Full list of requirements. Here is a list of the core courses that a student must take to obtain the Film Studies Major as a concentration under BDIC:
FILM-ST 170 - Introduction to Film Analysis: Cinematic Time Travel
Instructor: Barry Spence
NOTE: This is a combined course, and can be enrolled under either COMP-LIT 170 or FILM-ST 197FA.
This is an introduction to film studies and to the analysis of film. The course explores the complex nature and cultural function of cinema by focusing on time travel as both a central theme of a wide range of films and as a way of understanding how cinema works as a time-based medium. By studying films from various points in the global history of cinema - including films from nine countries and five continents - this course performs a transcultural introduction to the formal and stylistic aspects of cinematic storytelling. (Gen. Ed. AT)
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: I, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: Counts for pre-major introductory course requirement
COMP-LIT 170 - Introduction to Film Analysis: Cinematic Time Travel
Instructor: Barry Spence
NOTE: This is a combined course, and can be enrolled under either COMP-LIT 170 or FILM-ST 197FA.
This is an introduction to film studies and to the analysis of film. The course explores the complex nature and cultural function of cinema by focusing on time travel as both a central theme of a wide range of films and as a way of understanding how cinema works as a time-based medium. By studying films from various points in the global history of cinema - including films from nine countries and five continents - this course performs a transcultural introduction to the formal and stylistic aspects of cinematic storytelling. (Gen. Ed. AT)
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: I, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: Counts for pre-major introductory course requirement
COMM 140 - Introduction to Film Studies
Instructor: Shawn Shimpach
3 Credits
NOTE: Open to Sophomores & Freshmen only
This course is designed to provide introduction to the nature and functions of film in its narrative, documentary, and experimental forms. We will look at the various components of film expression (composition, movement, editing, sound, production design, acting), developments in screen narrative, film's relationship to other arts and media, and its role as an instrument of social expression.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: I, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: Counts for pre-major introductory course requirement
COMM 231 - Film & TV Production Concepts
Instructor: Kevin Anderson
3 Credits
This class provides an overview of film and television production principles and processes from script to screen and also prepares students for later hands-on production courses. We will explore both the art and craft of film and digital motion picture production, including the roles and functions of the major creative and technical personnel in the scripting, pre-production, production, and post-production phases. Technical aspects such as digital vs. analog media, lighting and color, cinematography, production design, editing concepts, sound recording, and storytelling and script-writing will be covered. In addition, students are given three options for producing a creative project for the course.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: I, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: Counts for pre-major introductory course requirement
To find other courses that fulfill this and other categories, please check also the 5-Colleges Course Catalogue in Film Studies
COMM 340 - History of Film I
Instructor: Marty Norden
3 Credits
Lecture, lab (screening), discussion. A survey of key events and representative films that mark the history of motion pictures in the United States and other countries to 1950. In addition to identifying and providing access to major works, the course is designed to facilitate the study of the various influences (industrial, technological, aesthetic, social, cultural, and political) that have shaped the evolution of the medium to the advent of television.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H1
FILM-ST 397Z: Classical Hollywood Cinema
Instructor: Barry Spence
3 credits
This is a history of film course focusing on what is sometimes referred to as the “Golden Age” of Hollywood. An examination of classical Hollywood cinema, this course will concentrate on the period from the 1920s to the 1960s. We will look at the production and distribution practices of the Hollywood studio system, and pay special attention to the way this preeminent form of cinema established many of the norms of the immersive film experience. Among other subjects, we will consider the construction of classical continuity by studying the narrative structures and devices, stylistic techniques, and approaches to editing of a wide range of exemplary films. Weekly in-class screenings, with separate discussion.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H1
To find other courses that fulfill this and other categories, please check also the 5-Colleges Course Catalogue in Film Studies
COMP-LIT 337 - International History of Animation
Instructor: Christopher Couch
4 Credits
This course traces the history of animation from the late 19th century to today, including short and feature-length films from the United States, Europe and Japan. Topics will include the Fleischer, Disney and UPA studios, directors from Emil Cole to Hayao Miyazaki, and experimental animators including Oskar Fischinger and John Canemaker. Animation for television, including Jay Ward's Rocky and Bullwinkle and Matt Groening's The Simpsons will also be considered.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
COMPLIT 381- Self- Reflective Avant- Garde Film
Instructor: Don Levine
4 credits
Explores modern origin of film experimentation in avant-garde modes such as Expressionism, Surrealism and Contemporary results of this heritage. Trying to determine if film is the most resolutely modern of them media, we’ll look at cinema as the result of two obsessive concerns 1.) The poetic, dreamlike and fantastic 2.) The factual, realistic and socially critical or anarchistic. Thus, we’ll attempt to discover how modern culture deals with avant-garde imperatives to always “make it new.” Films and filmmakers such as Breathless (Godard), My Own Private Idaho (Van Sant), The American Soldier (Fassbinder), others.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
COMP-LIT 383 - Narrative Avant-Garde Film (Gen.Ed. AT)
Instructor: Don Levine
4 Credits
Focus on narrative problems of love, desire, sexual identity, daily life, and death. These films' investigations of how we might gain distance on our life fictions by questioning and undermining viewer identification with narrative.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
FILM-ST 383 - Narrative Avant-Garde Film (Gen.Ed. AT)
Instructor: Don Levine
Focus on narrative problems of love, desire, sexual identity, daily life, and death. These films' investigations of how we might gain distance on our life fictions by questioning and undermining viewer identification with narrative.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
FILM-ST - 497AC/697AC: Arthouse Cinema 1950-1980
Instructor: Barry Spence
3 Credits
This course will examine the cultural phenomenon of the “art film” during the first three decades of the postwar period (1950s, 60s, 70s). The nature and characteristics of, as well as the relationships connecting and distinguishing, modernist cinema, art cinema, and avant-garde film during this vital period in film history will be the course’s primary concern. We will examine the notion of the auteur and consider its usefulness for thinking about this multiform, innovative cinema. What is the relationship between cinematic modernism and the core principles and representational strategies of modern art? Does modern cinema, as Gilles Deleuze suggests, function as a mental substitute for the lost connection between the individual and the world? Can it restore our belief in the world? The course will pay particular attention to distinctive stylistic attributes, but will also look at dominant thematic concerns. There will be weekly in-class screenings as well as regular streaming of films outside of class. The filmmakers we will consider include, but are not limited to: Chantal Ackerman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Theo Angelopoulos, Ingmar Bergman, Stan Brakhage, Robert Bresson, Luis Buñuel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Peter Greenaway, Werner Herzog, Miklós Janscó, Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, Sergei Paradzhanov, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alain Resnais, Jean-Marie Straub, Andrei Tarkovsky, François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
