For more than a century, and across widely different cultures, film has been the primary medium for storytelling, depicting and exploring the world, and 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 understanding of forms of cultural production in relation to wider contexts, as well and 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.
The major is comprised of twelve courses (four required courses and eight elective courses) and a BA research paper.
History of International Cinema sequence CMST 28500 and 28600. This required two-quarter sequence covers the silent era (CMST 28500 History of International Cinema I: Silent Era) and the sound era to 1960 (CMST 28600 History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960), as well as major characteristics and developments of each. It is typically taught in Autumn and Winter Quarters. It should be completed by the end of the third year.
Of the eight remaining courses, five must either originate in or be cross listed with Cinema and Media Studies. Students must receive prior approval of the five courses that they choose, and they are encouraged to consider broad survey courses as well as those with more focused topics (e.g., courses devoted to a single genre, director, or national cinema). A course agreement form to be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies by fourth week of Autumn Quarter of the student's third year is available in G-B 418.
Although the other three courses may be taken outside Cinema and Media Studies, students must demonstrate their relevance to the study of cinema. For example, a group of courses could focus 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). A form to be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies by fourth week of Winter Quarter of the student's third year is available in G-B 418.
Before seventh week of Spring Quarter of their third year, students meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies to discuss the focus of their required BA project. Students begin reading and research during the summer. By the end of fourth week of the Autumn Quarter of their fourth year, students select a project adviser and prepare 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 BA 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. To be considered for this option, the student will submit a written proposal to the Director of Undergraduate Studies by the seventh week of Spring Quarter of the third year. Priority will be given to students who have completed three production classes (2 must originate in CMST) by the end of Autumn Quarter of their fourth year.
Students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies must receive a quality grade in all courses required for the major. With prior consent of instructor, nonmajors may take Cinema and Media Studies courses for P/F grading.
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 are eligible for honors. To receive honors, students must also write a BA research paper that 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.
A course agreement form to be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies by fourth week of Autumn Quarter of the student's third year is required to obtain approval of the five elective courses that must either originate in or be cross listed with Cinema and Media Studies. A form to be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies by fourth week of Winter Quarter of the student's fourth year is required to obtain approval of the three additional elective courses. Both forms are available in G-B 418. Members of the resource faculty typically teach courses that meet requirements for the three elective courses; students are encouraged to consult with them when making their selections. Core and resource faculty members are listed below.
Students who elect the minor program in Cinema and Media Studies must meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies before the end of the winter quarter of their third year to declare their intention to complete the minor.
Students choose courses for the Cinema and Media Studies minor in consultation with the CMS Director of Undergraduate Studies. The Director's approval of the minor program should be submitted to a student's College adviser no later than the end of spring quarter of a student's third year. Approval forms are obtained from the Director of Undergraduate Studies, or the College adviser.
Courses in the minor (1) may not be double counted with the student's major(s) or with other minors; (2) may not be counted toward general education requirements. All classes toward the minor must be taken for quality grades, and more than half of the requirements for the minor must be met by registering for courses bearing University of Chicago course numbers.
Courses
CMST 10100. Introduction to Film Analysis. 100 Units.
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
Terms Offered: Autumn, Spring
Note(s): Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 20000,ENGL 10800,ARTV 25300
CMST 20101. Women Mystery Writers: From Page to Screen. 100 Units.
Many distinguished filmmakers have found inspiration in mystery novels written by women. This course is a reading of novels by Patricia Highsmith (Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley's Game) and Ruth Rendell (Tree of Hands, The Bridesmaid, Live Flesh). Time permitting, we also read Laura by Vera Caspary, Bunny Lake Is Missing by Evelyn Piper, and Mischief by Charlotte Armstrong. We also analyze the films based on these novels, directed by such luminaries as Hitchcock, Chabrol, Caviani, Clément, Wenders, Almodóvar, and Preminger. Topics include techniques of film adaptation; transnational dislocations from page to screen; the problematics of gender; and the transformations of "voice," understood both literally and mediatically
Instructor(s): R. West
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 30101,GNDR 20202,GNDR 30202
CMST 20202. Feminist Theory and Counter-Cinema. 100 Units.
