50 courses with the subject FILM, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
FILM 120The Screenplay as Literature1
This course is a survey of the history, theory, and analysis of the screenplay as a literary form. How did the screenplay arise? Is the screenplay a piece of literature? What is the future for the screenplay? How do we read and contextualize a screenplay within the greater scope of film and literature? These are some of the questions we explore. We also study screenplays in and of themselves, in order to better understand how they are crafted, how they function, and why they exist. Joseph Muszynski. Open only to first-year students; satisfies college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar. Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Course Format: CLS
An introductory exploration of central features of film and television aesthetics, including formal and stylistic elements, such as color, lighting, editing, sound, narrative structure, etc. Students are exposed to a wide spectrum of types of films and television shows, including: silent, abstract, non-narrative, foreign, and documentaries, and the artistic choices manifested by each. We look at issues pertaining to production, distribution, and exhibition. Subjects are treated topically rather than historically, and emphasis is placed on mastering key vocabulary and concepts. The Department. Open only to first-year students. Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Course Format: CLS
FILM 183Introduction to Ultra Short Form Filmmaking1
Can we use filmmaking to cultivate attentiveness and a playful sense of presence in everyday life? How does having a cinematic practice — a laboratory of ongoing audiovisual exploration — help us to develop confidence in our creative process and generate ideas for larger projects while also bearing witness to the richness of ordinary moments? This course introduces filmmaking as a personal practice through in-class prompts and home assignments. To foster creative freedom, we emphasize sustained output and process over product, which takes the pressure off any single film. Students learn the basics of the camera and editing in Adobe Premiere as they create up to ten 1-2 min. films. Denise Iris. Open to first-year students only. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
How do framing, duration, sound, and rhythm shape the way we look and listen? The late Belgian filmmaker, Chantal Akerman, once suggested that when time flies in a film, the viewer may be robbed of it: “With my films you’re aware of every second passing through your body.” In this introductory production course, first-year students gain a foundation in filmmaking through the question of attention. Drawing on examples from experimental, documentary, and narrative cinema, the class explores observation, presence, and the ways film can elide, draw out, or suspend time through image and sound. Students respond periodically to screenings and readings in writing as well as in class discussion, and produce a series of short exercises and creative projects culminating in a final film. Students complete a range of hands-on assignments in image and sound making, working with duration, sound, voice, and editing. Exercises may include observational studies, listening exercises, fixed-camera, hyper-edited, short form, and found footage assignments. Special emphasis is placed on filmmaking as a practice of noticing, and on how small formal decisions shape perception, meaning, and feeling. Open only to first-year students, this course requires sustained creative practice and active participation in critique. By the end of the semester, students possess a working vocabulary for analyzing how films organize attention, demonstrate a foundation in essential production techniques, and produce a portfolio of original work that reflects an emerging sensitivity to time, presence, and the expressive possibilities of image and sound. Carl Elsaesser. One 3-hour period. Course Format: CLS
An international history of film with a greater emphasis on world cinemas from the 1930s to the contemporary period. The course focuses on major directors, industrial organization, and the contributions of various national movements. In addition to the historical survey, this course introduces students to the major issues of classical and contemporary film theory. The Department. Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Course Format: CLS
How can film and television visualize a system that defies comprehension? How do such media articulate the flows of power that shape our world? Conspiracy narratives have been a hallmark of popular cinematic crime genres since the early 20th century, yet they proliferate far beyond expected generic boundaries to emerge in films about investigative journalism and animated series about urban park management alike. This course traces the development of conspiracy narratives from their emergence in early genre cinema through key inflection points in films of the 1970s (Parallax View) and 1990s (LA Confidential), as well as contemporary television series (Central Park, Chernobyl). We place these examples in conversation with key theories of conspiracy as a mechanism for making sense of global capital and its infrastructures like Fredric Jameson’s and Brian Larkin’s. Assignments include a short paper, a screening journal, discussion leadership, and an annotated bibliography. Erica Stein.
FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Not offered in 2026/27.
FILM 218The Western: Global and Intergalactic Frontiers1
The western is one of the formative American film genres with origins in early silent, “raid-and-rescue” pictures like The Great Train Robbery (1903) The Lonedale Operator (1911) and The Hazards of Helen
FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Corequisite
FILM 219 . Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
FILM 219Decolonizing the Western: Iterations and Interpretations0.5
As a genre, The Western is closely linked to ideas of American exceptionalism and, globally, expansionist national identities. For almost as long as it has existed, however, filmmakers and scholars have taken a decolonial approach to The Western, asking how it can be turned to different political purposes. This Intensive, which accompanies FILM 218 The Western: Global and Intergalactic Frontiers as a corequisite, focuses on such approaches. Mia Mask.
FILM 218 . First six-week course. One 75-minute period. Course Format: INT
Offered
Fall
FILM 221American Avant-Garde Film1
This course offers a survey of American avant-garde film in all its modes, ranging from experimental work like Jennifer Proctor’s Jen Proctor: A Movie , to surrealist-influenced documentary like Joshua Yates’s The Bags , to innovative narrative cinema like Agnes Varda’s Lions Love (…and Lies) . While the course covers major avant-garde movements like mytho-poeticism and structuralism, it is organized thematically rather than chronologically. The course is divided into three units, each of which interrogates one of the terms in the title. The first unit explores films that expand our perception of what it means to be American and challenge received ideas about individual and collective identity. The second unit examines how the avant-garde constitutes itself both in opposition to commercial film and as its own industrial form. The third unit investigates film itself – how and why medium specificity and technology are important to these moving images. Assignments include an historical presentation, a short analytic essay, a take-home exam, and a final position paper on the future of the American avant-garde film. Erica Stein.
FILM 222 . Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
FILM 222Curating Microcinemas0.5
The course meets for a total of six weeks, two weeks in the first third of the semester, and the final four weeks of the semester. In this intensive component, students learn about microcinemas, a key exhibition site in contemporary American avant-garde film, and then develop and program their own at an off-campus site. Students have the responsibility of selecting, pitching, and securing the titles to be screened, developing the space, performing audience outreach, composing program notes, and introducing the films at the screening. The intensive component is configured as one hour of additional in-class workshop and consultations plus three hours of independent research, outreach, and pitching during the initial two weeks of the intensive. During the last four weeks, the intensive is configured as half-hour small-group check-ins with the professor every week, as well as independent, out-of-class work to financially and logistically assemble the microcinema, finalize programming, publicize the screening, and produce the program. Erica Stein.
FILM 221 . Required for students enrolled in FILM 221 American Avant-Garde Film . Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
FILM 223Cinemas and Urbanisms1
(Same as URBS 223 ) The cinema is one of the technologies, like mass transit and electricity, that made rapid urbanization in the early 20th century possible. Cities were one of early cinema’s favorite subjects, and their population density provided the audiences media industries needed to flourish. A quarter of the way through the 21st century, as the global population is increasingly urbanized and our lives, wherever we live them, are increasingly mediated, the relationship of cinematic media and cities becomes ever more inextricable. The course surveys the development of that relationship over the past 125 years. We explore how cinema developed a standardized grammar for imagining the city and taxonomizing some of its key features, the role cinematic technologies played in shaping (and contesting) urban redevelopment, the architectures that determine how cities house moving images, and the uses to which the entertainment industry and citizens alike put the cinema as ti shapes our daily lives in the city. Throughout our explorations, we encounter deadly tourists in Glasgow, enchanted lovers and slaughterhouses in Paris, ghosts in Dakar, small-time mobsters in New York, detectives in over their heads in Tokyo, and travelers in Sao Paolo. Assignments include two papers, a group presentation, and a creative project on the cinematic image of the Hudson Valley region. Erica Stein.
