Introduction to Film

This course teaches the basic concepts, vocabulary, and critical skills involved in interpreting film. Through readings and lectures, students will become more informed and sophisticated observers of the cinema, key examples of which will be screened weekly. While the focus will be on the form and style of narrative film, documentary and avant-garde practices will be introduced. The class will also touch upon some of the major theoretical approaches in the field.

Tpc: Moving Image/Contemp Art

This course will survey the rise of the motion picture as both subject and mode in art since 1960. The development of video art, from monitor and installation to projection and flat screen, opened up new channels for performance and sculpture. But the rising presence of 16mm film in galleries (Tacita Dean) as celluloid disappears from movie theaters amplifies a trend that also includes artists as feature filmmakers (Julian Schnabel and Cindy Sherman), Christian Marclay's use of cinema's past in The Clock (2010), and Matthew Barney's reliance on the Guggenheim as set and cinematheque.

Topic: Religion and Film

This course is an investigation of the intersections between film and religion. In it, we will examine how the cultural phenomenon of religion is represented in film and how religion, understood critically and theoretically, can be a useful means to interpret film.

Topic: Haunted Utopia? Weimar

A study of such representative films from Germany's 'Golden Age' as Wiene's Expressionist film noir, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Lang's sci-fi classic, Metropolis, and psycho-thriller, M., Murnau's Dracula film, Nosferatu, and Pabst's prostitution study, Joyless Street. Emphasis on investigating historical and sociological background; influence of Expressionist theater; advent of sound; the 'New Woman'; genesis of horror, action, and utopian film; influence on New German Cinema and contemporary popular culture.

Sem: Adv Documentary Prod'n

In this class, we will take skills and insights gained in introductory production courses and develop them over the length of the semester through the creation of one short documentary project, 10 minutes long. We will explore the ethical questions and ambivalence inherent in this medium, seeking complex answers to difficult questions about representation and the often blurry lines between fiction and non-fiction. We will watch documentaries each week, films that introduce us to new ideas and information both in their content and in their form.

Tpc:Race/Rep in Latina/o Film

(In English)This seminar offers an interrogation of the ways in which Latinas and Latinos are represented in the cinema. We will explore early portrayals of Latinas and Latinos in film history and then move onto contemporary cinema with a focus on race, class, gender and sexuality in these representations. Employing multiple aesthetic and disciplinary approaches we will analyze commercial films alongside independent films with particular attention to the market-driven and political mandates of these projects.

Tpc: Africa: the Last Cinema

With the rest of the world, in 1995 filmmakers from the whole African continent met in Ouagadougou, to celebrate the Century of world cinema. This also gave African filmmakers an opportunity to reflect on their 30 years of film practice. Today, only a year after most former French colonies in Africa have celebrated the 50th anniversary of their independence, African cinema is also entering its fifties. This course will introduce students to a half a century of African cinema with a special attention to its history and its search for survival and self identity within world cinema.

Topic: Shakespeare & Film

We will read plays by Shakespeare, watch films based on those plays, and study the plays, the films, and the plays-as-films. 'Shakespeare' comes first, of course, both historically and as the source/inspiration for the films. Yet each film has its own existence, to be understood not just as an 'adaptation,' but also as the product of linked artistic, technical, and economic choices.

Elementary French

Continuation of French 101, an introduction to understanding, speaking, reading, and writing French. The videotape-based method 'French in Action' provides a lively story line and cultural context for the acquisition of basic grammatical structures with a conversational focus. The course includes frequent composition writing and a weekly conversation lab with a native speaker.

Elementary French

Continuation of French 101, an introduction to understanding, speaking, reading, and writing French. The videotape-based method 'French in Action' provides a lively story line and cultural context for the acquisition of basic grammatical structures with a conversational focus. The course includes frequent composition writing and a weekly conversation lab with a native speaker.
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