Undergraduate Courses
FLM 200 Art of the Film (A,F)
An introduction to film as an art form combining visual, dramatic, and aural arts. Covers basic film vocabulary, elements of film art, trends in film aesthetics, and analysis of style of important selected filmmakers; includes screening of short and feature films. 3 Cr. Every Semester.
FLM 250 Film History Part 1- Origins to 1945 (A,F)
Traces the evolution of cinema from its origins in the 19th century through the silent era, into the Golden Age of sound cinema. Examines the major films and movements in the development of film as a global, cross-cultural art form and industry. By situating cinema historically, investigates how different cultures imagine themselves within diverse social, historical, and ideological contexts with an emphasis on aesthetics. 3 Cr. Every Semester.
FLM 251 Film History Part 2- 1945 to Present (A,F)
Traces the evolution of cinema from WWII until the present-day “blockbuster era.” Examines the major films and movements in the cross-cultural evolution of film since the emergence of the “international art cinema” in the 1950s and the new Cinemas of the 1960s. Investigates how different cultures imagine themselves within diverse social, historical, and ideological contexts as film culture becomes increasingly globalized in the latter half of the twentieth century. 3 Cr. Every Semester.
FLM 301 Theory and Criticism of Film (A,W)
Introduces and develops a specialized set of advanced critical tools used to evaluate, explicate, and interrogate filmic texts. 3 Cr.
FLM 302 Documentary and Experimental Film (A)
Provides an introduction to documentary and experimental films. Explores the nature of documentary and experimental films as creative scientific works; as statements by individuals living within particular cultural frame works; as instruments of persuasion and propaganda; and as devices which expand our perspectives on the world around us. 3 Cr.
FLM 303 Ecocinema (A,I)
Applies contemporary ecocritical theory to cinematic texts. Raises students’ awareness about the ecological and environmental issues impacting the world today and sharpens students’ critical media analysis skills. Draws on techniques and content of film (Fine Arts) and ecocriticism (Social Sciences and Natural Sciences). 3 Cr.
FLM 310 Topics: Film Auteurs (A)
Provides an in-depth study of major films of selected film directors using various critical perspectives. Specific focus shown by subtitle. May be repeated for credit with significant change in focus. 3 Cr.
FLM 354 American Film (A,W)
Cross-listed as WMS354 and HST354.Focuses on how American history has been presented on film. The course follows a chronological format and looks at important films about the crucial eras and events in US history, such as the Civil War, the West and the Sixties, as well as the history of film-making itself. Stresses the ideological function of films and the contrast between how historians and films present the past. 3 Cr.
FLM 360 Film Genres (Topics) (A)
Film Genres (Topics) 3 Cr.
FLM 401 American Independent Cinema (A)
Many factors contributed to the upsurge in popularity and profitability of American independent film production over the course of the 1980s and 1990s. These included new developments in the industrial and financial infrastructure of studio-based and independent cinema, as well as an increased market for offbeat, alternative, queer, and “smart” cinema in the U.S. This course will serve as both an historical survey of American Independent cinema since 1986 as well as an introduction to the formal analysis of film and visual media texts in general. We will approach these concerns through rigorous textual analysis (close readings) of the films themselves, secondary readings, and class discussions. 3 Cr.
FLM 402 Bollywood Film Music (A)
Uses film to examine the culture and music of India. Introduces Indian films, popular music genres, and use of melodrama and emotion in narrative development and as an expression of the Indian psyche. Adopts critical approaches for looking at the representation of India through cinema, music, and constructions of mainstream and marginalized identities (gender, caste, religion), narrative formulas, song picturizations, theatrical characterizations, and spectacle. 3 Cr. Spring.
FLM 403 Hollywood Renaissance (A)
Surveys the New Hollywood period, roughly 1967-1980. Studies young filmmakers who were influenced by the American social upheavals of the 1960s and the cinematic innovations of the French New Wave and who brought explicit sex, drugs, rock and roll, and a countercultural ethos to the American cinema throughout the decade of the 1970s. Uses historical and critical readings as well as formal analysis of films. 3 Cr.
