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Tri-College Courses

CURRENT COURSE OFFERINGS

Bryn Mawr
Haverford
Swarthmore
University of Pennsylvania Cinema Studies

This page displays the schedule of Bryn Mawr courses for this academic year. It also displays descriptions of courses offered by the department during the last four academic years.

For information about courses offered by other Bryn Mawr departments and programs or about courses offered by Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges, please consult the Tri-College Course Guide.

For information about the Academic Calendar, including the dates of first and second quarter courses, please visit the College's master calendar

Students must choose a major subject and may choose a minor subject. Students may also select from one of seven concentrations, which are offered to enhance a student's work in the major or minor and to focus work on a specific area of interest.

Concentrations are an intentional cluster of courses already offered by various academic departments or through general programs. These courses may also be cross-listed in several academic departments. Therefore, when registering for a course that counts toward a concentration, a student should register for the course listed in her major or minor department. If the concentration course is not listed in her major or minor department, the student may enroll in any listing of that course.

Spring 2012

COURSE	TITLE	SCHEDULE/ UNITS	MEETING TYPE TIMES/DAYS	LOCATION	INSTRUCTOR(S)
ENGL B205-001	Introduction to Film	Semester / 1	Lecture: 2:15 PM- 3:45 PM TTH	Thomas Hall 224	Tratner,M.
			Film: 7:00 PM- 9:30 PM M	Carpenter Library 25
ENGL B299-001	History of Narrative Cinema	Semester / 1	Lecture: 9:45 AM-11:15 AM TTH	Carpenter Library 21	King,H.
			Film: Date/Time TBA	Carpenter Library 21
ENGL B324-001	Topics in Shakespeare: Shakespeare on Film: Global Shakespeare	Semester / 1	LEC: 7:00 PM-10:00 PM T	English House I	Rowe,K.
			Film: 2:00 PM- 4:00 PM SU	Carpenter Library 25
ENGL B353-001	Queer Diasporas: Empire, Desire, and the Politics of Placement	Semester / 1	LEC: 1:00 PM- 2:30 PM MW	English House II	Schneider,S., Schneider,S.
			Film: 7:00 PM-10:00 PM M	Carpenter Library 15
GNST B302-001	Topics in Video Production	Semester / 1	Lecture: 1:00 PM- 5:00 PM TH	Dalton Hall 10	Cho,E.
HART B205-001	Introduction to Film	Semester / 1	Lecture: 2:15 PM- 3:45 PM TTH	Thomas Hall 224	Tratner,M.
			Film: 7:00 PM- 9:30 PM M	Carpenter Library 25
HART B299-001	History of Narrative Cinema, 1945 to present	Semester / 1	Lecture: 9:45 AM-11:15 AM TTH	Carpenter Library 21	King,H.
			Film: 7:00 PM- 9:00 PM M	Carpenter Library 21

Fall 2012

(Class schedules for this semester will be posted at a later date.)

Spring 2013

(Class schedules for this semester will be posted at a later date.)

HAVERFORD FALL 2011

ENGL 272 – Introduction to Film: Form, History, Theory (Gaffney) MW 2:30-4p

HAVERFORD SPRING 2012

ARTS/COML/ICPR 229 – Topics in Rhetorical Theory: Roland Barthes and the Image (Muse) TTh 10-11:30a

ENGL 384 – Advanced Film Seminar (Gaffney) F 1:30-4p

GERM 224 - Books & Media for Children: From Enlightenment to Cyberspace (Henning) TTh 11:30a-1p

GERM 321 - East German Media History: Literature Film Television (Henning) M 7:30-10p
ICPR 243 – Documentary Video Production (Funari) W 1:30-4pi

SWARTHMORE FALL 2011

FMST 001 - Intro to Film and Media Studies (Simon) W 1:15-4p, screening M 7-9p, Science Ctr 199

FMST 011 - Advanced Video Production (Cho) M 1:15-5p, Science Ctr 104

FMST 031 - Documentary Film: Africa/Diaspora (Massiah) T TH 1:15-2:30p, W 7-9, Science Ctr 104

FMST 043 Conspiracy (Rehak) T TH 2:40-3:55p Kohlberg 116, screening T 7-10 Lang Performing Arts Ctr 101

FMST 046 Queer Media (white) 1:15-4p, screening 7-10 Kohlberg 116

FMST 050 What on Earth is World Cinema (White) T TH 9:55-11:10, screening Sun 7-10p, Science Center 199

FMST 086 Theory & History of Video Games (Rehak) T TH 11:20-12:35 Science Ctr 183