URBS 100 or FILM 209 . Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
FILM 224Film Festivals & Exhibition0.5
This intensive explores the contemporary mediascape of film festivals and exhibition practices. This includes major festivals, small festivals, drive-ins, and simulcasts. Our focus is on site-specific learning: we investigate how the locations and logistics of various types of film exhibitions creates meaning and cultural capital for promoters and audiences alike. Throughout, we investigate issues of access as they relate to geography, (dis)ability, technology, and socio-economic status. We accomplish this via field trips throughout the semester to the local area’s largest and most important festival, the New York Film Festival, its oldest continuous LGBT festival, New Fest, as well as to a Poughkeepsie drive-in and to a Westchester film center that streams live theatrical events. We also explore the creation and curation of digital environments for these festivals, and host class visits from festival programmers and other workers. Students are expected to attend all field trips and class visits, and to complete four short reflection papers throughout the semester.
FILM 209 . One 1-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
FILM 225Film Criticism0.5
What is the role of film criticism in today’s culture? In this intensive, we discuss the philosophy behind film criticism and develop an online publication with the work created during the semester. Students experiment with different forms of film criticism—written, video essays, interviews, podcasts–, develop pitches, and explore multiple editorial possibilities. In the beginning of the semester, we focus on defining the activity through readings and discussions. After that, we have editorial meetings to develop our own Wordpress website, from concept to publication. Fabio Andrade.
FILM 209 and one additional unit of 200/300-level film history and theory. One 90-minute period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
FILM 226The Unfinished Film0.5
Do you have creative projects that you’ve abandoned or that are in partial states of being? Do you have a script that longs to see the light of day but that languishes in a drawer instead? Is your notebook full of ideas for short or feature films that you wish could be made? This intensive critically interrogates incompletion or the unfinished in film production and screenwriting. Instead of describing incompletion in terms of loss, fragmentation, and failure, how might one reconceptualize incompletion as generative? How can incompletion as a theoretical framework challenge the fetishization of the completed film in film history and practice? We draw inspiration from media scholars, filmmakers, and podcasters who navigate the fragile and uncertain creative terrain of incompletion and the unfinished. Sophia Harvey.
FILM 209 . Second six-week course. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
FILM 231Minorities in the Media1
(Same as MEDS 231 ) This course examines the dynamics of race, class, gender and sexuality as they are represented in American society. Throughout the semester, we analyze media (i.e., films, television programs, YouTube videos, advertisements), and mediated discourse, to assess the way categories of “minority” and “majority” identity have been constructed in mainstream society and popular culture. In addition to examining images of those persons collective known as “minorities,” (BIPOC, LGBTQIA), we consider the representation of those defined as “majority” Americans. This course utilizes Black British Cultural Studies, African American Studies, Critical Race Theory and Sociology. The course also engages scholarship from the field of whiteness studies. Issues and topics may include the concept of “model minorities” (i.e., Henry Louis Gates, Jennifer Lopez, Rahm Emmanuel, Ellen DeGeneres, the Williams Sisters, Barack Obama); global branding; the BLM movement; police brutality (i.e., Rodney King, Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, George Floyd); the Proposition 209 conflict; the WNBA; gay marriage; Islamophobia; and the representation of the Middle East. Readings, weekly screenings, and papers required.
FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
FILM 232African American Cinema1
(Same as AFRS 232 ) This course provides a survey of the history and theory of African American representation in cinema. It begins with the silent films of Oscar Micheaux and examines early Black cast westerns ( Harlem Rides the Range, The Bronze Buckaroo, Harlem on the Prairie ) and musicals ( St. Louis Blues, Black and Tan, Hi De Ho, Sweethearts of Rhythm ). Political debate circulating around cross over stars (Paul Robeson, Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Eartha Kitt, and Harry Belafonte) are central to the course. Special consideration is given to Blaxploitation cinema of the seventies ( Shaft, Coffy, Foxy Brown, Cleopatra Jones ) in an attempt to understand its impact on filmmakers and the historical contexts for contemporary filmmaking. The course covers “Los Angeles Rebellion” filmmakers such as Julie Dash, Charles Burnett, and Haile Gerima. Realist cinema of the 80’s and 90’s ( Do the Right Thing, Boyz N the Hood, Menace II Society, and Set it off), is examined before the transition to Black romantic comedies, family films, and genre pictures ( Coming to America, Love and Basketball, The Best Man, Akeelah and the Bee, 12 Years a Slave, The Great Debaters ). Mia Mask.
