Course Description
An intermediate level media studies course exploring how sound functions in cinema. This course focuses on sound as media and the relationship between sound and image through topics including the history of sound technologies and the so-called 'coming of sound;' film sound theories, such as French composer Michel Chion's influential work on audio-visual relationships and the human voice in cinema, as well as feminist film theories on the female body and voice; film music and audience reception; sound space, and the evolving practice of sound recording and reproduction in film. These topics are examined through reading assignments, screenings and listening sessions, in-class presentations, writing and sound recording assignments. This class encourages a critical, creative approach, non-traditional solutions, and awareness of both historical contexts and theoretical frameworks. The course fulfills the media theory and media history requirements for the Intercollegiate Media Studies (IMS) major and minor. Prerequisite:  MS49, 50, or 51; or some introductory level music theory courses.
 

Statement of Student Learning Outcome
By the end of this course, students ideally are expected:

• To develop a historicized understanding of how sound was incorporated into film production, exhibition, and criticism;
• To develop a working knowledge of major film sound theories;
• To acquire skills in analyzing the audio elements in a wide variety of films, including narrative, experimental/avant-garde, documentary, and other genres;
• To be able to discuss and convey the above-mentioned knowledge and skills in both critical written arguments and in oral presentations/discussion;
• To be able to work and learn in both individual and group contexts.

Course Organization
Class meetings take place on Wednesdays and Fridays 11:00am-12:15pm PST. This class mixes short lectures with seminar-style discussions of reading assignments; film, audio, and other media excerpts; as well as individual and group assignments. You need to complete all of your readings for the week by class on Wednesday. I will let you know which films you will need to watch by class time each week.

Select guest speakers (filmmakers, scholars, etc.) may join us remotely via Zoom, or in person , schedule and budget permitting, depending on level of interest expressed and their availability. I may assign events (required or recommended) outside of the class meeting time, and will try my best to balance out with class time.

Laptop computers with an internet connection and appropriate software, sometimes smart phones and other mobile digital devices can be used in class only for class-related activities (e.g. taking notes or relevant web searches). I ask students to agree to these conditions for class: no recording of audio, photo, or video unless pre-approved by instructor; no emails, texting, messaging, checking your social media accounts and other non-class related activities on your device. I encourage thoughtful experimentation with new media technologies (e.g. AI) in your work, and that you make these transparent in your projects or papers. Violation of class media technology policies will, in some cases, affect your class grade or result in your removal from class.

Attendance
You are expected to arrive on time for class and be present for the entire class period. Your attendance and active participation is central to the class’s success and to your success in the class. Attendance is determined by when I take roll. Illness, COVID-19 symptoms, isolation, emergencies, or religious observances will be excused, and I normally ask for documentation (e.g. a note from Student Health if you are ill) Please contact me as soon as possible if you need to miss class for one of these reasons. If you are absent, you will need to submit any work that was due that day, within one week. We will not be offering Zoom as a method to attend class. You have two “free passes” for when you need a personal day. All other absences will negatively impact your total grade percentage by one point.

Class Participation
Your active, well-prepared participation in class discussions is essential to creating a dynamic (i.e. not boring!) learning environment. Although you will not receive a letter grade for class participation, it will figure into your final grade based on my observations.

We may study sexually explicit, political, and otherwise challenging material in this course. These are not included for shock value, but are legitimate investigations of controversial subject matters in media. You are certainly encouraged to explore difficult and complex subject matters in your work, and you should be prepared to consider these issues intellectually, emotionally, and with responsibility. Our class is a safe space in which students can express their beliefs and opinions within the context of the course material. You always have a voice, but please be respectful of others as well. Abusive language and behavior are not tolerated. Open-mindedness is encouraged!

Class Assignments and Projects
Students will complete the following assignments for this course:

Unless an extension is approved by myself in advance of the due date, your grade are reduced by one letter grade (i.e. B to C) per class day your project is late. You are encouraged to meet with me individually during my office hours to discuss your assignments, your grades, and your overall performance in class. I am always open to suggestions and feedback!

Reading Assignments
Required readings are drawn from the textbooks below. You can purchase copies of the required textbooks, as well as the optional ones (in limited numbers) at the Huntley Bookstore, or go to web sites such as Amazon.

Textbooks
(Required - buy these)
Michel Chion, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, trans. Claudia Gorbman, Columbia University Press, New York, 1994.
Michel Chion, The Voice in Cinema, trans. Claudia Gorbman, Columbia University Press, New York, 1999.
Claudia Gorbman, Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. This title maybe out of print.
Anahid Kassabian, Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music, Routledge, 2000.
Kaja Silverman, The Acoustic Mirror; The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema, Indiana University Press, Indianapolis, 1988.