SWARTHMORE SPRING 2012

FMST 002 – Production Workshop: Digital Film Fundamentals (Cho) T 1:15-5p, Sci Ctr 104

FMST 020 – Critical Theories of Film and Media (White) TTh 11:20-12:35, screening M 7-10p Kohlberg 226

FMST 032 – Documentary Film Practicum (Massiah) Th 1-5p, screening W 7-9p, Lang 112

FMST 57 – Japanese Film and Animation (Gardner) TTh 1:15-2:30, screening W 7-10p, Sci Ctr 105

FMST 059 – Re-envisioning Diasporas (Simon) TTh 9:55-11:10a, screening M 7-10p, Kohlberg 334

FMST 084 – TV and New Media (Rehak) W 1:15-4p, screening T 7-10p, Kohlberg 116

FMST 090 – Film and Media Capstone (Rehak) M 1:15-4p, screening Su 7-10p, Kolhberg 116

ARTW B266 Screenwriting Fall 2011 An introduction to screenwriting. Issues basic to the art of storytelling in film will be addressed and analyzed: character, dramatic structure, theme, setting, image, sound. The course focuses on the film adaptation; readings include novels, screenplays, and short stories. Films adapted from the readings will be screened. In the course of the semester, students will be expected to outline and complete the first act of an adapted screenplay of their own. (Doyne,N. -- Division III: Humanities)

COML B238 The History of Cinema 1895 to 1945 Silent Film: From United States to Soviet Russia and Beyond Not offered 2011-12 This course will explore cinema from its earliest, most primitive beginnings up to the end of the silent era. While the course will focus on a variety of historical and theoretical aspects of cinema, the primary aim is to look at films analytically. Emphasis will be on the various artistic methods that went into the direction and production of a variety of celebrated silent films from around the world. These films will be considered in many contexts: artistic, historical, social, and even philosophical, so that students can develop a deeper understanding of silent cinema's rapid evolution. (Harte,T. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as ENGL B238 Cross-listed as HART B238 Cross-listed as RUSS B238

EDUC B320 Topics in German Literature and Culture
Section 001 (Fall 2011): Education in German Literature and Culture Fall 2011
Current topic description: What conceptualizations of education emerged in the German Enlightenment and during the 19th and 20th centuries in German-speaking countries? Does education support specific goals shared across a nation, support the status quo, or question dominant paradigms? How are notions of religion, gender, sexuality, class, race, and national identity reflected in education? And how do adult and children's literature, as well as film, grapple with these issues? Language of instruction: English. (Meyer,I. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as GERM B320

ENGL B205 Introduction to Film Spring 2012 This course is intended to provide students with the tools of critical film analysis. Through readings of images and sounds, sections of films and entire narratives, students will cultivate the habits of critical viewing and establish a foundation for focused work in film studies. The course introduces formal and technical units of cinematic meaning and categories of genre and history that add up to the experiences and meanings we call cinema. Although much of the course material will focus on the Hollywood style of film, examples will be drawn from the history of cinema. Attendance at weekly screenings is mandatory. (Tratner,M. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as HART B205

ENGL B238 The History of Cinema 1895 to 1945 Silent Film: From United States to Soviet Russia and Beyond Not offered 2011-12 This course will explore cinema from its earliest, most primitive beginnings up to the end of the silent era. While the course will focus on a variety of historical and theoretical aspects of cinema, the primary aim is to look at films analytically. Emphasis will be on the various artistic methods that went into the direction and production of a variety of celebrated silent films from around the world. These films will be considered in many contexts: artistic, historical, social, and even philosophical, so that students can develop a deeper understanding of silent cinema's rapid evolution. (Harte,T., Gorfinkel,E. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as COML B238 Cross-listed as HART B238 Cross-listed as RUSS B238

ENGL B239 Women and Cinema Not offered 2011-12 This course will examine the particular challenges that women filmmakers face, as well as the unique and innovative contributions they have made to film aesthetics and narrative form. The class will address central debates within feminism from the 1970s to the present, in particular, feminism's influence on women's independent film production and the question of female authorship. (Gorfinkel,E. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as HART B239

ENGL B257 Gender and Technology Not offered 2011-12 Explores the historical role technology has played in the production of gender; the historical role gender has played in the evolution of various technologies; how the co-construction of gender and technology has been represented in a range of on-line, filmic, fictional, and critical media; and what all of the above suggest for the technological engagement of everyone in today's world. (Dalke,A., McCormack,E. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as CMSC B257