FILM 209 and permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Offered
Fall
FILM 234The Coen Brothers as Postmodern Auteurs1
This class considers the career and work of Joel and Ethan Coen from Blood Simple (1984) to The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) through the lenses of industry, culture, and aesthetics. We learn how the Coens came to typify the association of auteurism with festival-based promotional strategies and revisionist genre films in post-classical Hollywood. At the same time, we also discuss the two ways in which they question and destabilize the very notion of auteurism. First, as we explore the role adaptation, quotation, and genre mixing play in their acquisition and development of film properties, we ask how these prototypically postmodern qualities call the notion of the director as author into question. Second, as we investigate the formal aspects of their films, we ask how their work critiques the notion of any kind of authorial or authority figure being present or useful in modern life. Assignments include short reaction papers, a genre or adaptation presentation, and a final research paper. Erica Stein.
FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
FILM 236Latin American Cinema1
(Same as LALS 236 ) This course investigates the history and theory of several filmic traditions in Latin America, from the silent era until the present. The films are discussed within specific cultural, social, infrastructural, and political contexts, with special attention to how these contexts overlap and diverge in relation to each other, and to the films. We study important artistic developments in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay using both features and shorts, theatrically exhibited and non-theatrical films. The readings pair scholarly works with artists’ manifestos to investigate the recurrence of specific genres (political cinema; magical realism; melodrama) and situate the socio-cultural roles played by artistic schools including Brazilian Cinema Novo, the Cuban school of revolutionary documentary, the Colombian Tropical Gothic, the Nuevo Cine Argentino, and the recent infiltration of Hollywood by Latin American filmmakers, such as Pablo Larraín and Mexico’s “three amigos.” Assignments for this class include a written or video essay comparing two different filmic traditions, a contextual research group presentation, and a research paper that features a close reading of the aesthetics of one or more films. Fabio Andrade.
FILM 175 , FILM 209 , or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
FILM 238Music and Sound in Film1
(Same as MUSI 238 ) Why do films have music? How do music and sound influence (and sometimes even control) what we see and experience in film? This course delves into the terminology and methodologies for analyzing and interpreting the interaction between filmic image and sound. Tahirih Motazedian.
One course in Music (not performance) or Film. Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
FILM 240Sculpting Images in Time1
This course introduces students to the basic concepts and skills involved in digital film production such as camerawork and video editing. We begin with the image, exploring in great detail its formal qualities: composition, light, color, movement, mise-en-scène, juxtapositions and temporal dimensions. Sound is introduced as a way to complicate the image – first as sound design and finally as dialogue. The Department.
FILM 209 can be taken concurrently. One 3-hour period. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall and Spring
FILM 242Fragile Presence: The Ultra Short Film as Personal Cinematic Practice0.5
(Same as ENST 242 ) Can we use filmmaking to cultivate attentiveness and a playful sense of presence in everyday life? How does having a cinematic practice — a laboratory of ongoing audiovisual exploration — help us to develop confidence in our own creative process while also acting as a form of journaling? In this intensive, we search for the poetry, whimsy and depth of meaning in the daily unfolding of our outer and inner lives. We privilege the joy of discovery over an evaluative mindset through site-specific shooting prompts around campus and improvisational editing experiences. Outside meeting times, students shoot and edit on their own, creating five 1 min. films in six weeks. Prior filmmaking experience is helpful, but passionate self-starters are equally welcome.