Feminism in Great Britain, France, and America has produced a rigorous intellectual, theoretical, and aesthetic legacy within the field of film studies. This course will explore the central debates of feminist psychoanalytic film theory (the patriarchal unconscious; Hollywood narrative; the gaze; genre; visual/female pleasure; masochism; the female spectator; resistant spectators) and criticism as we also integrate the contemporary movement of feminist historiography into our central mode of inquiry. The theoretical debates surrounding the critique of language, the question of feminine writing, cin™criture, and the female author will inform our investigation of the radical aesthetics of feminist counter cinema. Films include: Queen Christina, Orlando, Craig’s Wife, Le Bonheur, Vertigo, Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Mahogany, Salomé , Fuses, Riddles of the Sphynx, Film About a Woman Who..., Jeanne Dielman, Tapage Nocturne, Sex Is Comedy
Instructor(s): J. Wild
CMST 21801. Chicago Film History. 100 Units.
Students in this course screen and discuss films to consider whether there is a Chicago style of filmmaking. We trace how the city informs documentary, educational, industrial, narrative feature, and avant-garde films. If there is a Chicago style of filmmaking, one must look at the landscape of the city; and the design, politics, cultures, and labor of its people, as well as how they live their lives. The protagonists and villains in these films are the politicians and community organizers, our locations are the neighborhoods, and the set designers are Mies van der Rohe and the Chicago Housing Authority
Instructor(s): J. Hoffman
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 31801,ARTV 26750,ARTV 36750,HMRT 25104,HMRT 35104
CMST 21900. American Cinema Since 1961. 100 Units.
The year 1960 is commonly understood as a watershed in U.S. film history, marking the end of the so-called "classical" Hollywood cinema. We discuss this assumption in terms of the break-up of the studio system; the erosion of the Production Code; the crisis of audience precipitated by television's mass spread; and the changing modes of film reception, production, and style under the impact of video, cable, and other electronic communication technologies. We also relate cinema to social and political issues of the post-1960s period and ask how films reflected upon and intervened in contested areas of public and private experience. With the help of the concept of "genre" (and the changed "genericity" of 1980s and 1990s films) and of the notion of "national cinema" (usually applied to film traditions other than the United States), we attempt a dialogue between industrial/stylistic and cultural-studies approaches to film history
Instructor(s): J. Hoffman
Prerequisite(s): Background in cinema studies or prior film course(s)
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 28702
CMST 23000. Neorealism: Space, Culture, History. 100 Units.
Following the traumatic devastations of Fascism, the physical and moral collapse of World War II, filmmakers such as Rossellini, Visconti, and De Sica (to cite only the most famous) offered the most immediate and influential responses to reconstruction of postwar Europe. Neorealism thus became a model for the renewal of cinemas everywhere, binding a new ethic and aesthetic of filmmaking in ways that remain exemplary for other nations and minorities to this day. In its renewed exploration of space and location, temporality and history, neorealism was also a central reference for artists, architects, and writers. This course will interlace key neorealist feature films with lesser known works, including documentaries and shorts, offering fresh perspectives on one of the most influential movements in film history. All readings in English
Instructor(s): N. Steimatsky
CMST 23001. From La Dolce Vita to the Murder of Pasolini. 100 Units.
This course explores an intensely productive, stormy, even delirious period in Italian film culture between 1960 and 1975. In that era the material and social transformations effected by the economic boom, the marketing of Italy’s luxury image, the student movements, and the rise of left and right wing terrorism provoked some of the richest, most innovative work by such filmmakers as Antonioni, Pasolini, Bellocchio, Leone, among others. This Italian "New Wave," distinct from its French counterpart, responded to a host of political and cultural imperatives through new visions of urban space, of social and sexual mores, the relation of "high" and "low," and revisitations of the past both near and distant. These and related questions bound up with film culture and aesthetics we shall discuss in light of both monumental and lesser-known works. All readings in English
Instructor(s): N. Steimatsky
CMST 23202. Rome in Literature and Film. 100 Units.