To find other courses that fulfill this and other categories, please check also the 5-Colleges Course Catalogue in Film Studies
COMM 444 - Film Styles and Genres
Instructor: Shawn Shimpach
3 Credits
Why do we put certain films into categories? What constitutes a film genre, how do we recognize it, and what do we do with it? This course examines these questions and more by considering a specific genre over the course of the semester. We will learn to think of genre as a way of comparing and contrasting different films. Genre will also be thought of as a way of creating expectations and measuring experience and meaning. The power of film genre is that it allows us to understand film as a text and film as a social practice at the very same time.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
COMM 446: Film Documentary
Instructor: Bruce Geisler
3 credits
We will view, analyze, and discuss films by modern documentary masters such as Michael Moore ("Sicko"), Chris Paine, ("Revenge of the Electric Car"), Seth Gordon ("The King of Kong - A fistful of Quarters"), Pamela Yates ("Granito") and many others to further the understanding of the documentary craft and art from a filmmaker's perspective. Students will also do preproduction (research and treatment) for their own short documentary, along with shorter hands-on exercises in writing narration, interview techniques, etc.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
COMM 493L - S-Experimental Film & Video
Instructor: Kevin Anderson
3 Credits
Prerequisites: COMM 331, 441, OR 446
NOTE: Open to Seniors and Juniors only
This course explores the genre of Experimental Film and Video with a critical eye toward the history and current articulations of this form of production in both feature film and short form movies and videos. The course begins with an introduction to the genre, then explores Experimental Film; video according to three different categories: Experimentation with Narrative, Experimentation with Structure/Form, and Experimentation with the line between Fact and Fiction. Students will emerge from this course with a solid foundation in the history and theory of experimental film/video as evidenced by writing projects, research papers, and student-produced experimental media projects.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
COMM 494BI- Countercultural Films
Instructor: Bruce Geisler
Seminar, Discussion. An exploration of the counter-cultural movements of the 1960s and 70s and later, hosted by someone who was there and lived to tell the tale. Through the medium of documentary and fiction films, we will delve into the musical, sexual, artistic, political and spiritual upheavals that rocked America and Europe back then and that continue to reverberate today.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
COMP-LIT 350: INTERNATIONAL FILM
Instructor: Barry Spence
4 credits
This general education course will screen films from across the globe studying examples of a range of lesser-known subgenres of the Horror film, such as Giallo (Italian genre mixing slasher horror with detective mysteries), Fantastique (French genre mixing gothic horror with fantasy erotica), and Jiangshi (Hong Kong genre mixing slasher horror with Kung Fu). And we will consider in equal measure the so-called dystopian film. We will look at the interrelationship connecting these two modes, which can be seen at work in films like Battle Royale. This course will include a primary focus on gender issues, will examine the representation of women, and will screen (transgressive) examples of these modes by women filmmakers. The intention of this course is to expose students to a cultural diversity of these vital contemporary film genres beyond the conventional Hollywood fare. Weekly film screenings and discussion.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
GenEd: AT
COMPLIT 391SF- International Sci-Fi Cinema
Instructor: Christopher NC Couch
3 Credits
This course provides an introduction to science fiction cinema from the end of the nineteenth century to today. Beginning with the experiments of the Melies Brothers and the importance of German Expressionist films like Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the course considers technological prognostication from Destination Moon to 2001: A Space Odyssey, adventure and science fiction in films like Forbidden Planet and Star Wars, and the dystopian imagination from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to District 9. The course will also highlight the roles of women writers and directors from Thea von Harbou to Kathryn Bigelow, and technological cinematic advances from matte painting and process shots to CGI.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
FILM-ST 330: Film Auteurs: Akira Kurosawa
Instructor: Barry Spence
Credits 4
This class will focus on one, or more, specific filmmaker and will aim to highlight their cinematic models, distinctive style and recurrent themes, within the theoretical framework of the "auteur theory", thus offering students an introductory and comprehensive view of perhaps the most central concept in film studies. In the first place, this class will address the historical evolution of the debate around "auteur theory," from the "politique des auteurs" to the "death of the author", while providing author criticism and analysis in practice. It will tackle questions such as: Why do certain filmmakers qualify as auteurs? What is the difference between commercial cinema and auteur cinema? Due to the collaborative nature of filmmaking, can we talk about the author of a film? What is the intersection between gender and authorship? What does it mean to be a woman author? Secondly, it will concentrate on one specific filmmaker: students will read pertinent bibliography (e.g. biography, film reviews, etc.) on their films, watch and study their most significant film production, and contextualize it historically, geographically and culturally.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
FILM-ST 391SF- International Sci-Fi Cinema
Christopher NC Couch
This course provides an introduction to science fiction cinema from the end of the nineteenth century to today. Beginning with the experiments of the Melies Brothers and the importance of German Expressionist films like Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the course considers technological prognostication from Destination Moon to 2001: A Space Odyssey, adventure and science fiction in films like Forbidden Planet and Star Wars, and the dystopian imagination from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to District 9. The course will also highlight the roles of women writers and directors from Thea von Harbou to Kathryn Bigelow, and technological cinematic advances from matte painting and process shots to CGI.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
FILM-ST 397A- ST Alien Encounters
Istructor: Daniel Pope
3 credits
Could extraterrestrial life exist in the cosmos? Scientists say yes, possibly on billions of planets in our galaxy alone. In this class, we will examine the international cinema of alien encounters and explore how these films envision the alien other. How do these films both reflect and shape our own experience of "the alien" or the unknown "other"? Since the beginning of cinema, the figure of the alien has visited the big screen with its promise of otherworldly wonders and its threat of unthinkable perils. This course will explore how alien encounters reflect the haunting of historical realities (such as European voyages of discovery, conquest, and colonization) as well as contemporary issues, such as international conflict (war or global migration), questions of identity (race, gender, sexuality), and the power and perils of emerging technologies (nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence, space travel). Imagining encounters with intelligent beings beyond our own cultural and ideological sphere provides powerful new perspectives on what we think we know about the world, about ourselves, and about others.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
FILM-ST 397E: Film at the End of the World
Instructor: Daniel Pope
Credits: 3
Climate disaster, world war, aliens, cosmic collisions, dystopias, zombies, the rise of the machines, catastrophic pandemics, mass extinction, prophesied apocalypse. What do films about the end of the world tell us about contemporary realities? What insights do they offer into the cultural moment that produces them and the prevailing attitudes and realities of gender, race, class, sexuality, and gender identity? How do they speak to our anxieties and fears about the future as well as our hopes and aspirations? How does the genre of end-of-the-world films intersect with other genres—thriller, action film, neo-noir, comedy, art-house, romance, drama, experimental, historical? In this course we will study the cinema of eschatology, of ultimate endings, and analyze a range of filmic approaches to the philosophical, psychological, social, and aesthetic questions posed in end-of-the-world films.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
