approach:  classroom discussions will revolve around issues raised in the weekly film screenings, presentations and/or readings.  following themes, issues and methods introduced in the assigned texts and/or lectures, a weekly series of discussion questions will encourage students to use the newly acquired terms and techniques to analyze the materials viewed.  writing and presentation assignments have been designed to encourage active film viewing habits, aid in the development of good analytical and critical writing skills and facilitate the student’s engagement with the material assigned and taken up in class.

content overview:  the course will be organized into three overlapping sections.  in the first we will we study the formal ‘languages of film’ (visual and structural) and learn how to write about film.  the films screened in the second section of the course will address how films describe and/or shape social experience while discussing what spectators bring to the film experience and what they take away. in the last section, we will look at a group of films that reflect upon social experience in relation to national and cultural identity.  at the same time, we will also consider variances in cinematic conventions of realism.   a schedule listing each week’s topics, film screenings and the assigned readings is attached.