Permission of the instructor. Priority given to students with some shooting and editing experience. First six-week course. One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
FILM 244Creative Development1
(Same as MEDS 244 ) This course explores various approaches to the conception and development of works of screen art, with special attention to the short form. We consider the often unheralded role that research plays in the artistic process, as well as the types of critical and imaginative thinking across disciplines that can support us in the early stages of any creative project. While different forms of writing remain important to the work of creative development, in this course we also employ non-textual traditions and techniques that have long been crucial to filmmakers and more broadly to artists of all kinds, including inspiration boards, mood reels, video “sketches,” and various improvisational and collaborative exercises that can aid in the genesis of original artistic ideas. Students learn through practice, study, and reflection how these creative methodologies provide the foundation for later stages of development and pre-production. This course foregrounds collective practices and paragogy (peer-learning) as essential components of creative development: beyond project-level collaboration, we explore how our membership to various creative and scholarly communities brings with it a whole range of responsibilities, opportunities, and challenges. In so doing we are revisiting and reimagining what the concepts of the auteur and the caméra-stylo might mean to us in this particular cultural moment, when mobile devices and social media have transformed our relationship to the moving image.
MEDS 160 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor; first-years are not eligible to take this course. One 3-hour period and additional lab time required. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
FILM 245Producing Audio Narratives1
(Same as MEDS 245 ) This practice-based course places contemporary podcast forms within the larger context of sonic artistry across cinema, radio, and other media. As we produce our own original short audio narratives, we draw from a wide range of disciplines, techniques, and methodologies, including oral history, deep listening, non-extractive journalism and documentary practices, radio drama, voice acting and live performance, audio essay and collage, as well as abstract sound art and design. Students use professional equipment and software to produce their audio assignments, and they work collectively to create a showcase event and/or platform for their final projects.
FILM 240 or FILM 241 or MEDS 250 and permission of the instructor.
Corequisite
FILM 246 - Wild Sound . Required for students enrolled in FILM 246 - Wild Sound . One 3-hour period and additional lab time required. Not offered in 2026/27.
FILM 246Wild Sound0.5
“Wild sound” is any audio used in film that has been recorded asynchronously from the image. It’s also a poetic term which conjures a landscape of possibilities in our relationship to the sonic world that surrounds us. How can we become better listeners and thus more present in our own lives? How can we use this expanded awareness to create richer sound design for film? Through in-class experiential prompts inspired by the practice of deep listening, we listen to, collect, and create with sound. Students produce 3 audio pieces, either as standalone works or to be used for film projects. This class privileges experiences with sound over technical instruction. We work in Adobe Premiere, but motivated self-starters can also explore other software options. Denise Iris.
FILM 240 . First six-week course. One 90-minute period. Course Format: INT
Offered
Fall
FILM 255Four Italian Filmmakers (in English)1
(Same as ITAL 255 ) Close analysis of the narrative and visual styles of Bernardo Bertolucci, Federico Fellini, Gianni Amelio and Nanni Moretti, in the context of post-war Italian cinema and culture. Theoretical literature on these directors and on approaches to the interpretation of film-such as psychoanalytic film theory, feminist theory, deconstruction, and post-colonial analyses of dominant discourses-aid us in addressing questions of style and of political and social significance. Cinematic interpretive skills are developed through visual and linguistic exercises, group projects, and film-making. Conducted in English. Rodica Blumenfeld. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. May be counted towards the Italian major. Two 75-minute periods and two film screenings. Not offered in 2026/27.
(Same as MEDS 256 ) This course surveys the history of television in the United States from the 1940s to the present. It examines the social and industrial significance of television and its impact on issues such as class, race, gender, consumerism, and national identity. We investigate changes in televisual aesthetics and narrative paradigms and the ways that television responded to significant cultural, political and technological changes in American society. Throughout the semester we draw upon a range of critical frameworks including media industry studies, genre theory, and celebrity studies as we address topics such as the attempts to develop alternate models of broadcasting, networks’ efforts to bolster television’s cultural status, media convergence, and the formal characteristics of different television genres. Screenings include I Love Lucy, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer , and Orange is the New Black . Katherine Model.