We analyze films and fictional works that reflect both realities and myths about the "Eternal City," Rome. Classical Rome is not studied; instead, the focus is on a trajectory of works, both written and cinematic, that are set in and explore late nineteenth- to late twentieth-century Rome. The goal is to analyze some of the numerous diverse representations of modern Rome that portray historical, political, subjective, and/or fantastical/mythopoetic elements that have interacted over time to produce the palimpsest that is the city of Rome. Books by D'Annunzio, Moravia, Pasolini. and Malerba; films by Fellini, Visconti, Rossellini, Bertolucci, Pasolini, and Moretti. Classes conducted in English; Italian majors and minors read the texts in the original
Instructor(s): R. West
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 23203,ITAL 33203,CMST 32302
CMST 23404. French Cinema, 1920s-1930s. 100 Units.
In our study of two decades in the history of French cinema, we will track the rise of the poetic realist style from the culture of experimentation that was alive in both the French film industry and its surrounding artistic and literary landscape. As an exercise in the excavation of a history of film style, we will consider the salient features of the socio-political, cultural, theoretical, and critical landscape that define the emergence and the apex of poetic realism, and that reveal it as a complicated nexus in the history of film aesthetics. Main texts by Dudley Andrew and Richard Abel will accompany a wide range of primary texts. Films by Epstein, L’Herbier, Buñuel, Dulluc, Dulac, Gance, Clair, Vigo, Feyder, Renoir, Duvivier, Allégret, Carné, Grémillon
Instructor(s): J. Wild
Note(s): This class is cross-listed with the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and may be accompanied by a French language section.
CMST 23700. La Nouvelle Vague/The French New Wave. 100 Units.
Neither a coherent movement nor a precise style, La Nouvelle Vague was nonetheless a watershed moment in the history of modernism. In this class, we will study the French New Wave’s emergence from the context of post WWII modernization and Existentialism, cinephilia, film criticism, and theory. With an examination of canonical and lesser-known films (1950-early 1970s), we will pursue our study from the standpoint of cinematic ontology and French cultural and political history. We shall explore how this cinema considerably expanded the parameters of modern art practice and intellectual thought as well as redirected assumptions surrounding the medium’s formal and philosophic capacities. Films by Rohmer, Rivette, Truffaut, Godard, Eustache, Varda, Raynal, Chabrol, Rouch, Resnais, Garrel, and others
Instructor(s): J. Wild
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 29112
CMST 23801. Bresson Against Cinema. 100 Units.
Robert Bresson is one of the most ambitious, most enigmatic filmmakers. In an era of reflexive, ironic post-classical cinema, it sometimes seemed as though he sought to ignore film history altogether, to defy its habits and conventions – to re-invent the medium in his own terms. Yet Bresson delves deeply into questions of cinema as a mode of perception, of knowledge and belief, as a way to explore social being and singularity: the individual inextricably, often tragically bound in the transactions of modern life. In this course we will consider Bresson’s sources, his modes of narration, the relation of text and image, visual style and sound practice; we will seek to define the special mode of attention that his films command. All readings are in English
Instructor(s): N. Steimatsky
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 23801,FREN 33801
CMST 23904. Senior Creative Thesis Workshop. 100 Units.
This seminar will focus on how to craft a creative thesis in film or video. Works-in-progress will be screened each week, and technical and structural issues relating to the work will be explored. The workshop will also develop the written portion of the creative thesis. The class is limited to seniors from CMS and DOVA, and MAPH students working on a creative thesis
Instructor(s): J. Hoffman Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): CMST 23930; CMST 23931; departmental approval of senior creative thesis project.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 23904,ARTV 33904
CMST 23930. Documentary Production I. 100 Units.