FILM-ST 497V – Video Essay in Film Criticism
Daniel Pope
3 Credits
This is a course in planning, scripting, and editing video essays in film criticism, working with films from around the world and across film history. The field of film criticism is taking new forms in recent years, with social media, podcasts, websites and blogs dedicated to analyzing and discussing movies. Out of this trend, the video essay emerges as an exceptionally attractive and powerful medium for the film critic. In this class, we examine a wide array of video essays and explore the unique analytical and expressive opportunities the medium offers. A primary emphasis in the course is the study and practice of film criticism as an intellectual and creative endeavor with its own particular objectives, challenges, and expressive powers. With this foundation, we develop the critical, creative, and technical skills necessary for making effective video essays addressing films, directors, genres, national cinemas, and cultural and social issues. Making a video essay is in many ways like making a movie. As such we are engaged not only in film analysis and film writing but also in video editing, image composition, sound design, and other aspects of moving image media.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
To find other courses that fulfill this and other categories, please check also the 5-Colleges Course Catalogue in Film Studies
FILM-ST 304: German Cinema: From Berlin to Hollywood (also: /German 304)
Instructor: Mariana Ivanova
Credits: 3
This course offers a survey of German cinema from the 1920s on until the 21st century and focuses on transborder mobility of pictures and artists. We will examine the emigration of film directors from Babelsberg, the epicenter of the ‘Golden Age’ in German cinema to Hollywood. From celebrated directors such as Fritz Lang, Friedrich Murnau, and Ernst Lubitsch, to stars, such as Marlene Dietrich and Peter Lorre, we will trace the careers of those working in exile in the 1930s and 1940s. The course will continue with an exploration of the postwar period and the export of West German films into the US, while we look at the work of directors Wim Wenders, Volker Schlöndorff, Margarete von Trotta and Harun Farocki who also significantly shaped the perception of North America in Germany. We will conclude with discussions of more recent works by Tom Tykwer and Michael Hanneke, well-known among cineastes today for their international coproductions, Hollywood remakes, or Netflix series. Key issues in the course will be the transformation of film financing and material production circumstances as a result of European funding structures and a persistent ‘transnational aesthetic’ emerging in the work of the above directors. Both big budget blockbusters and independent films will be considered in their implications for film content, style, and social content. Conducted in English.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
FILM-ST 344: Film and Society in Israel (Also available as JUDAIC 344)
Instructor: Olga Gershenson
Wed 4-6:45
This course uses film to discuss Israeli society. Topics include: foundation of Israel, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Holocaust survivors, religion, gender, and interethnic relations. All film showings are with English subtitles.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
FILM-ST 353: African Cinema (Also available as French 353)
Also available online as a multimodal class
Instructor: Patrick Mensah
4 credits
Gen Ed course (AT and DU)
Tues 4 pm-6:45 pm
Histories and development of African film and its aesthetic forms, from its inception to the present day. The sociocultural, economic, and political forces and imperatives defining its forms and shaping its agendas. Questions this work raises in film aesthetics and theory as a whole. All screenings available online. Line up of screenings: The Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo) Lumumba, Sometimes in April (Raoul Peck) Xala, Borom Sarret, Moolaade, Black Girl (Ousmane Sembene) Sometimes in April (Raoul Peck) Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako) Afrique, Je te plumerai (Jean-Marie Teno) Keita, Heritage of the Griot (Dany Kouyaté) Pièces d’Identités (Mweze Ngangura) Tsotsi (Gavin Hood) District 9 (Neill Blomkamp) Silences of the Palace (Moufida Tlatli) Hyenas (Djibril Diop Mambety) Course taught in English.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
Film 397V Latin American Cinema (also available as SPAN 397W)
Instructor: Barbara Zecchi
Latin American Cinema
Credits: 3
Monday 4:00-6:30
The course is designed to introduce students to the cinematic work of some of the most important Latin American directors . The course will center on a variety of topics that are vital to the understanding of the most significant political, historical, social and cultural events that have shaped Latin America. Some of the topics to be examined in the class are: racial, gender, sexual and identity issues; nation formation; revolution; immigration; repression; utopia; resistance; violence; freedom and indigenism. Students will be expected to develop interpretative filmic skills through an exploration of the connections between the technical composition of the films and the social, political, and cultural context to which each film refers.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: N
FILM-ST 497L/697FL Fellini- The Liar (Also available as ITALIAN 497FL/ ITALIAN 697FL)
(Also available online)
Instructor: Andrea Malaguti
Credits: 3
Tue 4:00-6:30
The course examines the most important films by Federico Fellini (whose "La dolce vita" and "8 1/2" both entered the 100 greatest movies list of the British Film Institute) to understand how his work both contends with his contemporaries (especially Hollywood) and still has a strong grip on our film imagery today. Lectures and discussions in English.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
FRENCH 353 – African Film
Patrick Mensah Cap: 30, 4 Credits
Lecture: Tu 4:00PM-6:45PM; Discussion: Thu 2:30PM-3:45PM OR Thu 4:00PM-5:15PM
This course offers an introduction to African film as an aesthetic and cultural practice. Students should expect to be familiarized with the key ideas and objectives that have inspired and driven that practice since the early 1960s, and be furnished with the technical tools and methodological skills that would permit them to understand, analyze, and think critically about the artistic and thematic aspects of the films that are screened. They should also expect the course to provide them with a critical peek into several cardinal issues of social and cultural relevance in contemporary Africa and its history. Issues of interest typically include, the nation state and its declining status, imperatives of decolonization, economic dependency and structural adjustment programs, orality and changing traditional cultures, diasporic migrations, urbanization and its problems, gender relations, civil wars, child soldiers, gangs, and related themes. Filmmakers studied include, but are not limited to, Abderrahmane Sissako, Gillo Pontecorvo, Ousmane Sembene, Raoul Peck, Jean-Marie Teno, Dani Kouyate, Mweze Ngangura, Gavin Hood, Neill Blomkamp, Moufida Tlatli, Djibril Diop Mambety (please note that this list is subject to change, and shall be updated as future changes are made). The course is conducted in English, and requires no prior knowledge of the field. All films are streamed to your computer from the UMass library on demand. Required readings are provided online, and no book purchases are necessary. (Gen.Ed. AT, DG)
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
GERMAN 304 – From Berlin to Hollywood
Mariana Ivanova Cap: 10, 4 Credit
Lec: TBA