FLM 430 World History on Film (A,I)
Investigates the oft-complex topic of historical memory by looking at how filmmakers have shaped historical moments as part of their own lived history as well as for national and international audiences. Stresses the ideological function of films and the contrast between how historians and film makers present the past. Tackles still controversial topics like gender, sexuality, fascism, imperialism, cold war, and Islamic fundamentalism, all topics which play important role in national origins stories. 3 Cr. Spring.
FLM 456 Race, Ethnicity, and Film (A,H,I)
This class explores the relationship between racial and ethnic identity, cinematic representation, film production, pleasure, and power. We will investigate the complex representation of people of all races (including whites) in mainstream Hollywood cinema and, to some extent, independent and experimental cinema. We will move beyond the examination of stereotypes to analyze the complex ideological negotiations at play as race relations – onscreen and off – continually adapt to shifting cultural and social circumstances. This is an elective course that would count as such toward the Film Studies Minor or the English Major. 3 Cr.
FLM 457 Women and Film (A,W,Y)
Explores aesthetic, social, psychological, and political issues that inform the relation between women and film. Traces the evolution of women’s work in front of and behind the camera in diverse filmmaking institutions worldwide. Focuses on both the roles women have played in mainstream cinema and the contributions they have made to the genre as directors. Cross-listed as WMS & FLM 457. 3 Cr.
FLM 458 Contemporary Global Film Directors (A)
Provides a breadth study of major films and filmmakers active in contemporary global and transnational cinema, with a focus on contemporary international art films. These filmmakers will be examined within their specific national contexts and also as an enactment of resistance to and negotiation with the dominant Hollywood aesthetic. Exposes how American cultural isolationism tends to limit access to such films. Applies a variety of critical perspectives including formalism, postcolonial theory, ethnic studies, queer theory, and theories of globalization. 3 Cr.
FLM 459 New Queer Cinema (B)
This course serves as an introduction to gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans- and queer film theories, applying them to critical readings of selected independent and Hollywood films produced between 1974 and the present. Our course will particularly focus on the films and impact of the New Queer Cinema “movement” of the early 1990s. Throughout the course we will investigate the various meanings of the terms “queer” and “independent” as they apply to cinema, and attempt to discover how various independent films, especially those of the New Queer Cinema, have participated in the purported increase of queer media visibility in American culture through the decade of the 1990s and beyond. We will view and discuss selected NQC and post-NQC films and investigate the after-effects of the NQC. 3 Cr.
FLM 490 Topics in Film (A)
Addresses current topics, issues, controversies, etc. in film studies. Specific topics vary each semester. Descriptions of specific topics offered may be obtained from the director of film studies. May be taken more than once for credit if the topics differ. 3 Cr.
FLM 491 Seminar in Film (A)
To be defined by the instructor in accordance with the specific subject matter covered that semester. Content varies with the appropriate subtitles provided. Example: "The Coen Brothers." 3 Cr.
Graduate Courses
FLM 557 Women and Film (A)
Cross-listed as WMS 557.Explores aesthetic, social, psychological, and political issues that inform the relation between women and film. Traces the evolution of women’s work in front of and behind the camera in diverse filmmaking institutions worldwide. Focuses on both the roles women have played in mainstream cinema and the contributions they have made to the genre as directors. 3 Cr.
FLM 558 Contemporary Global Film Directors (A)
Provides a breadth study of major films and filmmakers active in contemporary global and transnational cinema, with a focus on contemporary international art films. These filmmakers will be examined within their specific national contexts and also as an enactment of resistance to and negotiation with the dominant Hollywood aesthetic. Exposes how American cultural isolationism tends to limit access to such films. Applies a variety of critical perspectives including formalism, postcolonial theory, ethnic studies, queer theory, and theories of globalization. 3 Cr.