This class is intended to develop skills in documentary production so that students may apply for Documentary Production II. Documentary Production I focuses on the making of independent documentary video. Examples of various styles of documentary will be screened and discussed. Issues embedded in the documentary genre, such as the ethics and politics of representation and the shifting lines between fact and fiction will be explored. Pre-production methodologies, production, and post-production techniques will be taught. Students will be expected to develop an idea for a documentary video, crews will be formed, and each crew will produce a five-minute documentary. Students will also be expected to purchase an external hard drive
Instructor(s): J. Hoffman
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent enrollment in CMST 10100 is strongly recommended.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 23930
CMST 23931. Documentary Production II. 100 Units.
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. Postproduction covers editing techniques and distribution strategies. Students then screen final projects in a public space
Instructor(s): J. Hoffman
Prerequisite(s): CMST 23930/ARTV 23930
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 23931,ARTV 33931,CMST 33931
CMST 24201. Cinema in Africa. 100 Units.
This course examines cinema in Africa and films produced in Africa. It places cinema in SubSaharan Africa in its social, cultural, and aesthetic contexts ranging from neocolonial to postcolonial, Western to Southern Africa, documentary to fiction, and art cinema to TV. We begin with La Noire de... (1966), a groundbreaking film by the "father" of African cinema, Ousmane Sembene. We compare this film to a South African film, The Magic Garden (1960), that more closely resembles African American musical film. Other films discussed in the first part of the course include anti-colonial and anti-apartheid films from Lionel Rogosin's Come Back Africa (1959) to Sarah Maldoror's Sambizanga, Ousmane Sembene's Camp de Thiaroye (1984), and Jean Marie Teno's Afrique, Je te Plumerai (1995). We then examine cinematic representations of tensions between urban and rural, traditional and modern life, and the different implications of these tensions for men and women, Western and Southern Africa, in fiction, documentary and ethnographic film
Instructor(s): L. Kruger
Prerequisite(s): Prior college-level course in either African studies or film studies
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 48601,AFAM 21900,CMST 34201,CMLT 22900,CMLT 42900,ENGL 27600,CRES 24201,CRES 34201
CMST 24203. Before and after Beckett: Theater and Film. 100 Units.
Beckett is conventionally typed as the playwright of minimalist scenes of unremitting bleakness. But his experiments with theater and film echo the irreverent play of popular culture (vaudeville on stage and film, including Chaplin and Keaton) and the artistic avant-garde (Dreyer in film; Jarry and Artaud in theater). This course juxtaposes this early twentieth-century work with Beckett's plays on stage and screen, as well as those of his contemporaries (Ionesco, Duras) and successors. Contemporary authors depend on availability but may include Vinaver, Minyana, and Lagarce (France); Pinter and Greenaway (England); and Foreman and Wellman (United States). Theoretical work may include texts by Artaud, Barthes, Derrida, Josette Feral, Peggy Phelan, and Bert States
Instructor(s): L. Kruger
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing, and at least one prior course in modern drama or film
Note(s): Working knowledge of French helpful but not required.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 24401,ENGL 44506,CMST 44203
CMST 24508. Decolonizing Drama and Performance in Africa. 100 Units.
This course examines the connections among dramatic writing, theatrical practice, and theoretical reflection on decolonization primarily in Africa and the Caribbean in the twentieth century. Authors (many of whom write theory and theater) may include Aima Aidoo, Fatima Dike, Aime Cesaire, Franz Fanon, Fernandez Retamar, Athol Fugard, Biodun Jeyifo, Were Liking, Mustafa Matura, Jose Marti, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Kwame Nkrumah, Wole Soyinka, and Derek Walcott. Texts in English, French, and/or Spanish
Instructor(s): L. Kruger
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing and prior course in either theater or African studies. Working knowledge of French and/or Spanish is required for Comparative Literature status and recommended, but not required, for other students.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 44508
CMST 24606. China’s New Documentary Cinema. 100 Units.