This course offers a survey of German cinema from the 1920s on until the 21st century and focuses on transborder mobility of pictures and artists. We will examine the emigration of film directors from Babelsberg, the epicenter of the ‘Golden Age’ in German cinema to Hollywood. From celebrated directors such as Fritz Lang, Friedrich Murnau, and Ernst Lubitsch, to stars, such as Marlene Dietrich and Peter Lorre, we will trace the careers of those working in exile in the 1930s and 1940s. The course will continue with an exploration of the postwar period and the export of West German films into the US, while we look at the work of directors Wim Wenders, Volker Schlöndorff, Margarete von Trotta and Harun Farocki who also significantly shaped the perception of North America in Germany. We will conclude with discussions of more recent works by Tom Tykwer and Michael Hanneke, well-known among cineastes today for their international coproductions, Hollywood remakes, or Netflix series. Key issues in the course will be the transformation of film financing and material production circumstances as a result of European funding structures and a persistent ‘transnational aesthetic’ emerging in the work of the above directors. Both big budget blockbusters and independent films will be considered in their implications for film content, style, and social content. Conducted in English.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
ITALIAN 497FL /697FL Fellini- The Liar (Also available as FILM 497FL)
(Also available online)
Instructor: Andrea Malaguti
Credits: 3
Tue 4:00-6:30
The course examines the most important films by Federico Fellini (whose "La dolce vita" and "8 1/2" both entered the 100 greatest movies list of the British Film Institute) to understand how his work both contends with his contemporaries (especially Hollywood) and still has a strong grip on our film imagery today. Lectures and discussions in English.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
JUDAIC 344 - Film and Society in Israel
Instructor: Olga Gershenson Cap: 10, 4 Credits
We 4:00PM - 6:45PM
This course uses film to discuss Israeli society. Topics include: foundation of Israel, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Holocaust survivors, religion, gender, and interethnic relations. All film showings are with English subtitles. (Gen. Ed. AT, DG)
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
SPANISH 397W – Special Topics: Latin American Cinema
Instructor: Barbara Zecchi Cap: 15, 3 Credits
Lec: Mo 4:00PM-6:30PM
The course is designed to introduce students to the films of some of the most important Latin American directors. The course will center on a variety of topics that are vital to the understanding of the most significant political, historical, social and cultural events that have shaped Latin America.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
To find other courses that fulfill this and other categories, please check also the 5-Colleges Course Catalogue in Film Studies
FILM-ST 470- FILM THEORY
Barry Spence 4 credits
This course provides an in-depth overview of key theoretical approaches to the study of cinema by examining historically significant ways of analyzing film form and its social and cultural functions and effects. The course seeks to equip students with a command of the diverse history of theoretical frameworks for understanding the medium and experience of cinema, from early concerns over films relation to other arts to the way the movie as a cultural form has been reconceptualized within the contemporary explosion of new media. The pressing relevance of film theory becomes clear once we stop to consider taking just one small example the many implications of a society-wide movement away from the collective experience of movies in a public theater to private viewing with earbuds on the tiny screen of a cell phone or tablet. We will explore a wide range of questions (concerning the nature of the cinematic medium and its apparatus, aspects of the spectator’s experience of film, and the aesthetic and ideological dimensions of film genre, to name just a few) as a way of putting ourselves in dialogue with various film theoreticians. And we will ground our examination by looking at cinematic practice in relation to theory. This will be done through regular film screenings throughout the semester.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: T
FILM-ST 497P Film Podcasting
Instructor: Daniel Pope
Credits: 3
Tue 4pm-7:30pm
This is, above all, a course in film criticism. For as long as there has been cinema there has also been film criticism, from print and broadcast media to web sites and social media in recent decades. The swiftly growing field of audio podcasting offers a versatile new digital medium for film criticism, drawing on many of the strengths of traditional media and bringing its own unique qualities of engagement. In this course, we will study varieties of film writing and explore the craft of creating compelling and illuminating film criticism and the key techniques for producing rich, engaging podcast content. We will work with films across a variety of genres and time periods and do hands-on work in all aspects of producing a film criticism podcast - research, analysis, writing, planning, conducting interviews, moderating, recording, editing, and posting your finished podcasts.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: T, E
FILM-ST 597A Cinemas of Confluence and Alliance
Instructor: Daniel Pope
3 credits
Mon 4:00- 6:30
Cap 25
How can film foster empathy? Bridge difference? Inspire dedication to the dreams, endeavors, and struggles of others? In this course, we explore a selection of international films that engage themes of community, solidarity, and partnerships for social justice, environmental advocacy, intersectional alliance, and other collective efforts to achieve a common good or address a prevailing ill. We investigate the potential for narrative fiction film, documentary, video art, and other media to challenge ideas of self and other and imagine new modes of reflection, representation, and agency. Concepts of selfhood and otherness, questions of empathy, relationship, community and allyship, and such issues as equity, ethics and ecology will frame our discussions.
Open to graduate students and advanced undergraduate students. UMass Amherst Undergraduate Film Certificate Categories: II, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: T, E
To find other courses that fulfill this and other categories, please check also the 5-Colleges Course Catalogue in Film Studies
COMM 340 - History of Film I
Instructor: Marty Norden
3 Credits
Lecture, lab (screening), discussion. A survey of key events and representative films that mark the history of motion pictures in the United States and other countries to 1950. In addition to identifying and providing access to major works, the course is designed to facilitate the study of the various influences (industrial, technological, aesthetic, social, cultural, and political) that have shaped the evolution of the medium to the advent of television.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H1
FILM-ST 397Z: Classical Hollywood Cinema
Instructor: Barry Spence
3 credits
This is a history of film course focusing on what is sometimes referred to as the “Golden Age” of Hollywood. An examination of classical Hollywood cinema, this course will concentrate on the period from the 1920s to the 1960s. We will look at the production and distribution practices of the Hollywood studio system, and pay special attention to the way this preeminent form of cinema established many of the norms of the immersive film experience. Among other subjects, we will consider the construction of classical continuity by studying the narrative structures and devices, stylistic techniques, and approaches to editing of a wide range of exemplary films. Weekly in-class screenings, with separate discussion.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H1
COMP-LIT 337 - International History of Animation
Instructor: Christopher Couch
4 Credits
This course traces the history of animation from the late 19th century to today, including short and feature-length films from the United States, Europe and Japan. Topics will include the Fleischer, Disney and UPA studios, directors from Emil Cole to Hayao Miyazaki, and experimental animators including Oskar Fischinger and John Canemaker. Animation for television, including Jay Ward's Rocky and Bullwinkle and Matt Groening's The Simpsons will also be considered.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
COMPLIT 381- Self- Reflective Avant- Garde Film
Instructor: Don Levine
4 credits
Explores modern origin of film experimentation in avant-garde modes such as Expressionism, Surrealism and Contemporary results of this heritage. Trying to determine if film is the most resolutely modern of them media, we’ll look at cinema as the result of two obsessive concerns 1.) The poetic, dreamlike and fantastic 2.) The factual, realistic and socially critical or anarchistic. Thus, we’ll attempt to discover how modern culture deals with avant-garde imperatives to always “make it new.” Films and filmmakers such as Breathless (Godard), My Own Private Idaho (Van Sant), The American Soldier (Fassbinder), others.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
COMP-LIT 383 - Narrative Avant-Garde Film (Gen.Ed. AT)