FILM 175 or FILM 209 for students registering for FILM 256. MEDS 160 for students registering for MEDS 256. Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
FILM 260Documentary: History and Aesthetics1
This course explores the history, theory, and aesthetics of documentary cinema from its emergence to the present day. We examine the ways that cultural, political and technological factors have shaped the development of non-fiction film. In addition, the interrelationships between documentary and narrative cinema as well as other media including photography, comic books, and television are considered. The class places documentary in its broader contexts to include forms such as sponsored, experimental, scientific, and amateur films. Throughout the semester, students read primary historical sources along with scholarly approaches to the development, uses, and meanings of documentary cinema. Screenings include films by Michael Moore, George Stoney, Robert Drew, Agnes Varda, Chick Strand, Errol Morris, and many others. Katherine Model.
FILM 175 or FILM 209 . Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
FILM 265German Film in English Translation1
(Same as GERM 265 ) Silke von der Emde. Readings and discussions are in English, and all films have English subtitles. Open to all classes. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as ASIA 266 ) This course examines contemporary Asian horror. Using a variety of critical perspectives, we deconstruct the pantheon of vampires, monsters, ghosts, and vampire ghosts inhabiting such diverse regions as Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines to explore constructions of national/cultural identity, gender, race, class, and sexuality. We ground these observations within a discussion of the nature of horror and the implications of horror as a trans/national genre. Sophia Harvey.
FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
FILM 271Creative Film Theory0.5
Film theory is itself creative, sometimes wildly so: various theorists have argued that representational art is a mummifying practice, that 17th-century tourist attractions work like VR headsets, and that film imagines what nonhuman subjectivity might look like. In this intensive, we read theorists like Siegfried Kracauer, Anne Friedberg, Arika Mizuta Lippit, and Eugenie Brinkema and respond to them creatively by building board games, taking photographs, assembling zines, and editing video essays. Course meetings alternate between intensive discussion of an assigned theorist and presentation of a creative project inspired by that theorist. Erica Stein.
FILM 209 . Two hours every other week. Course Format: INT
Offered
Fall
FILM 284Producing for Independent Film1
This course introduces students to the art and practice of producing independent films, emphasizing both practical management and creative leadership. This course covers producing in both documentary and fiction contexts, with particular attention to the dual role many first-time filmmakers assume as both producer and director. Students learn how the producer’s responsibilities span the full life cycle of a project: from the inception of an idea through development, collaboration, planning, and executing production, and guiding the finished work through post-production and distribution. By the end of the semester, students are able to build and interpret budgets suited to independent film production, design production schedules that account for locations, collaborators, and available resources, identify and manage crews across documentary and fiction contexts, apply legal and logistical requirements such as appearance and location releases, and understand the essentials of post-production workflows from ingest through delivery. They also demonstrate an understanding of the producer’s creative role in supporting a director’s vision while balancing the practical realities of filmmaking. Students work with real-world production documents, including a sample budget for a low-budget feature, to practice translating these goals into concrete plans. Guest lectures from established producers offer insight into current industry practices, highlighting how producers collaborate across disciplines and genres. By semester’s end, students are prepared to take on producing responsibilities for their junior and senior projects, equipped with both the technical tools and the collaborative mindset needed to bring independent productions to life. Yance Ford.
FILM 209 , FILM 240 . One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
FILM 285The Cinemas of Luis Buñuel1
This class studies the work of the Spanish-Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel, from his first short film, Un Chien Andalou (1928, co-directed with Salvador Dalí), to his last feature, This Obscure Object of Desire (1977), focusing on the relationship between aesthetics and production context. A filmmaker who started in 1920s European avant-garde circles as one of the founders of surrealism, Buñuel found a new career in the Mexican studio system, and eventually transformed Mexican cinema from within once that studio system crumbled, becoming a model for arthouse filmmaking in the country. In this course, we look at examples from the many phases of the filmmaker’s varied career in search of persistent personality traits, patterns and themes in different production contexts and stages of his creative life. Fabio Andrade.
