Committee Chair: Thomas Gunning, CWAC 264, 702-0264

Director of Undergraduate Studies: Ronald Gregg, G-B 420, 834-8818

Program Coordinator: G-B 418, 834-1077

E-mail: cine-media@uchicago.edu

Web: humanities.uchicago.edu/cmtes/cms/

Program of Study

For more than a century, and across widely different cultures, film has been the primary medium for storytelling, for depicting and exploring the world, and for engaging and shaping the human senses and emotions, memory and imagination. We live in a time in which cinema, the theatrical exhibition of films to a paying public, is no longer the primary venue in which films are consumed. But cinema seems to survive, even as it is being transformed by television, video, and digital media; and these media, in turn, are giving rise to new forms of moving image culture.

The major in Cinema and Media Studies provides a framework within which students can approach the history of film and related media from a variety of historical, critical, and theoretical perspectives. Focusing on the study of the moving image (and its sound accompaniments), the program enables students to analyze how cinema creates meanings through particular forms, techniques, and styles; how industrial organization affects the way films are produced and received; and how the social context in which they are made and consumed influence the way we understand and make meaning of films.

At the same time, the goal is to situate the cinema (and related media) in broader contexts. These include the formation of visual culture and the history of the senses; modernity, modernism, and the avant-garde; narrative theory, poetics, and rhetoric; commercial entertainment forms and leisure and consumer culture; sexuality and gender; constructions of ethnic, racial, and national identities; and transnational media production and circulation, as well as the emergence of global media publics.

Students graduating with a Cinema and Media Studies major will be trained in critical, formal, theoretical, and historical thinking and analysis. The program aims to develop an ability to understand forms of cultural production in relation to wider contexts, as well as to foster discussion and writing skills. Students will gain the tools to approach today's media environment from a historical and international perspective, and will thus be able to work within a changing mediascape.

Students wishing to enter the program should consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Spring Quarter of their first year. Participation in the program must be declared to the Director of Undergraduate Studies before registration.

Program Requirements

The following requirements apply to students beginning with the Class of 2008. Current students wishing to opt for the new requirements should consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies immediately.

The major is comprised of twelve courses (four required courses and eight elective courses) and a B.A. research paper.

Courses. There are four required courses in the major.

Introduction to Film Analysis (CMST 10100). This course provides an introduction to the basic concepts of film analysis. If possible, this course should be taken before taking any other Cinema and Media Studies courses and must be taken before the other required courses. It must be completed as early as possible, at the latest by the end of the third year.

History of International Cinema sequence (CMST 28500 and 28600). A two-quarter sequence covering the silent era (CMST 28500) and the sound era to 1960 (CMST 28600) and the major characteristics and developments of each, typically taught in Winter and Spring Quarters. It is recommended that students complete this course requirement by the end of their third year.

Senior Colloquium (CMST 29800). In Autumn Quarter of their fourth year, students are expected to participate in a Senior Colloquium (CMST 29800) that helps them conceptualize their B.A. research paper and address more advanced questions of methodology and theory.

Of the eight remaining courses, five must either originate in or be cross listed with Cinema and Media Studies. For these five courses, students are encouraged to choose broad survey courses as well as those with more focused topics (e.g., courses devoted to a single genre, director, national cinema).

The other three courses needed to satisfy the requirements of the major may be taken from outside Cinema and Media Studies, in which case they must be chosen with a view toward how they can be brought to bear on the study of cinema in significant ways. For example, among these three one could imagine a group of courses focusing on art forms and media other than film, photography, and video (e.g., the visual arts, digital media, architecture, literature, theater, opera, dance); cross-disciplinary topics or sets of problems (e.g., the urban environment, violence and pornography, censorship, copyright and industry regulation, concepts of the public sphere, globalization); subfields within area studies (e.g., East Asian, South Asian, African American, Jewish studies); or traditional disciplines (e.g., history, anthropology/ethnography, philosophy, psychology, linguistics, sociology, political economy). Students choose these courses in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and are expected to briefly explain their rationale for taking them by fourth week of Winter Quarter of their third year.

B.A. Research Paper. A B.A. research paper is required of all students in the program. During Spring Quarter of their third year, students meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies to discuss the focus of their B.A. project, a process to be concluded by seventh week of the quarter; they begin reading and research during the summer. By Autumn Quarter of their fourth year, students should have selected a project adviser and be prepared to present an outline of their project to the Senior Colloquium; writing and revising take place during Winter Quarter. The final version is due by fourth week of the quarter in which the student plans to graduate. The B.A. research paper typically consists of a substantial essay that engages a research topic in the history, theory, and criticism of film and/or other media. The essay may be supplemented by work in the medium of film or video. Registration for the B.A. research paper (CMST 29900) may not be counted toward distribution requirements for the major.