ENGL B280 Video Practices: From Analog to Digital Not offered 2011-12 This course explores the history and theory of video art from the late 1960's to the present. The units include: aesthetics; activisim; access; performance; and institutional critique. We will reflect on early video's "utopian moment" and its manifestation in the current new media revolution. Feminist, people of color and queer productions will constitute the majority of our corpus. Prerequisite: ENGL/HART B205 Intro to Film or consent of the instructor. (Nguyen,H. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as HART B280

ENGL B299 History of Narrative Cinema Spring 2012 This course surveys the history of narrative film from 1945 through the contemporary moment. We will analyze a series of styles and national cinemas in chronological order, including Italian Neorealism, the French New Wave, and other post-war movements and genres. Viewings of canonical films will be supplemented by more recent examples of global cinema. While historical in approach, this course emphasizes the theory and criticism of the sound film, and we will consider various methodological approaches to the aesthetic, socio-political, and psychological dimensions of cinema. (King,H. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as HART B299

ENGL B324 Topics in Shakespeare: Shakespeare on Film
Section 001 (Spring 2012): Global Shakespeare Spring 2012 Films and play texts vary from year to year. The course assumes significant prior experience of Shakespearean drama and/or Renaissance drama. (Rowe,K. -- Division III: Humanities)

ENGL B334 Topics in Film Studies
Section 001 (Fall 2011): Picturing the Invisible Fall 2011 This is a topics course. Content varies.
Current topic description: In what ways do film, photography, and digital media shape the space of public appearance? Who and what can be represented, who and what remain on the fringes of the visible world? To what extent are political, social, and cultural recognition predicated on the capacity to appear in photographs, on film, on television, on the internet, and in classrooms and musuems? Starting from the premise that political potential and recognition are firmly tied to the ability to appear in lensed images, we will explore topics such as 1) how invisible and marginal subjects are to be pictured, 2) how existing repertoires of images affect who and what can appear, 3) how the censorship, circulation, and exhibition of images factor into public visibility. Films may include Standard Operating Procedure, A Fire in My Belly, and others; readings include texts by Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, and others. (King,H. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as HART B334

ENGL B341 Cult Genres: Camp, Kitsch, and Trash Cinema Not offered 2011-12 (Gorfinkel,E. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as HART B341

ENGL B353 Queer Diasporas: Empire, Desire, and the Politics of Placement Spring 2012 Looking at fiction and film from the U.S. and abroad through the lenses of sexuality studies and queer theory, we will explore the ways that both current and past configurations of sexual, racial, and cultural personhood have inflected, infringed upon, and opened up spaces of local/global citizenship and belonging. Prerequisites: An introductory course in film, or GNST B290, or ENGL B250. (Schneider,S. -- Division III: Humanities)

ENGL B367 Asian American Film Video and New Media Not offered 2011-12 The course explores the role of pleasure in the production, reception, and performance of Asian American identities in film, video, and the internet, taking as its focus the sexual representation of Asian Americans in works produced by Asian American artists from 1915 to present. In several units of the course, we will study graphic sexual representations, including pornographic images and sex acts some may find objectionable. Students should be prepared to engage analytically with all class material. To maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect and solidarity among the participants in the class, no auditors will be allowed. (Nguyen,H. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as HART B367

GERM B262 Film and the German Literary Imagination Not offered 2011-12 Course content varies. Topic for Fall 2010: "Austrian Cinema: From the Silent Era to the Present." This course offers an overview of Austrian cinema from the silent era to the present. We will trace the ways in which Austrian film grapples with the fall of the Habsburg Empire, World War I and its aftermath, Austro-Fascism, the Annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, World War II, Austria's relation to the Holocaust, shifting notions of national identity after 1945, and Austria's entrance into the European Union. Previous topics include: Travel in Post-War German and Austrian Film; Global Masculinities: The Male Body in Contemporary Cinema. (Meyer,I. -- Division III: Humanities)

GERM B320 Topics in German Literature and Culture
Section 001 (Fall 2011): Education in German Literature and Culture Fall 2011 This is a topics course. Course content varies. Previous topics include: Romantic Literary Theory and Literary Modernity; Configurations of Femininity in German Literature; Nietzsche and Modern Cultural Criticism; Contemporary German Fiction. The topic for 2011-12 is "No Child Left Behind: Education in German Literature and Culture."
Current topic description: What conceptualizations of education emerged in the German Enlightenment and during the 19th and 20th centuries in German-speaking countries? Does education support specific goals shared across a nation, support the status quo, or question dominant paradigms? How are notions of religion, gender, sexuality, class, race, and national identity reflected in education? And how do adult and children's literature, as well as film, grapple with these issues? Language of instruction: English. (Meyer,I. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as EDUC B320

