Academics

Fall 2024

FILM-ST 170 – Intro to Film Analysis: Time Travel
Instructor: Barry Spence
Credits: 4
Meeting: Thursday 4:00 pm-7:00 pm 
Discussion:
Friday 1:25 pm-2:15 pm
Friday 10:10 am-11:00 am
Friday 11:15 am-12:05 pm
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 CATEGORY: recommended intro course

FILM-ST 231 – Film & TV Production Concepts
Instructor: Kevin Anderson
Credits: 3
Meeting: Tu & Th 11:30 am-12:45 pm
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 CATEGORY: n/a

FILM-ST 304 - From Berlin to Hollywood
Instructor: Jonathan Skolnik
Credits: 4
Meeting: Tu & Th 10:00 am-11:15 am
An introduction to German cinema, treating Weimar Expressionism, Nazi film and
anti-Nazi exile cinema, film in post-WWII East and West Germany, and German film
since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Conducted in English. (Gen.Ed. AT)
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: N, E

FILM-ST 313 - Screenwriting: Film & Video
Instructor: Tom Benedek
Credits: 3
Meeting: Online
This is a creative writing workshop for storytelling in TV/Streaming media.
Class members will create story outlines and write script pages for their own projects, read and discuss scripts from selected films, TV/streaming shows.
There will be structured writing assignments each week to brainstorm, develop plot, characters, all the moving parts for script projects.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: 
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: 
 

FILM-ST 319 – Representing the Holocaust
Instructor: Jonathan Skolnik
Credits: 4
Meeting: Tuesday 2:30 pm-3:45 pm
Discussion:
Thursday 1:00 pm-2:15 pm
Thursday 10:00 am-11:15 am
Thursday 1:00 pm-2:15 pm
Thursday 10:00 am-11:15 am
Thursday 11:30 am-12:45 pm
Major writers, works, and themes concerning the Holocaust and its representation and commemoration. Exploration of narrative responses (including film, memoirs, poetry, video testimony, music, and memorials) to the genocide of European Jews and other peoples during World War II. (Gen.Ed. AL, DG)
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

FILM-ST 320 – Jewish Humor
Instructor: Olga Gershenson
Credits: 4
Meeting: Tuesday 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
What part does humor play in Jewish culture? This course examines Jewish humor in literature, folklore, film, TV, and stand-up comedy. Topics include: the origins of modern Jewish humor, Yiddish satire and comedy, Jewish role in popular culture in the US, Europe, and Israel, and the relationship of Jewish humor to antisemitism. (Gen. Ed. AT, DG)
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: N, E

FILM-ST 330 – Film Auteurs
Instructor: Daniel Pope
Credits: 4
Meeting: Mo 3:00PM - 5:30PM
Discussion:
Wednesday 2:30PM - 3:20PM
This course will focus on Lee Chang-dong and Jane Campion.
From intimate stories of quiet passion to ominous psychological thrillers to enigmatic detective movies, what do these two filmmakers, a man from South Korea and a woman from New Zealand, have in common with their artful films of human longing?  We will explore the writer/directors' celebrated works as well as the hidden treasures of their filmographies, examining the signature styles of each and comparing the several confluences in their sensibilities as cinematic storytellers.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: D&G, E

FILM-ST 350 – Italian Film
Instructor: Andrea Malaguti
Credits: 4
Meeting: Tu & Th 2:30 pm-3:45 pm
Course taught in English. Re-examines Italian neo-realism and the filmmakers? project of social reconstruction after Fascism. How Italian film produces meanings and pleasures through semiotics and psychoanalysis, so as to understand the specific features of Italian cinema, its cultural politics, and the Italian contribution to filmmaking and formal aesthetics. Course taught in English. (Gen. Ed. AT)
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: N, E

FILM-ST 375 – Film Writing and Criticism New Media
Instructor: Daniel Pope
Credits: 3
Meeting: M&W 1:00PM-2:15PM
Film and screen media touch nearly every corner of popular, professional and intellectual culture, and new varieties of film writing are flourishing along with it. In addition to the force of the research essay and the art of the film review, there is now the dynamism of new media - videographic essays, podcasts, blogs, and other engagements with film. This course is designed to teach advanced film and media analysis and writing skills for academic, professional, and public audiences. We dedicate our time to workshops of student writing and to analytical engagements with films, film criticism, and film theory. We study films from an array of genres, periods in film history, international cinemas, and underrepresented voices, and we challenge familiar modes of engaging film. The core work of this course is in discovering original, compelling insights into film and media and expressing those discoveries effectively in written text and in various forms of new media. This course satisfies the Junior Year Writing requirement for the Film Studies major in BDIC.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: JYW, E