Grading. Students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies must receive quality grades in all courses required for the major. Nonmajors may take Cinema and Media Studies courses on a P/F basis if they receive prior consent from the instructor.

Honors. Students who have earned an overall GPA of 3.25 or higher and a GPA of 3.5 or higher in Cinema and Media Studies courses may be nominated for honors. These honors are reserved for the student whose B.A. research paper shows exceptional intellectual and/or creative merit in the judgment of the first and the second readers, the Director of Undergraduate Studies, and the Master of the Humanities Collegiate Division.

Summary of Requirements

1    Introduction to Film Analysis (CMST 10100)

2    History of International Cinema sequence (CMST 28500/28600)

1       Senior Colloquium (CMST 29800)

5       elective courses in Cinema and Media Studies (as specified)

3       further elective courses (as specified)

__   B.A. research paper

12

Advising. By fourth week of Autumn Quarter of their third year, students are expected to obtain approval of their program of study from the Director of Undergraduate Studies. In choosing their three non-Cinema and Media Studies electives, students are encouraged to take courses with and to consult with members of the resource faculty. Core and resource faculty members are listed below.

Committee Members

J. Chandler, R. Gregg, T. Gunning, M. Hansen, J. Hoffman, J. Lastra, L. Letinsky,
D. Levin, H. Mirra, M. Raine, J. Snyder, J. Stewart, Y. Tsivian, R. West

Resource Faculty

L. Auslander, L. Berlant, R. Bird, W. Brown, D. Chakrabarty, G. Chauncey, J. Comaroff,
M. Feldman, J. Goldsby, N. Harris, B. Hoeckner, T. Holt, R. Inden, L. Kruger,
W. Mazzarella, W. J. T. Mitchell, E. Santner, B. Shallcross, B. Stafford, M. Sternstein,
M. Stokes, X. Tang, K. Taylor, W. Veeder, M. Ward

Courses: Cinema and Media Studies (cmst)

10100. Introduction to Film Analysis. (=ARTH 20000, COVA 25300, ENGL 10800, ISHU 20000) This course introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres. Along with questions of film technique and style, we consider the notion of the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Films discussed include works by Hitchcock, Porter, Griffith, Eisenstein, Lang, Renoir, Sternberg, and Welles. Autumn, Spring.

15103. Film Noir. Film noir refers, most generally, to a range of films produced during the 1940s and 1950s in Hollywood that share distinct formal and ideological features. At the same time, it also signals a rich area of inquiry for academic film studies that has motivated new questions, debates and critical approaches. We think about noir as a group of films that seem to have within them the sorts of paradoxes that criticism gravitates toward. This course focus primarily upon noir titles made during the classical era, but pays attention to the cycle's literary and cinematic antecedents. We also discuss instances of "neo-noir" produced more recently. L. Carruthers. Winter.

17901. Color Cinema. This course surveys the aesthetic and technological history of color cinema. We explore cinema's relation to other color media (lantern slides, mass advertising, city lighting, painting, literature, stage design). Films surveyed range from early cinema (Annabelle Dances, The Red Spectre), narrative cinema of the 1920s (The Black Pirate, Lonesome), Technicolor of the 1930s (Becky Sharp), melodrama (Sirk), musicals (Minelli), European art cinemas and new waves (Ophuls, Godard, Antonioni), and experimental (Harry Smith, Oskar Fischinger, Len Lye). J. Yumibe. Winter.

20902/40902. Cinema and the Queer Avant-Garde, 1920 to 1950. Through the films and written work of Kenneth Macpherson and "the pool group" (e.g., Jean Cocteau, Parker Tyler [and Charles Henri Ford], Joseph Cornell), we construct a study of queer avant-garde practice and content between World War I and World War II. We also survey literary, artistic, religious, psychoanalytic, and other texts that influenced these artists' experimental practice and understandings of queer subjectivity. R. Gregg. Spring.