GNST B255 Video Production Fall 2011 This course will explore aesthetic strategies utilized by low-budget film and video makers as each student works throughout the semester to complete a 7-15 minute film or video project. Course requirements include weekly screenings, reading assignments, and class screenings of rushes and roughcuts of student projects. Prerequisites: Some prior film course experience necessary, instructor discretion. (Cho,E. -- Division III: Humanities)

GNST B302 Topics in Video Production Spring 2012 This course is an immersive experience in the art of narrative film, combined with technical instruction in cinematography, sound, and editing. Coursework includes critiques, creative writing exercises, formal analysis of film clips, presentations, group projects, attending local film festival, and the production of a digital short film using narrative tehniques. Pre-requisite: GNST B255, ENGL/HART B205-001 or an equivalent Video Production course, such as Documentary Production or an equivalent critical course in Film or Media Studies. Please contact instructor for pre-requisite questions. (Cho,E.)

HART B110 Critical Approaches to Visual Representation: Identification in the Cinema Fall 2011 An introduction to the analysis of film through particular attention to the role of the spectator.
Current topic description: An introduction to the analysis of film through particular attention to the role of the spectator. (King,H., Teaching Assistant,T. -- Division III: Humanities)

HART B205 Introduction to Film Spring 2012 This course is intended to provide students with the tools of critical film analysis. Through readings of images and sounds, sections of films and entire narratives, students will cultivate the habits of critical viewing and establish a foundation for focused work in film studies. The course introduces formal and technical units of cinematic meaning and categories of genre and history that add up to the experiences and meanings we call cinema. Although much of the course material will focus on the Hollywood style of film, examples will be drawn from the history of cinema. Attendance at weekly screenings is mandatory. (Tratner,M. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as ENGL B205

HART B215 Russian Avant-Garde Art, Literature and Film Fall 2011 (Harte,T. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as RUSS B215

HART B238 The History of Cinema 1895 to 1945 Silent Film: From United States to Soviet Russia and Beyond Not offered 2011-12 This course will explore cinema from its earliest, most primitive beginnings up to the end of the silent era. While the course will focus on a variety of historical and theoretical aspects of cinema, the primary aim is to look at films analytically. Emphasis will be on the various artistic methods that went into the direction and production of a variety of celebrated silent films from around the world. These films will be considered in many contexts: artistic, historical, social, and even philosophical, so that students can develop a deeper understanding of silent cinema's rapid evolution. (Harte,T., Gorfinkel,E. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as ENGL B238 Cross-listed as COML B238 Cross-listed as RUSS B238

HART B239 Women and Cinema Not offered 2011-12 This course will examine the particular challenges that women filmmakers face, as well as the unique and innovative contributions they have made to film aesthetics and narrative form. The class will address central debates within feminism from the 1970s to the present, in particular, feminism's influence on women's independent film production and the question of female authorship. (Gorfinkel,E. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as ENGL B239

HART B280 Video Practices: Analog to Digital Not offered 2011-12 (Nguyen,H. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as ENGL B280

HART B299 History of Narrative Cinema, 1945 to present Spring 2012 This course surveys the history of narrative film from 1945 through the contemporary moment. We will analyze a series of styles and national cinemas in chronological order, including Italian Neorealism, the French New Wave, and other post-war movements and genres. Viewings of canonical films will be supplemented by more recent examples of global cinema. While historical in approach, this course emphasizes the theory and criticism of the sound film, and we will consider various methodological approaches to the aesthetic, socio-political, and psychological dimensions of cinema. Fulfills the history requirement or the introductory course requirement for the Film Studies minor. (King,H. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as ENGL B299

HART B306 Film Theory Not offered 2011-12 An introduction to major developments in film theory and criticism. Topics covered include: the specificity of film form; cinematic realism; the cinematic "author"; the politics and ideology of cinema; the relation between cinema and language; spectatorship, identification, and subjectivity; archival and historical problems in film studies; the relation between film studies and other disciplines of aesthetic and social criticism. Each week of the syllabus pairs critical writing(s) on a central principle of film analysis with a cinematic example. Class will be divided between discussion of critical texts and attempts to apply them to a primary cinematic text. (King,H. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as ENGL B306 Cross-listed as COML B306