FILM-ST 384 – Iberian Cinemas
Instructor: Barbara Zecchi
Credits: 3
Meeting: TuTh 4:00PM-6:30PM
This class offers a survey of the film productions of the Spanish state. Through a selection of over 20 films, this class will follow  the evolution of Spanish society and culture from dictatorship to democracy. It will address the development of Spanish cinema with an emphasis on different cinematic genres and film schools (for instance Basque cinema or Catalan cinema), and auteurs (Bu’uel, Saura, Luna, Almodovar, Coixet, Bollain, etc.). It will concentrate on topics such as the representation of Fascism, immigration, gender relations, gender-based violence, and national identity, and it will tackle the use of film techniques through close readings of specific film sequences. Films will be shown in their original versions (in Spanish, Catalan, Euskera, Galician or English) with English subtitles.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: 
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: 

FILM-ST 411 – 16mm Filmmaking
Instructor: David Bendiksen
Credits: 3
Meeting: Friday 1:00 pm-3:45 pm

This course is an introductory workshop in 16mm single-camera filmmaking, linear editing, and film projection intended for students interested in pursuing further creative production and coursework in film, especially toward completion of the Major or Certificate in Film Studies. Because the skills utilized in analog filmmaking can build upon but are in part discrete from those learned in video production, most students will have prior experience with photography or videography, though this is not strictly required. Creative work is complemented by a rigorous selection of readings and screenings. Exploration of technological possibilities to broaden student creativity will be emphasized, and the development of personal vision and style will be stressed.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

FILM-ST 440 – Women's Global Cinema
Instructor: Daniel Pope
Credits: 3
Meeting: Tu 3:00PM-5:30PM
Discussion:
Th 2:30PM-3:20PM
A close examination of films directed by women from around the globe through the viewpoint of gender and film theories. (Gen. Ed. HS, DG)
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: T, E

FILM-ST 446 – Film Documentary
Instructor: Bruce Geisler
Credits: 3
Meeting: Tuesday 2:30 pm-4:30 pm
Discussion:
Tuesday 4:45 pm-5:35 pm 
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 CATEGORY: D&G, E

FILM-ST 470 – Film Theory
Instructor: Barry Spence
Credits: 4
Meeting: Wednesday 4:00 pm-7:30 pm
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 film?s 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 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.
Prerequisites: 1 intro to film course (FILM-ST/COMP-LIT 170 or COMM 140 or COMM 231) AND at least 2 film courses at or above 300 level.
Requires Instructor permission to enroll. Please email instructor: bspence@umass.edu
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: T, E

FILM-ST 493L – Experimental Film and Video
Instructor: Kevin Anderson
Credits: 3
Meeting: Thursday 2:30 pm-5:30 pm 
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 CATEGORY: D&G, E

FILM-ST 650 – Videographic Teaching
Instructor: Johannes Binotto
Credits: 3
Meeting: Online
The course introduces graduate students to videographic criticism as a tool for studying and analyzing audiovisual material, as a presentation format to share knowledge, and as a teaching method. Videographic Criticism is viewed throughout the course as a multiple and hybrid format that speaks to the diversity of audiences as well as of audiovisual culture. Students watch, work with, and assess video essays to develop an understanding of how they can be used to diversify our understanding of audiovisual material and decolonizing our gaze. Exemplary video essays are shown and their strategies analyzed. Apart from that, students engage in their own videographic experiments (video-notes) that they will present in class, they will write two short essays and will create a syllabus for a class on videographic criticism.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: 
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: 

Communication

COMM 140 – Introduction to Film Studies
Instructor: Brendan McCauley
Credits: 3
Meeting: TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM
Discussion:
Tu 4:00PM - 6:00PMMoWe 2:30PM - 3:45PM
This course offers an introduction to the study of film as a distinct medium. It introduces the ways in which film style, form, and genre contribute to the meaning and the experience of movies. Topics include film as industrial commodity, narrative and non-narrative form, aspects of style (e.g. composition, cinematography, editing, and sound), and the role of film as a cultural practice. Examples are drawn from new and classic films, from Hollywood and from around the world. This course is intended to serve as a basis for film studies courses you might take in the future.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: I, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: n/a

COMM 331 – Program Process in Television
Instructor: Jason May
Credits: 3
Meeting: (see spire)
Lecture, studio lab. This course introduces concepts and techniques of television production through weekly lectures and lab meetings. During the first seven weeks, basic field camera concepts and techniques, as well as other video production information, are introduced in the lecture. Under the supervision of their lab instructor, they will produce a short program that puts the concept of the week to work. During the second half of the semester, students work on two major projects: first, a short, narrative piece shot in single-camera, post-production style; and second, a multiple camera piece shot in the production studio.
Prerequisite: COMM 231
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