24602/34602. Post-Socialist Filmmaking in China Since 1990. (=EALC 24602/34602) Knowledge of Chinese not required. This class deals with post-socialist filmmaking in China after 1990, a fifteen-year period marked by profound ideological, socioeconomic, and cultural changes. Different modes of filmmaking have competed with each other and have generated a wide spectrum of representations and practices, and a new generation has emerged to claim critical attention at home and abroad. After a brief survey of competing modes and agencies, we move from the "fifth generation" to the "sixth generation" and beyond (e.g., the "new urban generation"). Directors studied in depth include Chen Kaige, Zhang Yuan, Guan Hu, Jiang Wen, Feng Xiaogang, Lou Ye, Dai Sijie, Li Yang, Jia Zhangke, and Zhang Yimou. All films with English subtitles; texts in English. Y. Zhang. Winter.

25102/35102. Narratives of Suspense in European and Russian Literature and Cinema. (=CMLT 22100, HUMA 26901/36901, ISHU 26901/36901, SLAV 26900/36900) The phenomenon of suspense is central to narrative and has broad implications for narrative theory. We examine its workings in readings by authors including A. Conan Doyle, R. L. Stevenson, Mary Shelley, Graham Greene, and Samuel Beckett. Special attention is given to suspense as a philosophical issue in the works of Fedor Dostoevsky. Consideration is also given to suspense in the cinema (i.e., Hitchcock, Godard, Bresson). Theoretical readings (i.e., Todorov, Barthes, Ricoeur) comprise a veritable introduction to narrative theory. Class discussion encouraged. R. Bird. Winter.

25201/45201. Cinema and the First Avant-Garde, 1890 to 1933. (=ARTH 25205, COVA 25201) PQ: CMST 10100 and 28500, or consent of instructor. This course explores the manner in which a number of movements (as well as the concept of the avant-garde more generally) have related to the cinema, both in practice and theory. Movements considered are Symbolism, Futurism (Italian and Russian), Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, and De Stil. The Cineclub movement and magazines dedicated to the film and the avant-garde are also studied. Readings include manifestos and documents from the various movements, as well as historical studies. Texts by Poggioli and Burger are also read. We show films by Bauer, Lang, Wiene, Bragaglia, Eisenstein, Ivens, Richter, Ruttmann, Vertov, Dulac, Epstein, and others. T. Gunning. Winter.

26701/36701. Jan Svankmajer and Contemporary Surrealism. (=CZEC 27900/37900, ISHU 27901/37901) The animator of Prague, Jan Svankmajer, is one of the greatest living advocates of Surrealism as a modus vivendi. This seminar-style course studies intensively his life work, from film shorts such as Dimensions of Dialogue to feature films like the recent Conspirators of Pleasure and Little Otik, to his "tactile poems" and collages. We also read interviews with Svankmajer and his colleagues, essays on contemporary Surrealism, and critical works on the theory of the "neo-avant-garde" and the cultural situation of avant-garde art in East/Central Europe. M. Sternstein. Spring.

26801. Antonioni's Films: Reality and Ambiguity. (=ARTH 28904, BPRO 26600, HUMA 26600) PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing. In this in-depth study of several Antonioni films, our eye is on understanding his view of reality and the elements of ambiguity that pervade all of his films. Together, as a film scholar and physicist, we bring out these aspects of his work together with his unique cinematic contributions. This course introduces students to this poet of the cinema and the relevance of Antonioni's themes to their own studies and their own lives. Y. Tsivian, B. Winstein. Winter. Not offered 2005-06; will be offered 2006-07.

27300/37300. Perspectives on Imaging. (=ARTH 26900/36900, BIOS 02927, BPRO 27000, HIPS 24801) PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing. Taught by an imaging scientist and an art historian, this course explores scientific, artistic, and cultural aspects of imaging from the earliest attempts to enhance and capture visual stimuli through the emergence of virtual reality systems in the late twentieth century. Topics include the development of early optical instruments (e.g., microscopes, telescopes), the invention of linear perspective, the discovery of means to visualize the invisible within the body, and the recent emergence of new media. We also consider the problem of instrumentally mediated seeing in the arts and sciences and its social implications for our image-saturated contemporary world. B. Stafford, P. La Riviere. Autumn. Not offered 2005-06; will be offered 2006-07.

27401. Cinema as Vernacular Modernism: An International Perspective. (=COVA 25301, ENGL 28701) This course focuses on an important direction in twentieth-century mainstream cinema that can be considered as a "vernacular" form of modernism, interacting with but also independent from modernist movements in the traditional media. We explore this idea beginning with a sample of Hollywood films (slapstick comedies, The Crowd, Lonesome, Gold Diggers of 1933, film noir) and responses to American cinema by artists and intellectuals, mostly European. We then look at examples from British, Soviet, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese cinema, asking how these films can be understood as both aesthetic expressions of and responses to the social and cultural experience of modernity and modernization (including the world-wide circulation of Hollywood films) in different local and global constellations. M. Hansen. Winter.