HART B334 Topics in Film Studies
Section 001 (Fall 2011): Picturing the Invisible Fall 2011 This is a topics course. Content varies.
Current topic description: In what ways do film, photography, and digital media shape the space of public appearance? Who and what can be represented, who and what remain on the fringes of the visible world? To what extent are political, social, and cultural recognition predicated on the capacity to appear in photographs, on film, on television, on the internet, and in classrooms and musuems? Starting from the premise that political potential and recognition are firmly tied to the ability to appear in lensed images, we will explore topics such as 1) how invisible and marginal subjects are to be pictured, 2) how existing repertoires of images affect who and what can appear, 3) how the censorship, circulation, and exhibition of images factor into public visibility. Films may include Standard Operating Procedure, A Fire in My Belly, and others; readings include texts by Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, and others. (King,H. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as ENGL B334

HART B341 Cult Genres Not offered 2011-12 Serving to theorize and historicize cult film and questions of the aesthetic and cultural value, this class will examine conceptual issues of taste, reception, and mass culture as they have accrued around cult film phenomena such as the midnight movie, the cult horror film, exploitation film, underground, and camp cinema. Prerequisite: One course from: ENGL/HART B205; HART B110; HART/ENGL B299; or consent of instructor. (Gorfinkel,E. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as ENGL B341

HART B367 Asian American Film, Video and New Media Not offered 2011-12 The course explores the role of pleasure in the production, reception, and performance of Asian American identities in film, video, and the internet, taking as its focus the sexual representation of Asian Americans in works produced by Asian American artists from 1915 to present. In several units of the course, we will study graphic sexual representations, including pornographic images and sex acts some may find objectionable. Students should be prepared to engage analytically with all class material. To maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect and solidarity among the participants in the class, no auditors will be allowed. (Nguyen,H. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as ENGL B367

HEBR B110 Israeli Cinema Not offered 2011-12 The course traces the evolution of the Israeli cinema from ideologically charged visual medium to a universally recognized film art, as well as the emergent Palestinian cinema and the new wave of Israeli documentaries. It will focus on the historical, ideological, political, and cultural changes in Israeli and Palestinian societies and their impact on films' form and content. (Amitai,A. -- Division III: Humanities)

HIST B284 Movies and America Not offered 2011-12 Movies are one of the most important means by which Americans come to know - or think they know--their own history. This class examines the complex cultural relationship between film and American historical self fashioning. (Ullman,S. -- Division I or Division III)

RUSS B215 Russian Avant-Garde Art, Literature and Film Fall 2011 This course focuses on Russian avant-garde painting, literature and cinema at the start of the 20th century. Moving from Imperial Russian art to Stalinist aesthetics, we explore the rise of non-objective painting (Malevich, Kandinsky, etc.), ground-breaking literature (Bely, Mayakovsky), and revolutionary cinema (Vertov, Eisenstein). No knowledge of Russian required. (Harte,T. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as HART B215

RUSS B238 The History of Cinema 1895 to 1945 Silent Film: From the United States to Soviet Russia and Beyond Not offered 2011-12 This course will explore cinema from its earliest, most primitive beginnings up to the end of the silent era. While the course will focus on a variety of historical and theoretical aspects of cinema, the primary aim is to look at films analytically. Emphasis will be on the various artistic methods that went into the direction and production of a variety of celebrated silent films from around the world. These films will be considered in many contexts: artistic, historical, social, and even philosophical, so that students can develop a deeper understanding of silent cinema's rapid evolution. (Harte,T. -- Division III: Humanities) Cross-listed as ENGL B238 Cross-listed as COML B238 Cross-listed as HART B238

SPAN B318 Adaptaciones literarias en el cine español Not offered 2011-12 Film adaptations of literary works have been popular since the early years of cinema in Spain. This course examines the relationship between films and literature, focusing on the theory and practice of film adaptation. Attention will be paid to the political and cultural context in which these texts are being published and made into films. Prerequisite: A 200-level course in Spanish, SPAN 208. (Song,H. -- Division III: Humanities)

PREVIOUSLY OFFERED COURSES

Haverford
Swarthmore

HAVERFORD FALL 2008 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

ICPR 224a. Seeing Class: Film and Social Class in America

Professors Emma Lapsanksy-Werner and Louis Massiah
T-Th 1:00-2:30pm

Course description forthcoming.

SWARTHMORE FALL 2008 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

GERM 54 (FMST91). German Cinema

Professor Sunka Simon
W 1:15-4:00pm, screenings M 7:00-9:00pm

An introduction to German cinema from its inception in the 1890's until the present. It will include an examination of early exhibition forms, expressionist and avant-garde films from the classic German cinema of the Weimar era, fascist cinema, postwar rubble films, DEFA films from East Germany, New German Cinema from the 1970's, and post-1989 heritage films.