Instructor: Don Levine
4 Credits
Focus on narrative problems of love, desire, sexual identity, daily life, and death. These films' investigations of how we might gain distance on our life fictions by questioning and undermining viewer identification with narrative.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
FILM-ST 383 - Narrative Avant-Garde Film (Gen.Ed. AT)
Instructor: Don Levine
Focus on narrative problems of love, desire, sexual identity, daily life, and death. These films' investigations of how we might gain distance on our life fictions by questioning and undermining viewer identification with narrative.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
FILM-ST - 497AC/697AC: Arthouse Cinema 1950-1980
Instructor: Barry Spence
3 Credits
This course will examine the cultural phenomenon of the “art film” during the first three decades of the postwar period (1950s, 60s, 70s). The nature and characteristics of, as well as the relationships connecting and distinguishing, modernist cinema, art cinema, and avant-garde film during this vital period in film history will be the course’s primary concern. We will examine the notion of the auteur and consider its usefulness for thinking about this multiform, innovative cinema. What is the relationship between cinematic modernism and the core principles and representational strategies of modern art? Does modern cinema, as Gilles Deleuze suggests, function as a mental substitute for the lost connection between the individual and the world? Can it restore our belief in the world? The course will pay particular attention to distinctive stylistic attributes, but will also look at dominant thematic concerns. There will be weekly in-class screenings as well as regular streaming of films outside of class. The filmmakers we will consider include, but are not limited to: Chantal Ackerman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Theo Angelopoulos, Ingmar Bergman, Stan Brakhage, Robert Bresson, Luis Buñuel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Peter Greenaway, Werner Herzog, Miklós Janscó, Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, Sergei Paradzhanov, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alain Resnais, Jean-Marie Straub, Andrei Tarkovsky, François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
FILM-ST 470- FILM THEORY
Barry Spence 4 credits
This course provides an in-depth overview of key theoretical approaches to the study of cinema by examining historically significant ways of analyzing film form and its social and cultural functions and effects. The course seeks to equip students with a command of the diverse history of theoretical frameworks for understanding the medium and experience of cinema, from early concerns over films relation to other arts to the way the movie as a cultural form has been reconceptualized within the contemporary explosion of new media. The pressing relevance of film theory becomes clear once we stop to consider taking just one small example the many implications of a society-wide movement away from the collective experience of movies in a public theater to private viewing with earbuds on the tiny screen of a cell phone or tablet. We will explore a wide range of questions (concerning the nature of the cinematic medium and its apparatus, aspects of the spectator’s experience of film, and the aesthetic and ideological dimensions of film genre, to name just a few) as a way of putting ourselves in dialogue with various film theoreticians. And we will ground our examination by looking at cinematic practice in relation to theory. This will be done through regular film screenings throughout the semester.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: T
FILM-ST 497P Film Podcasting
Instructor: Daniel Pope
Credits: 3
Tue 4pm-7:30pm
This is, above all, a course in film criticism. For as long as there has been cinema there has also been film criticism, from print and broadcast media to web sites and social media in recent decades. The swiftly growing field of audio podcasting offers a versatile new digital medium for film criticism, drawing on many of the strengths of traditional media and bringing its own unique qualities of engagement. In this course, we will study varieties of film writing and explore the craft of creating compelling and illuminating film criticism and the key techniques for producing rich, engaging podcast content. We will work with films across a variety of genres and time periods and do hands-on work in all aspects of producing a film criticism podcast - research, analysis, writing, planning, conducting interviews, moderating, recording, editing, and posting your finished podcasts.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: T, E
FILM-ST 597A Cinemas of Confluence and Alliance
Instructor: Daniel Pope
3 credits
Mon 4:00- 6:30
Cap 25
How can film foster empathy? Bridge difference? Inspire dedication to the dreams, endeavors, and struggles of others? In this course, we explore a selection of international films that engage themes of community, solidarity, and partnerships for social justice, environmental advocacy, intersectional alliance, and other collective efforts to achieve a common good or address a prevailing ill. We investigate the potential for narrative fiction film, documentary, video art, and other media to challenge ideas of self and other and imagine new modes of reflection, representation, and agency. Concepts of selfhood and otherness, questions of empathy, relationship, community and allyship, and such issues as equity, ethics and ecology will frame our discussions.
Open to graduate students and advanced undergraduate students. UMass Amherst Undergraduate Film Certificate Categories: II, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: T, E
To find other courses that fulfill this and other categories, please check also the 5-Colleges Course Catalogue in Film Studies
COMP-LIT 337 - International History of Animation
Instructor: Christopher Couch
4 Credits
This course traces the history of animation from the late 19th century to today, including short and feature-length films from the United States, Europe and Japan. Topics will include the Fleischer, Disney and UPA studios, directors from Emil Cole to Hayao Miyazaki, and experimental animators including Oskar Fischinger and John Canemaker. Animation for television, including Jay Ward's Rocky and Bullwinkle and Matt Groening's The Simpsons will also be considered.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
COMPLIT 381- Self- Reflective Avant- Garde Film
Instructor: Don Levine
4 credits
Explores modern origin of film experimentation in avant-garde modes such as Expressionism, Surrealism and Contemporary results of this heritage. Trying to determine if film is the most resolutely modern of them media, we’ll look at cinema as the result of two obsessive concerns 1.) The poetic, dreamlike and fantastic 2.) The factual, realistic and socially critical or anarchistic. Thus, we’ll attempt to discover how modern culture deals with avant-garde imperatives to always “make it new.” Films and filmmakers such as Breathless (Godard), My Own Private Idaho (Van Sant), The American Soldier (Fassbinder), others.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
COMP-LIT 383 - Narrative Avant-Garde Film (Gen.Ed. AT)
Instructor: Don Levine
4 Credits
Focus on narrative problems of love, desire, sexual identity, daily life, and death. These films' investigations of how we might gain distance on our life fictions by questioning and undermining viewer identification with narrative.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
FILM-ST 383 - Narrative Avant-Garde Film (Gen.Ed. AT)
Instructor: Don Levine
Focus on narrative problems of love, desire, sexual identity, daily life, and death. These films' investigations of how we might gain distance on our life fictions by questioning and undermining viewer identification with narrative.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
FILM-ST - 497AC/697AC: Arthouse Cinema 1950-1980
Instructor: Barry Spence
3 Credits