27600/37600. Beginning Photography. (=COVA 24000) PQ: COVA 10100 or 10200, or consent of instructor. Camera and light meter required. Photography affords a relatively simple and accessible means for making pictures. Demonstrations are used to introduce technical procedures and basic skills, and to begin to establish criteria for artistic expression. Possibilities and limitations inherent in the medium are topics of classroom discussion. We investigate the contemporary photograph in relation to its historical and social context. Course work culminates in a portfolio of works exemplary of the student's understanding of the medium. Field trips required. L. Letinsky, Winter; Staff, Autumn.

27701/37701. Advanced Black-and-White Photography. (=COVA 27802) PQ: COVA 10100 or 10200, and 24000 or 24100; or consent of instructor. Camera and light meter required. Students focus on a set of issues and ideas that expand upon their experience and knowledge, and that have particular relevance to them. All course work is directed toward the production of a cohesive body of black-and-white photographs. An investigation of contemporary and historic photographic issues informs the students' photographic practice and includes critical readings, as well as group and individual critiques. Visits to local exhibitions and darkroom work required. Lab fee $60. L. Letinsky. Spring.

27800/37800. Theories of Media. (=ARTH 25900/35900, COVA 25400, ENGL 12800/32800, ISHU 21800, MAPH 34300) PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course explores the concept of media and mediation in very broad terms, looking not only at modern technical media and mass media but also at the very idea of a medium as a means of communication, a set of institutional practices, and a habitat" in which images proliferate and take on a "life of their own." Readings include classic texts (e.g., Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Cratylus, Aristotle's Poetics); and modern texts (e.g., Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media, Regis Debray's Mediology, Friedrich Kittler's Gramaphone, Film, Typewriter). W. J. T. Mitchell. Winter.

27900/37900. Color Photography. (=COVA 27900) Course work is directed towards the investigation of color photographic materials, specifically with color negative film to make chromagenic prints. Students focus on a set of issues and ideas that expand upon their experience and knowledge. An investigation of contemporary and historic photographic issues informs the students' exploration, as does extensive darkroom work, gallery visits, and class and individual critiques. Visits to local exhibitions and darkroom work required. Lab fee $60. L. Letinsky. Spring.

28000. Documentary Video. (=COVA 23901) This course focuses on the making of independent documentary video. Examples of direct cinema, cinéma vérité, the essay, ethnographic film, the diary and self-reflexive cinema, historical and biographical film, agitprop/activist forms, and guerilla television are screened and discussed. Topics include the ethics and politics of representation and the shifting lines between fact and fiction. Labs explore video pre-production, camera, sound, and editing. Students develop an idea for a documentary video; form crews; and produce, edit, and screen a five-minute documentary. A two-hour lab is required in addition to class time. Lab fee $50. J. Hoffman. Autumn.

28001. Documentary Video: Production Techniques. (=COVA 23902) PQ: COVA 23901 or consent of instructor. This course focuses on the shaping and crafting of a nonfiction video. Students are expected to write a treatment detailing their project. Production techniques focus on the handheld camera versus tripod, interviewing and microphone placement, and lighting for the interview. Post-production covers editing techniques and distribution strategies. Students then screen final projects in a public space. Lab fee $50. J. Hoffman. Spring.

28100. Topics in Film Music (=MUSI 22900) This course explores the role of film music in the history of cinema. What role does music play as part of the narrative (source music) and as nondiegetic music (underscoring)? How does music of different styles and provenance contribute to the semiotic universe of film? And how did film music assume a central voice in twentieth-century culture? We study music composed for films (original scores) as well as pre-existent music (such as popular and classical music). The twenty films covered in the course may include classical Hollywood cinema, documentaries, foreign (including non-Western) films, experimental films, musicals, and cartoons. B. Hoeckner. Autumn.

28202/38200. Nonfiction Film: Representations and Performance. (=COVA 25100/35101) We attempt to define nonfiction cinema by looking at the history of its major modes (i.e., documentary, essay, ethnographic, and agit-prop film), as well as personal/autobiographical and experimental works that are less easily classifiable. We explore some of the theoretical discourses that surround this most philosophical of film genres. The relationship between the documentary and the state is examined in light of the genre's tendency to inform and instruct. Finally, we look at the ways in which distribution and television affect the production and content of nonfiction film. J. Hoffman. Autumn.