HAVERFORD SPRING 2009 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

ICPR 278b. Documentary Film and Approaches to Truth

Visiting Professor Vicky Funari
T-Th 11:30am-1:00pm

Course description forthcoming.

HAVERFORD PREVIOUSLY OFFERED COURSES

SPAN 210 Spanish & Spanish American Film Studies

Professor Michelotti
Class: M, W 12:30 -2:00

Exploration of films in Spanish from both sides of the Atlantic. The course will discuss approximately one movie per class, from a variety of directors, including Luis Buñuel, Carlos Saura, Pedro Almodóvar, María Luisa Bemberg, Lucrecia Martel, Miguel Littín. The class will focus on the cinematic discourse as well as the cultural and historic background of each film. The course will also provide advanced language training with particular emphasis in refining oral and writing skills.

GERM 262 Global Masculinities: The Male Body in Contemporary Cinema

Professor TBA
Class: TH 1:30-4:00 pm
Room: TBA

This course will explore masculinity in a variety of national cinemas. What are the parameters for representations of male bodies in contemporary film? How do cinematic representations of male bodies differ from those of female bodies? Have the modes of representation shifted with the rise of a notion of a “global cinema”? How have the phenomena of feminism, post-feminism, globalization and new media influenced contemporary representations of maleness? We will read seminal Western texts on masculinity and visual representation (Lessing, Freud, Lacan, et al) as well as texts focusing on non-Western masculinities (Sinha, Eng, et al), and queer masculinities (Dean, Lane et al). Films by Alexander Payne, Andrei Zvyagintsev, R.W. Fassbinder, Park Chan-wook, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Pedro Almodovar, Yang Zhang, Alan Berliner, Nicole Kassell, among others.

GERM 224 New German Cinema

Professor Chris Pavsek

This course will provide you a thorough introduction to the work of three of the most important filmmakers of the generation or two of filmmakers to come to prominence in Germany in the 1970s. This course is different than many film courses in that it will not provide a survey of a period or genre, but will instead take the time to delve in greater depth into the work of three very different artists. The course will be organized by filmmaker, but three main concerns will return throughout.
The general approach is to treat these filmmakers as intellectuals, as something like "visual philosophers" or "theorists' in their own right. That is, we will probe how they try to think via film (and video).

COMLH 210 Spanish and Spanish American Film Studies

Professor Graciela Michelotti

Exploration of films in Spanish from both sides of the Atlantic. The course will discuss approximately one movie per class, from a variety of directors, including Luis Bunuel, Carlos Saura, Pedro Almodovar, Maria Luisa Bemberg, Miguel Littin, Etc., focusing on the cinematic discourse as well as the cultural and historic background of each film. The course will also provide advanced language training with particular emphasis in refining oral and writing skills. (cross listed with Spanish)

EASTH 330A01:Cinema Nostalgia

An examination of how fragmented, past images are re-collected and refashioned in the post-80s Chinese language feature films and documentaries produced in mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with what implications. What are the historical conjunctures from which such re-member-ing cinema arises; how does this type of cinema help to deepen our understanding of the relationship between image, nostalgia and cinema; what kind of politics of nostalgia can we evolve on the basis of this cinema? (Wang)

EASTH275B01: Romancing/Passing

An exploration of the political and cultural implications of different kinds of border-crossing (or "passing") in films from or about East Asia. In tracking passages across boundaries of gender, ethnicity, race, and culture, we will focus especially on the production and meaning of Romance, which may take a variety of forms and bear a number of meanings: fantasmatic or realistic representation; homosexual or heterosexual desire; utopic or dystopic vision. This course will be conducted in concert with the Romance Passing film series to be held in April, 2005. (Wang)

GERM275: Topics in German Cultural Studies: Politics and Utopia in European Film

This course focuses on political cinema in Europe from the 60s through today. Questions we will ask include: How did political filmmakers conceive of the political impact of their art? What strategies did they adopt? How did their films relate to political movements on the ground? What theory informed their films? We will watch films by Kluge, Farocki, Bitomski, Godard, Tanner, John Smith, Akerman and others. We will also read texts by Kluge, Godard, Debord, Marcuse, Adorno, Benjamin and others. (Pavsek)

SWARTHMORE PREVIOUSLY OFFERED COURSES

FALL 2007

FMST 001. Introduction to Film and Media Studies

Provides groundwork for further study in the discipline. Introduces students to concepts, theories, and methods of film, video, and television studies such as formal analysis of image and sound, aesthetics, historiography, genres, authorship, issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and nation, economics, and reception and audience studies. Emphasis on developing writing, analytical, and research skills. Films by Hitchcock, Godard, Lang, Sembene, Scorsese, Trinh, Welles, and selected video art and television genres. Required weekly evening screenings.