This course will examine the cultural phenomenon of the “art film” during the first three decades of the postwar period (1950s, 60s, 70s). The nature and characteristics of, as well as the relationships connecting and distinguishing, modernist cinema, art cinema, and avant-garde film during this vital period in film history will be the course’s primary concern. We will examine the notion of the auteur and consider its usefulness for thinking about this multiform, innovative cinema. What is the relationship between cinematic modernism and the core principles and representational strategies of modern art? Does modern cinema, as Gilles Deleuze suggests, function as a mental substitute for the lost connection between the individual and the world? Can it restore our belief in the world? The course will pay particular attention to distinctive stylistic attributes, but will also look at dominant thematic concerns. There will be weekly in-class screenings as well as regular streaming of films outside of class. The filmmakers we will consider include, but are not limited to: Chantal Ackerman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Theo Angelopoulos, Ingmar Bergman, Stan Brakhage, Robert Bresson, Luis Buñuel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Peter Greenaway, Werner Herzog, Miklós Janscó, Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, Sergei Paradzhanov, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alain Resnais, Jean-Marie Straub, Andrei Tarkovsky, François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: H2
COMP-LIT 350: INTERNATIONAL FILM
Instructor: Barry Spence
4 credits
This general education course will screen films from across the globe studying examples of a range of lesser-known subgenres of the Horror film, such as Giallo (Italian genre mixing slasher horror with detective mysteries), Fantastique (French genre mixing gothic horror with fantasy erotica), and Jiangshi (Hong Kong genre mixing slasher horror with Kung Fu). And we will consider in equal measure the so-called dystopian film. We will look at the interrelationship connecting these two modes, which can be seen at work in films like Battle Royale. This course will include a primary focus on gender issues, will examine the representation of women, and will screen (transgressive) examples of these modes by women filmmakers. The intention of this course is to expose students to a cultural diversity of these vital contemporary film genres beyond the conventional Hollywood fare. Weekly film screenings and discussion.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
GenEd: AT
COMPLIT 391SF- International Sci-Fi Cinema
Instructor: Christopher NC Couch
3 Credits
This course provides an introduction to science fiction cinema from the end of the nineteenth century to today. Beginning with the experiments of the Melies Brothers and the importance of German Expressionist films like Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the course considers technological prognostication from Destination Moon to 2001: A Space Odyssey, adventure and science fiction in films like Forbidden Planet and Star Wars, and the dystopian imagination from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to District 9. The course will also highlight the roles of women writers and directors from Thea von Harbou to Kathryn Bigelow, and technological cinematic advances from matte painting and process shots to CGI.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
FILM-ST 297SF Special Topics- Possible Futures: Science Fiction in Global Cinemas
Instructor: Kevin Anderson
3 credits
There are multiple growing concerns regarding issues of climate, class, race, gender identity, and the nature of democracy in our contemporary world. Science fiction has proven to be a thought-provoking genre to help raise awareness to many of these social and environmental issues. This course takes a global perspective on such pressing issues by examining science fiction films from around the world. As such, the course uses science fiction films as primary texts, accompanied by weekly readings. Students will engage in a critical analysis of the assigned films and readings in order to better appreciate what we can begin to anticipate regarding our future.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G (limit one 200 level course)
FILM-ST 330: Film Auteurs: Akira Kurosawa
Instructor: Barry Spence
Credits 4
This class will focus on one, or more, specific filmmaker and will aim to highlight their cinematic models, distinctive style and recurrent themes, within the theoretical framework of the "auteur theory", thus offering students an introductory and comprehensive view of perhaps the most central concept in film studies. In the first place, this class will address the historical evolution of the debate around "auteur theory," from the "politique des auteurs" to the "death of the author", while providing author criticism and analysis in practice. It will tackle questions such as: Why do certain filmmakers qualify as auteurs? What is the difference between commercial cinema and auteur cinema? Due to the collaborative nature of filmmaking, can we talk about the author of a film? What is the intersection between gender and authorship? What does it mean to be a woman author? Secondly, it will concentrate on one specific filmmaker: students will read pertinent bibliography (e.g. biography, film reviews, etc.) on their films, watch and study their most significant film production, and contextualize it historically, geographically and culturally.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
FILM-ST 391SF- International Sci-Fi Cinema
Christopher NC Couch
This course provides an introduction to science fiction cinema from the end of the nineteenth century to today. Beginning with the experiments of the Melies Brothers and the importance of German Expressionist films like Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the course considers technological prognostication from Destination Moon to 2001: A Space Odyssey, adventure and science fiction in films like Forbidden Planet and Star Wars, and the dystopian imagination from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to District 9. The course will also highlight the roles of women writers and directors from Thea von Harbou to Kathryn Bigelow, and technological cinematic advances from matte painting and process shots to CGI.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
FILM-ST 397A- ST Alien Encounters
Istructor: Daniel Pope
3 credits
Could extraterrestrial life exist in the cosmos? Scientists say yes, possibly on billions of planets in our galaxy alone. In this class, we will examine the international cinema of alien encounters and explore how these films envision the alien other. How do these films both reflect and shape our own experience of "the alien" or the unknown "other"? Since the beginning of cinema, the figure of the alien has visited the big screen with its promise of otherworldly wonders and its threat of unthinkable perils. This course will explore how alien encounters reflect the haunting of historical realities (such as European voyages of discovery, conquest, and colonization) as well as contemporary issues, such as international conflict (war or global migration), questions of identity (race, gender, sexuality), and the power and perils of emerging technologies (nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence, space travel). Imagining encounters with intelligent beings beyond our own cultural and ideological sphere provides powerful new perspectives on what we think we know about the world, about ourselves, and about others.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
FILM-ST 397E: Film at the End of the World
Instructor: Daniel Pope
Credits: 3
Climate disaster, world war, aliens, cosmic collisions, dystopias, zombies, the rise of the machines, catastrophic pandemics, mass extinction, prophesied apocalypse. What do films about the end of the world tell us about contemporary realities? What insights do they offer into the cultural moment that produces them and the prevailing attitudes and realities of gender, race, class, sexuality, and gender identity? How do they speak to our anxieties and fears about the future as well as our hopes and aspirations? How does the genre of end-of-the-world films intersect with other genres—thriller, action film, neo-noir, comedy, art-house, romance, drama, experimental, historical? In this course we will study the cinema of eschatology, of ultimate endings, and analyze a range of filmic approaches to the philosophical, psychological, social, and aesthetic questions posed in end-of-the-world films.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
FILM-ST 304: German Cinema: From Berlin to Hollywood (also: /German 304 )
Instructor: Mariana Ivanova
Credits: 3