28301/38301. Dramaturgy. (=ENGL 11505/31505, GRMN 34100, ISHU 26100, MUSI 30704) This experimental seminar/workshop course considers the history and development of dramaturgy, including its conceptual foundations and pragmatic aspirations as well as what distinguishes a dramaturgy of theater, film, and opera. In order to clarify some of these generic considerations, the course focuses on multiple renderings of the same material (i.e., Macbeth as Elizabethan drama, nineteenth-century opera, various twentieth-century films). In addition to our more-or-less conventional academic analysis, students engage in dramaturgical practice(s) in writing and on stage. D. Levin. Not offered 2005-06; will be offered 2006-07.

28500/48500. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era. (=ARTH 28500/38500, CMLT 22400/32400, COVA 26500, ENGL 29300/47800, MAPH 33600) PQ: CMST 10100 must be taken before or concurrently with this course. This is the first part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. The aim of this course is to introduce students to what was singular about the art and craft of silent film. Its general outline is chronological. We also discuss main national schools and international trends of filmmaking. Y. Tsivian. Autumn.

28600/48600. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960. (=ARTH 28600/38600, CMLT 22500/32500, COVA 26600, ENGL 29600/48900, MAPH 33700) PQ: Prior or current registration in CMST 10100 required; CMST 28500/48500 strongly recommended. The center of this course is film style, from the classical scene breakdown to the introduction of deep focus, stylistic experimentation, and technical innovation (sound, wide screen, location shooting). The development of a film culture is also discussed. Texts include Thompson and Bordwell's Film History, an Introduction, and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, and Godard. Screenings include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir. Y. Tsivian. Winter.

28800. Digital Imaging. (=COVA 22500) PQ: COVA 10100 or 10200, or consent of instructor. Using the Macintosh platform, this course introduces the use of digital technology as a means of making visual art. Instruction covers the Photoshop graphics program as well as digital imaging hardware (i.e., scanners, storage, printing). In addition, we address problems of color, design, collage, and drawing. Topics of discussion may include questions regarding the mediated image and its relationship to art as well as the examination of what constitutes the "real" in contemporary culture. Lab fee $60. A. Ruttan. Autumn.

28900/38900. Video I: Beginning Video. (=COVA 23800) PQ: COVA 10100 or 10200, or consent of instructor. This course is an introduction to video making with digital cameras and nonlinear (digital) editing. Students produce a group of short works, which is contextualized by viewing and discussion of historical and contemporary video works. Video versus film, editing strategies, and appropriation are some of the subjects that are part of an ongoing conversation. Lab fee $60. Autumn.

28903. Video Workshop. (=COVA 23801) PQ: COVA 23800 or consent of instructor. This is a production course geared towards short experimental works and video within a studio art context. Screenings include recent works by Harrison and Wood, Fischli and Weiss, Martin Kersels, Jane and Louise Wilson, Halflifers, and Douglas Gordon. Discussions and readings address non-narrative strategies, rapidly changing technology, and viable approaches to producing video art in a world full of video images. Lab fee $60. Winter, Spring.

28904/38904. Video: Camera, Lights, Sound. (=COVA 23903) PQ: COVA 23800/23901 or consent of instructor. Previous video or film experience helpful but not required. This intensive laboratory explores differences between video formats, video, and film, as well as experiments with basic lighting design. The class is organized around a series of production situations, and students work in crews to understand modes of production. Each crew learns to operate and maintain the Panasonic AG-DVX100 24p camera; Bolex 16mm camera and Sachtler tripod; and Arri lights, gels, diffusion, and grip equipment. There will be additional workshops, field trips, and screenings. An additional lab outside of class time lab is required. Lab fee $50. J. Hoffman. Autumn.

29700. Reading and Research Course. PQ: Consent of faculty adviser and Director of Undergraduate Studies. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. This course may be used to satisfy distribution requirements for students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

29800. Senior Colloquium. PQ: CMST 10100. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies. This seminar is designed to provide fourth-year students with a sense of the variety of methods and approaches in the field (e.g., formal analysis, cultural history, industrial history, reception studies, psychoanalysis). Students present material related to their B.A. project, which is discussed in relation to the issues of the course. T. Gunning. Autumn.

29900. B.A. Research Paper. PQ: Consent of instructor. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Form. This course may not be counted toward distribution requirements for the major, but it may be counted as a free-elective credit. Autumn, Winter, Spring.