SMITH COLLEGE
FIVE COLLEGE FILM COURSE GUIDE for SPRING 2010
Updated 11/2/09
FILM STUDIES 351 FILM THEORY
Alexandra Keller
T 01:00-02:50, Seelye 312
This seminar will explore
central currents in film theory, including formalist, realist, auteurist, structuralist,
psychoanalytic, feminist, poststructuralist, genre studies, queer studies and
cultural studies approaches to questions regarding the nature, function, and
possibilities of cinema. Film theory
readings will be understood through the socio-cultural context in which they
are developed. Particular attention will
also be given to the history of film theory: how theories exist in conversation
with each other, as well as how other intellectual and cultural theories
influence the development, nature and mission of theories of the moving
image. We will emphasize written texts (Bazin, Eisenstein, Kracauer, Vertov, Metz, Mulvey, DeLauretis, Doty, Hall, Cahiers du Cinema, the Dogme Collective, etc.), but will also look at
instantiations of film theory that are themselves acts of cinema (Man with a Movie Camera, Rock Hudson’s Home
Movies, The Meeting of Two Queens).
The course is designed as an advanced introduction and assumes no prior
exposure to film theory. Fulfills film theory requirement for the major and minor.
Enrollment limited to 12.
Prerequisite: 200 or the
equivalent. Priority
given to Smith College Film Studies Minors and Five College Film Studies
Majors. Priority given to seniors, then juniors. {A} 4 credits
Undergraduate UMass Film
Studies Certificate category: IIA, IV
Five College Film Studies
Major category:
3, 7
FILM STUDIES 241: GENRE/PERIOD: GLOBAL CINEMA AFTER
WORLD WAR II
Alexandra Keller
TTh10:30AM-11:50AM,
W7:00PM-11:00PM, SEELYE 201; SEELYE 201
Credits: 4 {A}{H}
Topics course.
This course examines national
film movements after the Second World War. The post-war period was a time of
increasing globalization, which brought about a more interconnected and
international film culture. But it was also a time during which certain key
national cinemas defined, or redefined, themselves as national cinemas. We will
investigate both of these trends, as well as focus on the work and influence of
significant directors and landmark films, emphasizing not only cultural
specificity, but also crosscultural and transhistorical concerns. Films and film movements to be
examined will include: Italian Neo-realism, French New Wave, New German Cinema,
Brazilian Cinema Novo, Chinese Fifth Generation, Hong Kong Action Cinema, and
the films of Ousmane Sembene,
Thomas Gutierrez Alea, Satyajit
Ray, Akira Kurosawa, Julie Dash, and Spike Lee.
Undergraduate UMass Film
Studies Certificate category: IIB
Five College Film Studies
Major category: 2
FILM STUDIES 241: GENRE/PERIOD: SCREEN COMEDY
Jefferson Hunter
WF11:00AM-12:10PM,
TTh7:00PM-9:00PM, SEELYE 201; SEELYE 201
Credits: 4 {A} Topics
course.
Lectures, with occasional
discussion, on film comedies from a variety of places and times: American
screwball comedies and British Ealing comedies;
battles of the sexes; the silent or non-verbal comedy of Chaplin, Keaton, and
Jacques Tati; parodies of other film genres;
political satire; musical comedy; adaptations of comic novels; fast-talking
comedy by the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, Woody Allen, and Howard Hawks; and
to sum things up, Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles
of a Summer Night. Some attention to animated cartoons;
occasional readings in film criticism, film history, and the theory of comedy.
Prerequisite: a college course in film or literature, or permission of the
instructor.
Undergraduate UMass Film
Studies Certificate category: IIB
Five College Film Studies
Major category: 4, 6
FILM STUDIES 280: INTRODUCTION TO VIDEO PRODUCTION:
FIRST PERSON DOCUMENTARY
Bernadine Mellis
Spring 2010
M1:10PM-4:00PM, T7:00PM-9:00PM;
SEELYE 201; HILLYR L15
Credits: 4 {A}
Introduction to Video
Production: First Person Documentary
This introductory video
production course will emphasize documentary filmmaking from the first-person
point of view. We will use our own
stories as material, but we will look beyond self-expression, using video to
explore places where our lives intersect with larger historical, economic,
environmental, or social forces. We will develop our own voices while learning
the vocabulary of moving images and gaining production and post-production
technical training. Through in-class
critiques, screenings, readings and discussion, students will explore the
aesthetics and practice of the moving image while developing their own original
projects.
This is a beginning course
that will cover the basics of shooting, lighting, audio, and digital editing.
Prerequisite: 200 (which may be taken concurrently). Priority
given to Smith College Film Studies Minors and Five College Film Studies
Majors. Permission of the instructor required. Enrollment limited to 13.