This course offers a survey of German cinema from the 1920s on until the 21st century and focuses on transborder mobility of pictures and artists. We will examine the emigration of film directors from Babelsberg, the epicenter of the ‘Golden Age’ in German cinema to Hollywood. From celebrated directors such as Fritz Lang, Friedrich Murnau, and Ernst Lubitsch, to stars, such as Marlene Dietrich and Peter Lorre, we will trace the careers of those working in exile in the 1930s and 1940s. The course will continue with an exploration of the postwar period and the export of West German films into the US, while we look at the work of directors Wim Wenders, Volker Schlöndorff, Margarete von Trotta and Harun Farocki who also significantly shaped the perception of North America in Germany. We will conclude with discussions of more recent works by Tom Tykwer and Michael Hanneke, well-known among cineastes today for their international coproductions, Hollywood remakes, or Netflix series. Key issues in the course will be the transformation of film financing and material production circumstances as a result of European funding structures and a persistent ‘transnational aesthetic’ emerging in the work of the above directors. Both big budget blockbusters and independent films will be considered in their implications for film content, style, and social content. Conducted in English.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
FILM-ST 344: Film and Society in Israel (Also available as JUDAIC 344)
Instructor: Olga Gershenson
Wed 4-6:45
This course uses film to discuss Israeli society. Topics include: foundation of Israel, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Holocaust survivors, religion, gender, and interethnic relations. All film showings are with English subtitles.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
FILM-ST 353: African Cinema (Also available as French 353)
Also available online as a multimodal class
Instructor: Patrick Mensah
4 credits
Gen Ed course (AT and DU)
Tues 4 pm-6:45 pm
Histories and development of African film and its aesthetic forms, from its inception to the present day. The sociocultural, economic, and political forces and imperatives defining its forms and shaping its agendas. Questions this work raises in film aesthetics and theory as a whole. All screenings available online. Line up of screenings: The Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo) Lumumba, Sometimes in April (Raoul Peck) Xala, Borom Sarret, Moolaade, Black Girl (Ousmane Sembene) Sometimes in April (Raoul Peck) Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako) Afrique, Je te plumerai (Jean-Marie Teno) Keita, Heritage of the Griot (Dany Kouyaté) Pièces d’Identités (Mweze Ngangura) Tsotsi (Gavin Hood) District 9 (Neill Blomkamp) Silences of the Palace (Moufida Tlatli) Hyenas (Djibril Diop Mambety) Course taught in English.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
Film 397V Latin American Cinema (also available as SPAN 397W)
Instructor: Barbara Zecchi
Latin American Cinema
Credits: 3
Monday 4:00-6:30
The course is designed to introduce students to the cinematic work of some of the most important Latin American directors . The course will center on a variety of topics that are vital to the understanding of the most significant political, historical, social and cultural events that have shaped Latin America. Some of the topics to be examined in the class are: racial, gender, sexual and identity issues; nation formation; revolution; immigration; repression; utopia; resistance; violence; freedom and indigenism. Students will be expected to develop interpretative filmic skills through an exploration of the connections between the technical composition of the films and the social, political, and cultural context to which each film refers.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: N
FILM-ST 497L /697FL Fellini- The Liar (Also available as ITALIAN 497FL/ ITALIAN 697FL)
(Also available online)
Instructor: Andrea Malaguti
Credits: 3
Tue 4:00-6:30
The course examines the most important films by Federico Fellini (whose "La dolce vita" and "8 1/2" both entered the 100 greatest movies list of the British Film Institute) to understand how his work both contends with his contemporaries (especially Hollywood) and still has a strong grip on our film imagery today. Lectures and discussions in English.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
FRENCH 353 – African Film
Patrick Mensah Cap: 30, 4 Credits
Lecture: Tu 4:00PM-6:45PM; Discussion: Thu 2:30PM-3:45PM OR Thu 4:00PM-5:15PM
This course offers an introduction to African film as an aesthetic and cultural practice. Students should expect to be familiarized with the key ideas and objectives that have inspired and driven that practice since the early 1960s, and be furnished with the technical tools and methodological skills that would permit them to understand, analyze, and think critically about the artistic and thematic aspects of the films that are screened. They should also expect the course to provide them with a critical peek into several cardinal issues of social and cultural relevance in contemporary Africa and its history. Issues of interest typically include, the nation state and its declining status, imperatives of decolonization, economic dependency and structural adjustment programs, orality and changing traditional cultures, diasporic migrations, urbanization and its problems, gender relations, civil wars, child soldiers, gangs, and related themes. Filmmakers studied include, but are not limited to, Abderrahmane Sissako, Gillo Pontecorvo, Ousmane Sembene, Raoul Peck, Jean-Marie Teno, Dani Kouyate, Mweze Ngangura, Gavin Hood, Neill Blomkamp, Moufida Tlatli, Djibril Diop Mambety (please note that this list is subject to change, and shall be updated as future changes are made). The course is conducted in English, and requires no prior knowledge of the field. All films are streamed to your computer from the UMass library on demand. Required readings are provided online, and no book purchases are necessary. (Gen.Ed. AT, DG)
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
GERMAN 304 – From Berlin to Hollywood
Mariana Ivanova Cap: 10, 4 Credit
Lec: TBA
This course offers a survey of German cinema from the 1920s on until the 21st century and focuses on transborder mobility of pictures and artists. We will examine the emigration of film directors from Babelsberg, the epicenter of the ‘Golden Age’ in German cinema to Hollywood. From celebrated directors such as Fritz Lang, Friedrich Murnau, and Ernst Lubitsch, to stars, such as Marlene Dietrich and Peter Lorre, we will trace the careers of those working in exile in the 1930s and 1940s. The course will continue with an exploration of the postwar period and the export of West German films into the US, while we look at the work of directors Wim Wenders, Volker Schlöndorff, Margarete von Trotta and Harun Farocki who also significantly shaped the perception of North America in Germany. We will conclude with discussions of more recent works by Tom Tykwer and Michael Hanneke, well-known among cineastes today for their international coproductions, Hollywood remakes, or Netflix series. Key issues in the course will be the transformation of film financing and material production circumstances as a result of European funding structures and a persistent ‘transnational aesthetic’ emerging in the work of the above directors. Both big budget blockbusters and independent films will be considered in their implications for film content, style, and social content. Conducted in English.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
ITALIAN 497FL /697FL Fellini- The Liar (Also available as FILM 497FL)
(Also available online)
Instructor: Andrea Malaguti
Credits: 3
Tue 4:00-6:30
The course examines the most important films by Federico Fellini (whose "La dolce vita" and "8 1/2" both entered the 100 greatest movies list of the British Film Institute) to understand how his work both contends with his contemporaries (especially Hollywood) and still has a strong grip on our film imagery today. Lectures and discussions in English.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
JUDAIC 344 - Film and Society in Israel
Olga Gershenson Cap: 10, 4 Credits
We 4:00PM - 6:45PM
This course uses film to discuss Israeli society. Topics include: foundation of Israel, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Holocaust survivors, religion, gender, and interethnic relations. All film showings are with English subtitles. (Gen. Ed. AT, DG)
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
SPANISH 397W – Special Topics: Latin American Cinema
Barbara Zecchi Cap: 15, 3 Credits
Lec: Mo 4:00PM-6:30PM
The course is designed to introduce students to the films of some of the most important Latin American directors. The course will center on a variety of topics that are vital to the understanding of the most significant political, historical, social and cultural events that have shaped Latin America.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: N
To find other courses that fulfill this and other categories, please check also the 5-Colleges Course Catalogue in Film Studies
Every semester we offer one production class taught by a visiting filmmaker, through the Visiting Professor Series
Please check this semester offering:
Filmmaking in the 21st Century: Visiting Professors Series
Other courses that count for the production track are:
FILM-ST 497V – Video Essay in Film Criticism
Daniel Pope
3 Credits
This is a course in planning, scripting, and editing video essays in film criticism, working with films from around the world and across film history. The field of film criticism is taking new forms in recent years, with social media, podcasts, websites and blogs dedicated to analyzing and discussing movies. Out of this trend, the video essay emerges as an exceptionally attractive and powerful medium for the film critic. In this class, we examine a wide array of video essays and explore the unique analytical and expressive opportunities the medium offers. A primary emphasis in the course is the study and practice of film criticism as an intellectual and creative endeavor with its own particular objectives, challenges, and expressive powers. With this foundation, we develop the critical, creative, and technical skills necessary for making effective video essays addressing films, directors, genres, national cinemas, and cultural and social issues. Making a video essay is in many ways like making a movie. As such we are engaged not only in film analysis and film writing but also in video editing, image composition, sound design, and other aspects of moving image media.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR THROUGH BDIC CATEGORY: D&G, T
FILM-ST 497P Film Podcasting
Instructor: Daniel Pope
Credits: 3 credits
This is, above all, a course in film criticism. For as long as there has been cinema there has also been film criticism, from print and broadcast media to web sites and social media in recent decades. The swiftly growing field of audio podcasting offers a versatile new digital medium for film criticism, drawing on many of the strengths of traditional media and bringing its own unique qualities of engagement. In this course, we will study varieties of film writing and explore the craft of creating compelling and illuminating film criticism and the key techniques for producing rich, engaging podcast content. We will work with films across a variety of genres and time periods and do hands-on work in all aspects of producing a film criticism podcast - research, analysis, writing, planning, conducting interviews, moderating, recording, editing, and posting your finished podcasts.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: T, E
FILM-ST - 493L – S-Experimental Film & Video
Kevin Anderson
3 Credits
This course explores the genre of Experimental Film and Video with a critical eye toward the history and current articulations of this form of production in both feature film and short form movies; videos. The course begins with an introduction to the genre, then explores Experimental Film; Video according to three different categories: Experimentation with Narrative, Experimentation with Structure; Form, and Experimentation with the line between Fact and Fiction. Students will emerge from this course with a solid foundation in the history and theory of experimental film; video as evidenced by writing projects, research papers, and student-produced experimental media projects.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: D&G
FILM-ST- 497S Untold Screenwriting
Daniel Pope, 3 Credits
This is a course in writing unconventional screenplays, singular film scripts that not only take innovative forms but also tell stories not often found in established film and media production. We will read from an international selection of screenplays, examine clips from unconventional films, and address questions of representation, inclusion, and the work of writing underrepresented characters and untold narratives for the screen. “Untold” signifies in two ways—it can mean boundless or limitless, and it can refer to a narrative that is not recounted. We are witnessing the beginnings of a film and media renaissance, with new works emerging and evolving that tell stories not commonly told and take innovative forms that can surprise, edify, delight, and enrich us. In this class, we will write screenplays for such works, starting with an appreciation for established forms and conventions of screenwriting and pushing to expand the boundaries of what stories films can tell, and how.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR IN BDIC CATEGORY: E
FILM-ST 397M: MAKING SHORT FILMS (Offered ONLINE through CPE/UWW)
Instructor: David Casals-Roma
Credits: 3
Making short films is a step by step course that goes through the basic aspects you need to know in order to make a film. We will start with the preproduction process and how to find engaging stories. You will learn how to break-down scripts, cast actors, find crew, scout locations, prepare budgets, shooting plans, call sheets and other important paperwork. For the production process the course will focus on shooting, blocking, lighting, directing actors, cinematography, sound and other important aspects to be aware of when you are on set. In the postproduction process you will learn the basics of editing images, sound design, music, effects and color correction. Finally, we will analyze the film market and the possibilities that new filmmakers have in the industry. (Important: There will be some practical exercises appointed by the professor. As film equipment is not provided for the class, you will need to have access to a camera)
Certificate Category: V
FILM MAJOR through BDIC requirement: E
Film-St 397EF - Experiments in Film (Offered ONLINE through CPE/UWW)
Instructor: Christopher Janke
Credits: 3
Let’s Break Some Rules Together: Experiments in Film. Is Christopher Nolan experimental? Richard Linklater? Marjane Satrapi? Abbas Kiarostami? The language of contemporary cinema is made from the bold experiments of the past. Filmmakers like Chris Marker and Maya Deren turned budgetary problems into films that stand the test of time. Adrian Piper’s radical experiments in racial identity: are these films? How would we talk about how they were cast – or about the set? We will look at the risks filmmakers take and why they take them, and we will wonder how they (or we) can know if their risks have paid off. And then we will use our creative resources to turn our own challenges into artistic constraints – into visions where our problems and concerns, our inspirations and quirks, spur us to create the unusual, the unique, and the daring. Come risk and play. Requirements include: short weekly experiments, reflections, risks, and films; watching films; and an independent project. In addition to a computer and internet access, you will need access to a camera that shoots video (a cellphone can work) as well as to video editing software and to a way to transfer between the two.
Certificate Category: V
FILM MAJOR through BDIC requirement: E
FILM-ST 497DF- Short Documentary Filmmaking (Offered ONLINE through CPE/UWW)
Instructor: David Casals Roma
Credits: 3
In the same way that fiction films are the mirror of our imagination, documentaries are the mirror of our surrounding reality. But making a documentary requires a creative point of view by the director and the knowledge of some filmmaking techniques. In this course you will learn how to develop your ideas for documentary, how to write a script, how to plan de production, how to shoot interviews and how to structure your movie in the editing room. Moreover, you will write, shoot and edit a 5-minute documentary during the course. It is important that you can have access to a camera, a computer and an editing software to edit your documentary.
Certificate Category: V
FILM MAJOR through BDIC requirement: E
FILM-ST 397K - Screenwriting: Film & Video (Taught ONLINE through CPE/UWW)
Instructor: Tom Benedek
Credits: 3
In this class students will learn character and plot creation techniques in feature films, TV, short films, online media and develop their own stories and scripts for selected formats. This course is an elective for the film studies major through BDIC.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: V
FILM MAJOR through BDIC requirement: E
FILM-ST 397K - Screenwriting: Film & Video (Taught ONLINE through CPE/UWW)
Instructor: Tom Benedek
Credits: 3
In this class students will learn character and plot creation techniques in feature films, TV, short films, online media and develop their own stories and scripts for selected formats. This course is an elective for the film studies major through BDIC.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: V
FILM MAJOR through BDIC requirement: E
To find other courses that fulfill this and other categories, please check also the 5-Colleges Course Catalogue in Film Studies
You can design your own track and choose courses from our broad offering in consultation with your advisor. To find other courses that fulfill this and other categories, please check also the 5-Colleges Course Catalogue in Film Studies