FMST 010. War News Radio

FMST 080. What on Earth is World Cinema?

Is there such a thing as world cinema? What is the relationship between "world cinema" and national cinemas? What is "national" about national cinemas? This course introduces students to theoretical debates about the categorization and global circulation of films, film style, authorship, and audiences through case studies drawn from Iranian, Indian, East Asian, Latin American, and European cinemas.

ENGL 09P. FYS: Women and Popular Culture: Fiction, Film, and Television

This course looks at Hollywood's "chick flicks" and "women's films" and television soap operas, their sources in 19th- and 20th-century popular fiction and melodrama, and the cultural practices surrounding their promotion and reception. How do race, class, and sexual orientation intersect with gendered genre conventions, discourses of authorship and critical evaluation, and the paradoxes of popular cultural pleasures? Uncle Tom's Cabin, Gone With the Wind, Rebecca, The Joy Luck Club, Bridget Jones's Diary. Weekly screenings.

FREN 022. Cinema francais et francophone: Cinema de la ville

The history of French cinema is closely enmeshed with the development of the city. Films use the city to create setting, mood, tone, and style but also to represent and re-imagine the changing urban spaces in which actions occur. We will examine a history of the French cinematic representations of the city in the culture of the modern urban. This course will focus on film aesthetics and close analysis of film texts.

GERM 054. German Cinema

This course is an introduction to German cinema from its inception in the 1890s until the present. It will include an examination of early exhibition forms, expressionist and avant-garde films from the classic German cinema of the Weimar era, fascist cinema, postwar rubble films, DEFA films from East Germany, New German Cinema from the 1970s, and post-1989 heritage films. This course will analyze a cross-match of popular and avant-garde films while discussing mass culture, education, propaganda, and entertainment as identity- and nation-building practices. Taught in English.

SOAN 121. Visual Ethnography

This seminar examines the use of film and video by sociologist and anthropologist to convey and communicate aspects of culture that are visible—from rituals, performance, and dance to disputes and violence. The course will look at the history of visual ethnography and explore the major issues within the field, including the relationship between ethnographers and filmmakers, and the appropriateness of the conventions of documentary film, paying special attention to the influences of politics, economics, and technical advances. The course will include readings on visual ethnography and documentary film techniques. The main goals of the seminar are for students to understand the links between anthropological and sociological theory and the production of ethnographic and documentary film and to have the production skills necessary for directing their own work.

SPRING 2008

FMST 02. Video Production Workshop

Provides instruction in basic technical aspects of digital video production and background in formal properties of video- and filmmaking. Exercises are designed to ensure a sound technical foundation as well as to familiarize students with the aesthetic principles underlying a variety of film styles and traditions. Limited to 12 students. Students may be responsible for some production expenses.

ENGL 087. American Narrative Cinema

Considers film as narrative form, audiovisual medium, industrial product, and social practice, emphasizing the emergence and dominance of classical Hollywood as a national cinema, with some attention to independent narrative traditions such as "race movies." Genres such as the western, the melodrama, and film noir express aspirations and anxieties about race, gender, class and ethnicity in the United States. Auteurist, formalist, Marxist, feminist, and psychoanalytic methods will be explored.

ENGL 122/FMST 100. Film Studies Seminar

This seminar addresses current topics and theoretical and methodological debates in film studies. We will consider historiography and research methodology; classical and contemporary film theory; the status of national cinemas, auteurs, and genres under globalization; the "end of cinema" in the age of new media. The relationship between film studies and media studies, philosophy, and literary and cultural studies will be a primary concern.

FMST 001. Introduction to Film and Media Studies

FMST 083. Animation & Cinema

GERM 054. German Cinema

FMST001 Introduction to Film & Media Studies

Lang Performing Provides groundwork for further study in the discipline. Introduces students to concepts, theories, and methods of film, video, and television studies such as formal analysis of image and sound, aesthetics, historiography, genres, authorship, issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and nation, economics, and reception and audience studies. Emphasis on developing writing, analytical, and research skills. Films by Hitchcock, Godard, Lange, Sembene, Scorsese, Trinh, Welles, and selected video art and television genres. Required weekly evening screenings.(Dass)

PNS 024 Japanese Film and Animation

This course offers a historical and thematic introduction to Japanese cinema, one of the world's great film traditions. Our discussions will center on the historical context of Japanese film, including how films address issues of modernity, gender, and national identity. Through our readings, discussion, and writing, we will explore various approaches to film analysis, with the goal of developing a deeper understanding of formal and thematic issues. A separate unit will consider the postwar development of Japanese animation (anime) and its special characteristics. Screenings will include films by Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, Imamura, Kitano, and Miyazaki.(Gardner)

FMST080 What On Earth Is World Cinema?