Since the early 1990s, the "new documentary" has emerged as one of the most prominent phenomena in Chinese film and video, widely circulating at international film festivals and eliciting considerable critical debate. This course examines the styles and functions of China’s "new documentary" over the last fifteen years, paying particular attention to the institutional, cultural, economic, and political conditions that underpin its flourishing. This overview will lead us to consider questions that concern the recent explosion of the documentary form worldwide, and to explore the tensions and imbalances that characterize the global circulation of the genre. We will address such issues as: what is "new" about China’s recent documentary cinema; the "national" and "transnational" dimensions of documentary filmmaking, and the ways in which these dimensions intersect in its production and circulation; the extent to which the international demand for "unofficial" images from China has contributed to its growth; the politics involved in documentary filmmaking, and the forms and meanings of "independent" cinema in the wake of intensified globalization; the links between Chinese documentary and the global rise of documentary filmmaking, and the ways in which they challenge extant concepts and theorizations of the genre
Instructor(s): P. Iovene
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 34607
CMST 24611. Cities in Sinophone Cinemas. 100 Units.
From the treaty port of Shanghai to the imperial capital of Beijing, from the pre-colonized city of Taipei to the floating city of Hong Kong, and from an anonymous city in inland China to global Chinatowns, cities in Chinese-language cinemas at once reflect and participate in the historical transformations of modern China and the negotiation between national, local and cosmopolitan identities. Meanwhile, throughout its history, the motion-picture medium has shown an affinity with the city as an audio-visual ensemble, which in turn has provided constant inspiration for cinematic experimentation. Taking the chronotope of the sinophone city as an entry point, this course participates in both the on-going discussion of cinematic cities and the emerging discourse on the phonic articulation and visual mediation of a global sinophone culture. No knowledge of Chinese is required
Instructor(s): X. Dong
CMST 24701. Left-Wing Art and Soviet Film Culture of the 1920s. 100 Units.
This course considers Soviet "montage cinema" of the 1920s in the context of coeval aesthetic projects in other arts. How did Eisenstein's theory and practice of "intellectual cinema" connect to Fernand Leger and Vladimir Tatlin? What did Meyerhold's "biomechanics" mean for filmmakers? Among other figures and issues, we address Dziga Vertov and Constructivism, German Expressionism and Aleksandr Dovzhenko, and Formalist poetics and FEKS directors. Film screenings are three hours a week in addition to scheduled class time
Instructor(s): Y. Tsivian
CMST 25201. Cinema and the First Avant-Garde, 1890-1933. 100 Units.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 45201,ARTH 25205,ARTV 25201
CMST 25501. Poetic Cinema. 100 Units.
Films are frequently denoted as "poetic" or "lyrical" in a vague sort of way. It has been applied equally to religious cinema and to the experimental avant-garde. Our task will be to interrogate this concept and to try to define what it actually is denoting. Films and critical texts will mainly be drawn from Soviet and French cinema of the 1920s-1930s and 1960s-1990s. Directors include Dovzhenko, Renoir, Cocteau, Resnais, Maya Deren, Tarkovsky, Pasolini, Jarman, and Sokurov. In addition to sampling these directors' own writings, we shall examine theories of poetic cinema by major critics from the Russian formalists to Andre Bazin beyond
Instructor(s): R. Bird
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 35501, SLAV 29001,SLAV 39001
CMST 25514. Symbolism and Cinema. 100 Units.
In his 1896 essay on cinema, Russian writer Maxim Gorky described the new medium to "madness or symbolism." The connection between cinema and symbolism was not surprising insofar as symbolism was a dominant aesthetic paradigm throughout Europe at the time. However it does suggest (perhaps surprisingly) that from the very beginning cinema was seen as a means of visualizing the non-rational, uncanny and even invisible. This course examines the relationship between symbolism and cinema with particular attention to French and Russian writings and films. Examining how symbolist aesthetics became applied to the cinematic medium, we will pay particular attention the resources it provided for conceptualizing the uncanny and the mystical. We will question whether there exists a distinct symbolist tradition in film history and how it relates to notions of poetic or experimental cinema. Films will represent a broad cross-section of European (and some American) cinema, from Jean Epstein to Sergei Eisenstein and Alexander Dovzhenko, and from Stan Brakhage to Andrei Tarkovsky
Instructor(s): R. Bird
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 26500
CMST 27201. Zizek on Film. 100 Units.