FILM 209 . Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
FILM 2862001: A Year in Review1
This course analyzes global cinema focusing on a single year: 2001. Standing as a retroactive passage between two historical periods - the unipolar world symbolically established with the fall of the Berlin wall, and the war on terror triggered by 9/11 - 2001 is an especially interesting year for cinema, with landmark works being released around the world that pushed to the limit some of the formal motifs developed in the previous decade. Taking as an example the way 1968 has become a symbolic year for the experimentation of the 1960s, this course looks at films released in 2001 in search for clues of the historical shifts taking place at the threshold between the “end of history” (Fukuyama) and the instability of the post-9/11 world. Fabio Andrade.
FILM 209 . Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
FILM 290Community-Engaged Learning
0.5 to 2 unit(s) To be elected in consultation with the adviser and the Office of Community-Engaged Learning. May not be used toward the Major requirements. Course Format: INT
An academic thesis in film history or theory, written under the supervision of a member of the department. Since writing a thesis during fall semester is preferable, film majors should talk to their advisers spring of junior year. In Film, a research thesis is recommended but not required, especially for those students not writing a FILM 301 or enrolled in FILM 327 Senior Project: Fiction or FILM 326 Senior Project: Non-Fiction . The Department.
FILM 209 , two additional courses in film history and theory, and permission of the instructor. Course Format: OTH
Offered
Fall or Spring
FILM 301Film Screenplay Thesis1
The creation of a feature-length original screenplay. Open only to film majors. Senior status required. Students wishing to write a screenplay instead of a research thesis must have produced work of distinction in FILM 317 Introduction to Screenwriting and FILM 319 Advanced Screenwriting . Closed to film correlates. The Department.
DRAM 102 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor. Writing sample required two weeks before preregistration. Open only to juniors and seniors. One 2-hour period plus outside screenings. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
FILM 319Advanced Screenwriting1
An in-depth exploration of the screenplay as a dramatic form and a workshop aimed at the development, writing, and rewriting of a feature-length screenplay. Students study the work of noted screenwriters and are required to complete a feature-length screenplay as their final project in the course. Film majors who have produced works of distinction in FILM 317 are given first priority. Joseph Muszynski.
FILM 209 , DRAM 317 or FILM 317 , and permission of the instructor. Film Majors are given first priority. One 2-hour period plus outside screenings. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
FILM 324Cinema Modes1
The course exposes students to narrative, documentary, and experimental approaches and explores how these modes mutually inform and fertilize one another. Prepares students for senior-level work as they create one narrative, one documentary, and one experimental film. The course culminates in a final project that can be any of the three modes or hybrid that fruitfully overlaps or evades these categories. Yance Ford, Denise Iris.
FILM 240 or FILM 241 . One 3-hour period. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall and Spring
FILM 325Writing the Short Film1
A screenwriting course that explores and celebrates the possibilities of the short form, not simply as subordinate or preliminary to the work of feature filmmaking, but as its own vital approach to the moving arts. Those wishing to take FILM 327 are strongly encouraged to take FILM 325.
FILM 240 or FILM 241 and permission of the instructor. This course is closed to Film correlates. One 3-hour period. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
FILM 326Senior Project: Non-Fiction1
Students create short nonfiction films, from concept to final delivery. Participants offer reciprocal support of their peers’ projects by filling crew positions. Students wishing to enroll in the course must submit a project proposal in the preceding semester. Carl Elsaesser.