Is there such a thing as world cinema? What is the relationship between "world cinema" and "national cinemas"? What is "national" about national cinemas? This course introduces students to theoretical debates about the categorization and global circulation of films, film style, authorship, and audiences through case studies drawn from Iranian, Indian, East Asian, Latin American, and European cinemas. (Dass)

FMST 092 Film Theory and Culture

Covers major paradigms and debates in classical and contemporary film theory, historiography, and research methodology: realism, montage, auteur theory, genre, semiotics and psychoanalysis, apparatus and spectatorship theory, Marxism, feminist and queer theory, cultural studies, theories of the avant-garde, Third Cinema, and new media. Recommended for senior minors and special majors, and advanced students with a background in film studies. Authors include Bazin, Benjamin, de Lauretis, Deleuze, Eisenstein, Hansen, Kracauer, Manovich, and Wollen. Directors may include Akerman, Eisenstein, Fassbinder, Frampton, Godard, Griffith, Powell, Sembene, Vertov, Welles, and Wong.

FMST 081. Indian Cinema

ENGL 09H. FYS: Women and Popular Culture: Fiction, Film, and Television

This course looks at Hollywood women's films and television soap operas, their sources in 19th- and 20th-century popular fiction and melodrama, and the cultural practices surrounding their promotion and reception. How do race, class, and sexual orientation intersect with gendered genre conventions, discourses of authorship and critical evaluation, and the paradoxes of popular cultural pleasures? We'll look at such novels and films as Uncle Tom's Cabin, Little Women, Gone With the Wind, Rebecca, The Joy Luck Club. This is a writing course for first-year students, limited enrollment. (White)

ENGL 091. Feminist Film and Media Studies

This course focuses on critical approaches to films and videos made by women in a range of historical periods, national production contexts, and styles: mainstream and independent, narrative, documentary, video art, and experimental. Readings will address questions of authorship and aesthetics, spectator ship and reception, image and gaze, race, sexual, and national identity, and current media politics. (White)

SOAN 040D. Techgnosis

It is often assumed that the triumph of technological rationality has condemned the spiritual imagination to the trash heap of history. This class follows a different line of thinking. We will explore the enchantment, magical dreams, and utopian impulses that permeate the history of technology, from the railways to the Internet. What mixture of desire and terror can be tracked within these emerging transformations of reverence and religiosity? (Axel)

SPAN 063. El cine de la democracia en España

This course will examine Spanish post-Franquist cinema of the last three decades of the 20th century as a cultural product. The representations of class, gender, race, sexuality, regional and national identity will be analyzed to question and revise the traditional notion of an hegemonic, centralist 'Spanish/Castilian' culture. The films of the transition period (1976-82), basically concerned with recuperating a historical past, denied or distorted during the dictatorship, release the radical transformation of contemporary Spanish cinema regarding questions of national identity, sexuality and gender relations. Special emphasis will be placed on films produced by women directors in the '90's (Guardiola)

FMST 082. Modern Times: Cinema and Modernity in a Comparative Perspective

This seminar explores the relationship between cinema and modernity by examining national/regional film cultures from Europe, the Americas, and Asia. It seeks to elucidate what film studies can tell us about modernity and modernism, and how a focus on modernity and a comparative perspective might reframe film history and theory. (Dass)

FMST 002. Video Production Workshop

Students may be responsible for some production expenses. Provides instruction in basic technical aspects of digital video production and background in formal properties of video- and filmmaking. Exercises are designed to ensure a sound technical foundation as well as to familiarize students with the aesthetic principles underlying a variety of film styles and traditions.

FMST 082. Modern Times: Cinema and Modernity in a Comparative Perspective

FMST 002. Video Production Workshop

NOTE: Prerequisite: A prior Swarthmore film studies course and permission of instructor or coordinator. Limited to 12 students.
Students may be responsible for some production expenses. Provides instruction in basic technical aspects of digital video production and background in formal properties of video- and filmmaking. Exercises are designed to ensure a sound technical foundation as well as to familiarize students with the aesthetic principles underlying a variety of film styles and traditions.