Slavoj Zizek has used film as the great expositor of his theories of ideology, perversion, sexuality, politics, nostalgia, and otherness. In this discussion-heavy course we will watch a lot of film from the directorial subjects of his main discussions (Chaplin; Rossellini; Lynch; Haneke; Kieślowski; Tarkovsky; von Trier; Hitchcock and others) alongside Zizek’s theoretical writings on their film. The course examines why for the man who has been called the "Elvis of cultural theory" film is such a perfect lens through which to examine social situatedness and intersubjective "aporia." There is no "paperwork" assigned for the course. The course is conducted seminar style and participants are expected to be vocal, prepared, and somewhat ornery
Instructor(s): M. Sternstein
CMST 27402. The Modern Body and the Cinema. 100 Units.
From the late nineteenth-century motion studies of Marey and Muybridge, to the abstract spectacle of Loie Fuller's Serpentine Dance, to the slapstick comedies of Chaplin or Jean Durand, to early medical films, or the face of Maria Falconetti projected twenty five feet tall in close-up, early and silent cinema present a range of technological and aesthetic terms for a history of modern figuration. This class uses the body as a point of entry to an exploration of film aesthetics (from early cinema to post-WWII) in order to discuss how cinematographic temporality, spatiality, plasticity, materiality and hapticality underwrite the stakes of modern human figuration, expressivity, and even stardom within the context of modernity, war, and modernism. Films, among others, by Méliés, Chaplin, Keaton, Deed, Léger, Lang, Dreyer, Riefenstahl, Tati, Bresson, Maas, Ono, Brakhage, Denis
Instructor(s): J. Wild
CMST 27600. Introduction to Black and White Film Photography. 100 Units.
Photography is a familiar medium due to its ubiquitous presence in our visual world, including popular culture and personal usage. In this course, students learn technical procedures and basic skills related to the 35mm camera, black and white film, and print development. They also begin to establish criteria for artistic expression. We investigate photography in relation to its historical and social context in order to more consciously engage the photograph's communicative and expressive possibilities. Course work culminates in a portfolio of works exemplary of the student's understanding of the medium. Field trips required
Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100 or 10200, or consent of instructor
Note(s): Camera and light meter required.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 37600,ARTV 24000,ARTV 34000
CMST 27602-27702. Photography I-II.
The goal of this course is to foster investigations and explorations of students in photography (e.g., refine their craft in black and white or color, with a different format camera, or by utilizing light-sensitive materials). Students pursue a line of artistic inquiry by participating in a process that involves experimentation, reading, gallery visits, critiques, and discussions, but mostly by producing images. Primary emphasis is placed upon the visual articulation of the ideas of students through their work, as well as the verbal expression of their ideas in class discussions, critiques, and artist’s statements
CMST 27602. Photography I. 100 Units.
Instructor(s): L. Letinsky
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300, and 24000
Note(s): Camera and light meter required. Courses taught concurrently and can be repeated as part of an ongoing, developing photographic project.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 37602,ARTV 24401,ARTV 34401
CMST 27702. Photography II. 100 Units.
Instructor(s): L. Letinsky
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300, and 24000
Note(s): Camera and light meter required. Courses taught concurrently and can be repeated as part of an ongoing, developing photographic project.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 37702,ARTV 24402,ARTV 34402
CMST 27800. Theories of Media. 100 Units.
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 Gramophone, Film, Typewriter). We also look at recent films (e.g., The Matrix, eXistenZ) that project fantasies of a world of total mediation and hyperreality. Course requirements include one "show and tell" presentation that introduces a specific medium
Instructor(s): W. J .T. Mitchell
Prerequisite(s): Any 10000-level ARTH or ARTV course, or consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 25900,ARTH 35900,CMST 37800,ENGL 12800,ENGL 32800,ARTV 25400,AMER 30800
CMST 28100. Issues in Film Music. 100 Units.
