Fall 2007:

UNDERGRADUATE

DMS 107
Film History I
Bay-Cheng
TR 11:00am-12:50 pm
CFA 112
REG#298791
Film History I: 1880-1945
This course will introduce students to cinema from its technological and cultural origins in the late nineteenth century through the era of silent cinema, the development of sound film ("the talkie") in the late 1920s, up to the end of WWII in 1945. This course will closely examine the technological innovations of cinema in the first half of the twentieth century and their effect on the development of narrative form and film style. We will further consider films in their socio-historical contexts in order to understand the dynamic relations among the early cinema's technological, cultural, and aesthetic development. Since this course may also serve as an introduction to film interpretation, we will pay close attention to the construction of the moving image and the ideological implications behind that image.

DMS 109
Film Interpretation
Staff
TR 9:00am - 10:50am
CFA 232
REG#399373
This course is designed to encourage students to critically engage film through writing assignments and class discussion. Students will learn the vocabulary of motion picture techniques, histories, theories, and ideologies.

203 Anthropology and Film(3)
#048368 - M, W, F - 10:00–10:50 am - 355 Fillmore - Dr. David Banks

This course will use the recent outpouring of documentaries about culture and cultural topics to help us study cultural patterns and processes. The media world of television reflects the growing interest in America for detailed, and often controversial, knowledge about modern cultures. These documentaries concern a host of topics including food production techniques, electoral politics, environmental challenges and even the cultures of science and the computer. Each is placed in broader cultural, national and regional contexts. We will compare the documentaries to some excellent entertainment films that have approached similar issues. Texts will help us understand how films are made. LEC

DMS 212 BHW
Indian Image on Film
White
W 4:10pm-6:50pm
REG#355780
Cross listed with the American Studies Department: please see their website for more information. May be applied toward DMS Media & Culture or Elective requirements for 3 credits.

DMS 213 GA
Immigration and Film
Staff
TR 3:00pm-4:50pm
CFA 235
REG#461143
This course focuses on fundamental aspects of immigration in the United States and abroad by examining representative examples of films and documentaries. This semester we will focus on three main aspects of immigration and film – (1) political immigration, (2) economic immigration and (3) forced migration and displacement. In addition, we will investigate four major sub-topics related to that issue i.e.; (1) representation of race and ethnicity in film, (2) cultural identity and its reciprocal relationship with cinema, (3) the common narrative of movement, be it geographic or social/economic and (4) tensions between
assimilation and cultural diversity. Several themes will be examined repeatedly throughout the semester – the various ways first, second and third generations experience immigration; social cultural integration and/or assimilation and cultural diversity. Attendance is mandatory. Non-majors welcome. Fulfills the
American Pluralism requirement.

DMS 218
History of Animation
Pape
MW 1:00pm-2:50pm
CFA 232
REG#073256
This course is a survey of the development of animated filmmaking, stretching from the beginning of film to modern computer work. We will look at both well-known mainstream material, and a range of experimental animation. Students will view will learn about some of the technical aspects of the films' creation; we will also discuss the relations to live-action film, and the thoughts of media theorists regarding
animation. This course may count as an Intro to Interpretation course or as an Elective.

DMS 411 HEN
Film Theory
Brian Henderson
MW 1pm-2:50pm
CFA 235
REG# 243434
This course is an exploration of the principal theories of film through a critical reading of texts and a close examination of films. The texts to be perused comprise several groups. Classical film theory includes Munsterburg, Kuleshov, Pudovkin, Eisenstein, Balasz, Arnheim, Bazin, and Godard. The critique of classical film theory includes Burch, Perkins, and Henderson. The course will also explore semiotics, psychoanalysis, and poststructuralism, in Barthes, Eco, Metz , Pasolini, Baudry, Heath, and in feminist film theory, including Gledhill, Mulvey, Silverman, Modleski, Doane, and Studlar. A section on avant-garde theory will include Vertov, Epstein, Deren, Brakhage, Sitney, and Michelson. These topic areas will be set in interaction throughout: e.g., Soviet editing and antirealism are continued in the avant-garde; rhetorical figures such as metaphor, metonymy, ellipsis, condensation, and displacement, can be traced in very different theoretical contexts and in close readings of individual films.

DMS 440
Women Directors
Koebel
TR 11:00am - 12:50pm
Tuesdays in CFA 232
Thursdays in CFA 112
Reg# 085829
This seminar course is intended to set the groundwork for an ongoing critical engagement with films—primarily English-language narrative—made by women. Participants will greaten their capacity to locate and frame questions raised by female-directed movies—as distinct from a biologically reductive understanding of cinema. We will examine the relationship between feminist film theory and filmmaking, and pay close attention to how especially particular directors articulate theoretical models through cinematic tactics. Although not strictly a course on feminist film history, Women Directors spotlights significant titles and directors in that history (see dates below for exact names). Students are encouraged to apply the course's analytic tools to their theoretical comprehension of the film medium, as well as to their own respective production practices. The seminar will address in depth such topics as “the male gaze” and its subversion in given films; the (dis- and re-) remembering of women in film history; representations of otherness; race, gender and sexuality in films by women; authorship and speaking subject or voice; and demands for active spectatorship through the integration of theories and practices that challenge narrative: Anti-Illusionist Film, Counter Cinema and Feminist Film. The last four weeks will be reserved for group presentations of films and readings. Other course work includes weekly screenings and readings, presentations of readings, outside screenings, written assignments, and a term paper.
Regular, on-time attendance and full class participation is mandatory. Students must come to class prepared—ready to discuss the assigned readings and films. The semester grade will be affected by absence, tardiness or lack of preparedness.

GRADUATE

DMS 512
Film Theory
Brian Henderson
MW 1:00pm – 2:50pm
CFA 235
REG#144290
(Grad & Undergrad)

DMS 513
Filmic Text
Steven Eastwood
MW 11:00am - 12:50pm
CFA
REG#TBD (Grad Only)

DMS 540
Women Directors
Caroline Koebel
TR 11:00am - 12:50pm
CFA 232 & 112
Reg# 161504 (Grad & Undergrad)
This seminar course is intended to set the groundwork for an ongoing critical engagement with films—primarily English-language narrative—made by women. Participants will greaten their capacity to locate and frame questions raised by female-directed movies—as distinct from a biologically reductive understanding of cinema. We will examine the relationship between feminist film theory and filmmaking, and pay close attention to how especially particular directors articulate theoretical models through cinematic tactics. Although not strictly a course on feminist film history, Women Directors spotlights significant titles and directors in that history (see dates below for exact names). Students are encouraged to apply the course's analytic tools to their theoretical comprehension of the film medium, as well as to their own respective production practices. The seminar will address in depth such topics as “the male gaze” and its subversion in given films; the (dis- and re-) remembering of women in film history; representations of otherness; race, gender and sexuality in films by women; authorship and speaking subject or voice; and demands for active spectatorship through the integration of theories and practices that challenge narrative: Anti-Illusionist Film, Counter Cinema and Feminist Film. The last four weeks will be reserved for group presentations of films and readings. Other course work includes weekly screenings and readings, presentations of readings, outside screenings, written assignments, and a term paper.
Regular, on-time attendance and full class participation is mandatory. Students must come to class prepared—ready to discuss the assigned readings and films. The semester grade will be affected by absence, tardiness or lack of preparedness.