COMM 340 – History of Film I
Instructor: Brendan McCauley
Credits: 3
Meeting: TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM
Discussion:
Mo 4:00PM - 6:00PM
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 CATEGORY: H1, E

COMM  346 - Introduction to Studio Directing
Instructor: Jason May
Credits: 3
Meeting: TH 10:00-2:00
Students will learn the process of directing programs in a studio environment, as well as practice principles of set design, lighting design; sound design, pickup & mixing; graphic design in the TV studio environment. The course will be a combination of analytics, technical understanding, and a hands-on learning experience. We will analyze various programs and their corresponding formats. Then, we will work on a long show format project as a class.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

COMM  347 - Studio Operations and Production Design
Instructor: Jason May
Credits: 3
Meeting: TU 10:00-2:00
Students will learn and practice principles of set design, lighting design; sound design, pickup & mixing; graphic design in the TV studio environment. We will analyze various programs and their corresponding formats. Then, we will work on studio projects pertaining to the types of programs discussed. The course will be a combination of analytics, technical understanding, and a hands-on learning experience.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

COMM 441 – Intermed Digital Filmmaking
Instructor: Kevin Anderson
Credits: 3
Meeting: Tu 2:30PM - 6:30PM
A hands-on introduction to single-camera filmmaking using digital video camcorders and non-linear editing.  Production assignments will foster student skills in the art of visual storytelling: from pre-production, shot composition and lighting to continuity editing and post production audio.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

COMM 444 – Film Styles & Genres
Instructor: Shawn Shimpach
Credits: 3
Meeting: Mo 1:25PM - 2:15PM
Discussion:
Mo 2:30PM - 5:15PM
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 CATEGORY: D&G, E

COMM  445 - Screenwriting
Instructor: Bruce Geisler
Credits: 3
Meeting: (see spire)
An examination of the art, craft, and business of screenwriting from theoretical and practical perspectives.  Topics include screenplay format and structure, story, plot and character development, dialog and scene description, visual storytelling, pace and rhythm, analysis of professional and student scripts and films.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

COMM 447 – Adv Documentary Production
Instructor: Robbie Leppzer
Credits: 3
Meeting: Th 3:00PM - 6:00PM
This course is a workshop-style class in digital film production, in which we will take a deep dive into advanced techniques and aesthetics of cinematography, lighting, sound recording and editing.  Through hands-on exercises and production of two short films, students will develop a solid practice in the technical skills needed MoWe 9:05AM - 11:50AM
to create visually and aurally compelling moving images and sound. Students will learn how to manage and organize large amounts of raw footage, edit sequences and create engaging story structures using Adobe Premiere.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

COMM  490STA - Advanced Digital Cinematography
Instructor: Robbie Leppzer
Credits: 3
Meeting: TH 11:30-2:30
This course is a workshop-style ?hands-on? class in digital film production, in which we will take a deep dive into advanced techniques and aesthetics of cinematography. Utilizing a state-of-the-art high-end professional 4K camera, students will learn how to master technical settings, including exposure, aperture, shutter speed, focus, ISO, depth of field, white balance, gamma assist, recording formats and codecs.  Visual composition, lenses, camera support and various filming techniques will be examined, along with workshops on lighting and basic audio recording and editing in Adobe Premiere. Through hands-on exercises and production of two short films, students will develop a solid practice in the technical skills needed to create visually compelling moving images. With an emphasis on documentary techniques, students with an interest in all film genres will be welcome.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

COMM 494BI – Counterculture Films
Instructor: Bruce Geisler
Credits: 3
Meeting: We 2:30PM - 4:30PM
Discussion:
We 4:45PM - 5:45PM
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. This course satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Comm majors.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: IE, D&G, E

Art

ART 230 – Image Capturing
Instructor: Adeyemi Adebayo
Credits: 3
Meeting: We 2:30PM - 4:30PM
Discussion:
Fr 9:00AM - 11:50AM
Fr 1:25PM - 4:10PM
Film Study Certificate students by instructor permission    
Introduction to photographic tools and methods. The balance between self-inquiry and the importance of process and materials as vehicles of meaning. Theory explored through class critiques and slide presentations. Photography examined and discussed both from a personal point of view and in its wider cultural context.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

ART 290STA – Intro to Computer Animation
Instructor: Hallie Bahn
Credits: 3
Meeting: MoWe 1:25PM - 4:10PM
Through short, hand-drawn 2D animation projects, students are introduced to primary animation skills such as timing & spacing, the 12 Principles of Animation, believable acting, and various professional workflows. Students gain experience working in a variety of animation and video editing programs and practice all parts of the animation pipeline, including pre-production, post-production & project management.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