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 (e.g., popular and classical music). The twenty films covered in the course may include classical Hollywood cinema, documentaries, foreign (e.g., non-Western) films, experimental films, musicals, and cartoons
Instructor(s): B. Hoeckner
Note(s): This course typically is offered in alternate years.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 38100,MUSI 22901,MUSI 30901
CMST 28200. Nonfiction Film: Representations and Performance. 100 Units.
This course attempts to define nonfiction cinema by looking at the history of its major modes (e.g., documentary, essay, ethnographic, agitprop 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 (e.g., ethics and politics of representation; shifting lines between fact and fiction, truth and reality). The relationship between the documentary and the state is examined in light of the genre's tendency to inform and instruct. We consider the tensions of filmmaking and the performative aspects in front of the lens, as well as the performance of the camera itself. Finally, we look at the ways in which distribution and television effect the production and content of nonfiction film
Instructor(s): J. Hoffman
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 38200,HMRT 25101,ARTV 25100,ARTV 35100,HMRT 35101
CMST 28201. Political Documentary Film. 100 Units.
This course explores the political documentary film, its intersection with historical and cultural events, and its opposition to Hollywood and traditional media. We will examine various documentary modes of production, from films with a social message, to advocacy and activist film, to counter-media and agit-prop. We will also consider the relationship between the filmmaker, film subject and audience, and how political documentaries are disseminated and, most importantly, part of political struggle
Instructor(s): J. Hoffman
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 38201,DOVA 28204,DOVA 38204
CMST 28500-28600. History of International Cinema I-II.
This sequence is required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies. Taking these courses in sequence is strongly recommended but not required
CMST 28500. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era. 100 Units.
This course introduces 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
Instructor(s): J. Lastra Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent enrollment in CMST 10100. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): This is the first part of a two-quarter course.
Equivalent Course(s): 3ARTH 28500,ARTH 38500,CMLT 22400,CMLT 32400,CMST 48500,ENGL 29300,ENGL 48700,MAPH3600,ARTV 26500,ARTV 36500
CMST 28600. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960. 100 Units.
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
Instructor(s): Y. Tsivian Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent registration in CMST 10100 required. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): CMST 28500/48500 strongly recommended
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 28600,ARTH 38600,CMLT 22500,CMLT 32500,CMST 48600,ENGL 29600,ENGL 48900,MAPH 33700,ARTV 26600
CMST 28800. Introduction to Digital Imaging. 100 Units.
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 and digital imaging hardware (i.e., scanners, cameras, 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
Instructor(s): J. Salavon
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100 or 10200, and consent of instructor
Note(s): Lab fee $70.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 22500,ARTV 32500
CMST 28900. Introduction to Video. 100 Units.
This course introduces 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
Instructor(s): C. Sullivan
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200 or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 38900,ARTV 23800,ARTV 33800
CMST 28903. Video. 100 Units.
This is a production course geared towards short experimental works and video within a studio art context
Instructor(s): C. Sullivan
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 23800 or consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 38903,ARTV 23801,ARTV 33801
CMST 28920. Introduction to Film Production. 100 Units.
This intensive lab introduces 16mm film production, experimenting with various film stocks and basic lighting designs. The class is organized around a series of production situations with students working in crews. Each crew learns to operate and maintain the 16mm Bolex film camera and tripod, as well as Arri lights, gels, diffusion, and grip equipment. The final project is an in-camera edit
Instructor(s): J. Hoffman
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent enrollment in CMST 10100
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 23850,ARTV 33850,CMST 38920,HMRT 25102,HMRT 35102
CMST 29700. Reading and Research Course. 100 Units.
Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): Consent of faculty adviser and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Form. This course may be counted toward distribution requirements for the major.
CMST 29800. Senior Colloquium. 100 Units.
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 BA project, which is discussed in relation to the issues of the course
Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): CMST 10100. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
CMST 29900. BA Research Paper. 0 Units.
Terms Offered: Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Form. This course may not be counted toward requirements for the major or as a free-elective credit.