Undergraduate UMass Film
Studies Certificate category: V
Five College Film Studies
Major category:
8
PENDING CAP
APPROVAL. This introductory video
production course will emphasize documentary filmmaking from the first-person
point of view. We will use our own stories as material, but we will look beyond
self-expression, using video to explore places where our lives intersect with
larger historical, economic, environmental, or social forces. We will develop
our own voices while learning the vocabulary of moving images and gaining
production and post-production technical training. Through in-class critiques,
screenings, readings and discussion, students will explore the aesthetics and
practice of the moving image while developing their own original projects.
Prerequisite: FLS200 Introduction to Film Studies. Enrollment limited to 12. Priority given the Five College Film Studies majors. (E)
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 266: SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE
AND FILM
Katwiwa Mule
TTh1:00PM-2:50PM, location TBA
Credits: 4 {L}
A study of
South African literature and film since 1948 in their historical, social, and
political contexts. How do writers
and film makers of different racial and political backgrounds remember and
represent the past? How do race, class, gender, and ethnicity shape the ways in
which they use literature and cinema to confront and resist the racist
apartheid state? How do literature, film, and other texts such as testimonies
from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission function as complex cultural and
political sites for understanding the interconnections among apartheid
taxonomies, various forms of nationalisms, and the often hollow post-apartheid
discourse of non-racial "New South Africa?" Texts include testimonies
from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, novels such as Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country, Mazisi Kunene's Mandela's
Ego, Njabulo Ndebele's The Cry of Winnie Mandela, Nadine Gordimer's July's
People, J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for
the Barbarians, Athol Fugard's Tsotsi and Zoe Wicomb's You Can't
Get Lost in Cape Town. We will also analyze films such as Cry the Beloved Country, Sarafina!, Tsotsi, Cry
Freedom, and South Africa Belongs to
Us. (E)
Undergraduate UMass Film
Studies Certificate category: IIB
Five College Film Studies
Major category:
5
FRENCH 244: FRENCH CINEMA: "ON THE MOVE":
RESTLESSNESS IN FRENCH CINEMA
Martine Gantrel-Ford
TTh10:30AM-11:50AM, M7:30PM-9:30PM , location TBA
Credits: 4 {A}{F} Topics course.
Topics
course. Even before the 'road
movie' became a cinematic genre, the French New Wave made restlessness its
signature theme. In the first half of the term, we will explore how the French
New Wave used restlessness both as a theme and a narrative device to frame the
existential quest and the crisis of meaning experienced by its young and
attractive protagonists. In the second half of the semester, we will
investigate the new meanings today's cinema has put on restlessness and the
various ways in which it has built upon the formal innovations of the New Wave. Works by directors such as
Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnes Varda,
Claire Denis, and Manuel Poirier. Readings in film
criticism and film history. Students will be encouraged to develop a
specifically cinematic discourse through close analysis of individual films.
Papers and weekly screenings required. Course taught in French. Prerequisite:
FRN 230 or permission of instructor.
Undergraduate UMass Film
Studies Certificate category: IIB
Five College Film Studies
Major category:
5, 6
PSYCHOLOGY 314: SEM IN FOUNDATIONS OF BEHAVIOR:
COGNITION IN FILM
Maryjane Wraga
W2:10PM-4:00PM , location TBA
Credits: 4 {N} Topics
course.
This seminar explores the
cognitive processes underlying human perception and comprehension of film, the
techniques film makers use to capitalize on these processes, as well as the
general portrayal of cognition by film makers. We will read and discuss
empirical articles and view relevant examples of film. Topics range from change
blindness and apparent motion to various depictions of amnesia in 20th century
film. Prerequisite: PSY 218 or PSY 219 or permission of the instructor.
Undergraduate UMass Film
Studies Certificate category: IV, V
Five College Film Studies
Major category:
7
THEATER 318 MOVEMENTS IN DESIGN: PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR FILM
Prof. Edward Check echeck@smith.edu Cap 12
M, W 10:00-11:50AM, Mendenhall CPA, room
T109
Filmmaking is storytelling.
This story can be told by the actors or by its visuals. Every film employs a
production designer who, with the director and cinematographer, is in charge of
the visual design of the film. In this class we will learn how a production designer breaks down a script to determine
which scenes should be shot on location and which should be built as sets. Each
student will then make design choices for the entire script. Whether picking
out locations or creating sets to be shot on a soundstage, this class will
examine what makes one design choice better than another. Students will also
learn the basic skills to communicate their designs through storyboards, model
building and drafting. Enrollment limited to 12 students. {A} 4 credits
Undergraduate UMass Film
Studies Certificate category: V
Five College Film Studies
Major category:
8