ART  390STA - Experimental 3D Animation
Instructor: Jenny Vogel
Credits: 3
Meeting: TuTh 1:00PM - 3:45PM
This course is designed to provide students with a solid foundation in industry-standard 3D animation production processes, while also exploring conceptual, innovative and critical approaches to 3D animation. Classes will consist of discussions, lectures, presentations, technical tutorials, assignments and critiques. Participants will learn keyframe animation, physics simulation, virtual cinematography and virtual lighting, texturing and rendering optimization. Students will also learn about sound production, post-production compositing, editing and output for installation. Through rigorous formal experimentation students will create imaginative work and make visual connections to the world at large. Workshop time will be used for practice, production, group discussion, mini-lessons screenings, research, experimentation and critique. Time outside of class: You will need 6 additional hours outside of class per week to revise, edit and render projects.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

ART  490STA - Advanced Animation Seminar
Instructor: Hallie Bahn
Credits: 3
Meeting: Wed4:40-7:25
In this advanced seminar, students develop a semester-long individual or group project in close conjunction with faculty guidance. Students may work in any animated medium. Individual projects evolve through a detailed and continuous process of research, reading, presentation, and peer critique. Emphasis is placed on narrative, personal voice, and producing festival-ready films. This course is typically taken in senior year and is only open to students who have completed introductory and intermediate courses in animation. BFA students who are pursuing a BFA thesis project in animation are encouraged to take this course in preparation for pursuing their capstone project.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: IV, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: E

Chinese

CHINESE  136 - Introduction to Chinese Cinema
Instructor: Enhua Zhang
Credits: 3
Meeting: TUTH 10:00-11:15
Chinese cinema, broadly defined to include films from Hong Kong and Taiwan, from its inception at the turn of the century to the present. Explores Chinese film as an art form, an instrument of political propaganda, and a medium of mass entertainment. No background required, although some knowledge of modern Chinese history is helpful. Conducted in English.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III,, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: n/a

Compartive Literature (COMP-LIT)

COMP-LIT 337 – Int. History of Animation
Instructor: Christopher Couch 
Credits: 4
Meeting: Tu 7:00PM - 10:00PM
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. (Gen. Ed. AT, DG)
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: II, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: H2, E

COMP-LIT 391W – Polish Film
Instructor: Jeremi Marek Szaniawski,
Michael Kowalchuk
Credits: 3
Meeting: MoWe 2:30PM - 3:45PM
What happens when a nation "dreams" itself, when it projects an image of its identity and uses it to negotiate its socio-historic predicament? Perhaps modern Polish cinema, which rose from the ashes of the Holocaust and World War II and in a new communist age, offers as good a case study as any of this important question. In the course of this class, we will look at Polish history as mediated through the lens of film in works by Wajda, Has, Munk, Kieslowski, Roman Polanski, Skolimowski, Zanussi, Holland, and more recent filmmakers such as Pawlikowski, who have also more readily addressed social and psychosexual norms, applying a queering lens to traditional motifs, including family, the church, death and sexuality. Accompanying these works is the notion that the very act of recreating history necessarily transforms it into something else. In these diverse "dreams of Poland" and of Polish identity - some more serene, some more hallucinatory - we will also get a better sense of what Deleuze meant when he warned of getting lost in someone else's dream.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: N, E

French

FRENCH 350 – French Film
Instructor: Emmanuel Buzay
Credits: 4
Meeting: TuTh 4:00PM - 5:15PM
This French film survey course in English will introduce a variety of French films (with English subtitles) of different genres dating from the 1930s to the present, which we will interpret on their own terms, in relation to other films, and with respect to their specific historical contexts of time and place. At the end of this course, you will be able to analyze films and their different genres as cultural products, identify the values transmitted within these works of art, critically discuss films with the technical vocabulary of film analysis, and interpret films as complex creative works within their specific settings of time and place in French history. To this end, we will focus on food and meals and how this theme reflects economic realities, national obsessions, behavioral conventions, and societal transformations.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: N, E

Spanish

SPANISH  384 - Iberian Cinemas
Instructor: Celia Sainz Delgado
Credits: 3
Meeting: TU 4:00-6:30
This class offers a survey of the film productions of the Spanish state. Through a selection of over 20 films, this class will follow  the evolution of Spanish society and culture from dictatorship to democracy. It will address the development of Spanish cinema with an emphasis on different cinematic genres and film schools (for instance Basque cinema or Catalan cinema), and auteurs (Bu?uel, Saura, Luna, Almodovar, Coixet, Bollain, etc.). It will concentrate on topics such as the representation of Fascism, immigration, gender relations, gender-based violence, and national identity, and it will tackle the use of film techniques through close readings of specific film sequences. Films will be shown in their original versions (in Spanish, Catalan, Euskera, Galician or English) with English subtitles.
UNDERGRADUATE FILM STUDIES CERTIFICATE CATEGORY: III, V
FILM STUDIES MAJOR CATEGORY: N, E