FILM 240 or FILM 241 and permission of the instructor. Strong preference given to students who have completed FILM 324 Cinema Modes . This course is closed to Film correlates. One 3-hour period. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
FILM 327Senior Project: Fiction1
Students create short fiction films, from concept to final delivery. Participants offer reciprocal support of their peers’ projects by filling crew positions. Students wishing to enroll in the course must submit a project proposal in the preceding semester. Those wishing to make narrative films are strongly encouraged to take FILM 325 Writing the Short Film .
FILM 240 or FILM 241 and permission of the instructor. This course is closed to Film correlates. One 3-hour period.
Offered
Spring
FILM 335Celebrity and Power: Stardom in Contemporary Culture1
Celebrity fascinates Americans. It informs popular culture, professional sport and national politics. Yet what defines celebrity? How are stars manufactured by the Culture Industry? Why is the ubiquitous cult of celebrity so important in contemporary Western culture and across global mediascapes? Through classic and contemporary theoretical writings, the course examines stardom and various brands of star charisma. We interrogate conventional forms of celebrity power as well as the conversion of entertainment industry charisma into forms of political charisma and cultural capital (i.e., the careers of Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sidney Poitier, Jennifer Lopez, John Leguizamo, the Brangelina trademark, and Beyonce Knowles). The course will address the rise of reality television celebrities. As intertextual signs, stars reveal the instabilities, ambiguities and contradictions within a given culture. The changing configuration of American society is revealed in an examination of celebrity and stardom as social phenomena. This course transverses from Mary Pickford to Oprah Winfrey and beyond. Readings, screenings and writing assignments required. Mia Mask.
African national cinemas reflect the rich, complex history of the continent. These films from lands as diverse as Chad, Senegal, and South Africa reveal the various ways filmmakers have challenged the representation of Africa and Africans while simultaneously revising conventional cinematic syntax. This survey course examines the internal gaze of African-born auteurs like Ousmane Sembene ( La Noir De, Xala, Mandabi ), Djbril Diop Mambety ( Hyenes ), Desire Ecare ( Faces of Women ), Manthia Diawara ( Conakry Kas ), and Mahmat-Saleh Haroun ( Bye-Bye Africa ). It places these films alongside the external gaze of practitioners Euzan Palcy ( A Dry White Season ), Jean-Jacques Annaud ( Noir et Blancs en Couleur ) and Raoul Peck ( Lumumba ). The films of documentary filmmakers Anne Laure Folly, Ngozi Onwurah and Pratibah Parmaar are also examined. This course utilizes the post-colonial film theory and scholarship of Imruh Bakari, Mbye Cham, Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike and Manthia Diawara. Screenings, readings and papers required. Mia Mask.
FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.
Corequisite
FILM 337 . One 2-hour period plus outside screenings. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
FILM 339Contemporary Southeast Asian Cinemas1
(Same as ASIA 339 ) This course is designed to introduce students to the dynamic and diverse contemporary film texts emerging from Singapore and Thailand. The course focuses on the themes of urban spaces and gender and sexuality. The course reading material is designed to provide (1) theoretical insights, (2) general socio-cultural and/or political overviews, and (3) more specific analyses of film texts and/or filmmakers. Sophia Harvey.
FILM 209 and permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period plus outside screenings. Not offered in 2026/27.
FILM 391Sensuous Theory Writing Workshop0.5
This intensive is attached to FILM 392 . The writing workshop is based upon peer review, works-in-progress presentations, writing accountability groups, in-workshop writing sessions, and end of the semester paper presentations. This intensive meets with the instructor five times throughout the semester. Sophia Harvey.
FILM 392 . Required for students enrolled in FILM 392 Research Seminar in Film History and Theory . Course Format: INT
Offered
Spring
FILM 392Research Seminar in Film History and Theory1
This course is designed as an in-depth exploration of a theoretical topic. Students contribute to the class through research projects and oral presentations. Their work culminates in lengthy research papers. Because topics change, students are permitted (encouraged) to take this course more than once. Preference is given to film majors who must take this class during their senior year; junior majors and others admitted if space permits.