(Optional - readings from these books will be posted on Sakai, you may buy them if you wish)
Rick Altman, editor, Sound Theory Sound Practice, Routledge, New York, 1992.
Rick Altman, Silent Film Sound (Film and Culture Series), Columbia University Press, 2007.
Christoph Cox & Daniel Warren, eds., Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, Continuum, 2004.
James Lastra, Sound Technology and the American Cinema: Perception, Representation, Modernity, New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
Ming-Yuen S. Ma, There is No Soundtrack: Rethinking Art, Media, and the Audio-Visual Contract, Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2020.
Holly Rogers, ed. Music and Sound in Documentary Film. New York: Routledge, 2015.
Elisabeth Weis and John Belton, eds., Film Sound: Theory and Practice, New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.

Additional References (Many are available as ebooks at the Library. A good place to start your research for final paper and projects)
Jacques Attali. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2002.
Jean-Francois Augoyard & Henry Torgue. eds. Sonic Experience: A Guide To Everyday Sounds. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006.
G. Douglas Barrett. Experimenting the Human: Art, Music, and the Contemporary Posthuman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2023.
---, After Sound: Toward a Critical Music. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Jay Beck & Tony Grajeda. eds. Lowering The Boom: Critical Studies in Film Sound. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008.
Karin Bijsterveld. Mechanical Sound: Technology, Culture, and Public Problems of Noise in the Twentieth Century (Inside Technology). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.
Barry Blesser & Linda-Ruth Salter. Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.
Michael Bull. Sirens. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
---, Sound Moves: iPod Culture and Urban Experience. New York: Routledge, 2007.
---, & Les Back, eds., The Auditory Culture Reader (Sensory Formations), London: Berg Publishers, 2004
John Cage. Silence: Lectures and Writings, Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1961.
Adriana Cavarero. For More Than One Voice: Towards a Philosophy of Vocal Expression. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005.
Michel Chion. Sound: An Acoulogical Treatise. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016.
---, Film, A Sound Art (Film and Culture Series). New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
Seth Kim-Cohen. Against Ambience and Other Essays. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
---, In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art. New York: Continuum, 2009.
Steven Connor. Beyond Words: Sobs, Hums, Stutters and Other Vocalizations. London; Reaktion Books, 2014.
Donald Crafton. The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926-1931. History of The American Cinema, Vol. 4, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1997.
Mladen Dolar. A Voice and Nothing More. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.
Leslie C. Dunn, and Nancy C. Jones. eds. Embodied Voices: Representing Female Vocality in Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Frances Dyson. The Tone of Our Times: Sound, Sense, Economy , and Ecology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014.
---, Sounding New Media: Immersion and Embodiment in the Arts and Culture. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2009.
Nina Sun Eidsheim. The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019.
---, & Katherine Meizel. eds. The Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019 .
---, Sensing Sound: Singing and Listening as Vibrational Practice. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015
Veit Erlmann. Reason and Resonance: A History of Modern Aurality. New York: Zone Books, 2010.
--- ed., Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity. London: Berg Publishers, 2004.
Scott Eyman. The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926-1930. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
Robert Wallace Fink, Melinda Latour, Zachary Wallmark. eds. The Relentless Pursuit of Tone: Timbre in Popular Music. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2018.
Ana Maria Ochoa Gautier. Aurality: Listening and Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Colombia. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.
Steve Goodman. Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012.
Simon Frith & Andrew Goodwin, eds. On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word. New York: Pantheon Books, 1990.
Greg Hainge. Noise Matters: Towards an Ontology of Noise. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Paul Hegarty, Rumour and Radiation: Sound in Video Art. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
---, Noise Music: A History. London: Continuum, 2007.
Stefan Helmreich. Sounding The Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016.
---, Alien Ocean: Anthropological Voyages in Microbial Seas. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2009.
Charles Hirschkind, The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2006.
Don Ihde, Listening and Voice: Phenomenologies of Sound, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press; 1976.
Yael Kaduri. The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Western Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Lilya Kaganovsky & Masha Salazkina, eds. Sound, Speech, Music in Soviet and Post-Soviet Cinema. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2014
Douglas Kahn. Earth Sound Earth Signal: Energies and Earth Magnitude in The Arts. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2013.
---, Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.
Kathryn Kalinak. Settling The Score: Music and The Classical Hollywood Film. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
Brian Kane, Sound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Anahid Kassabian, Ubiquitous Listening: Affect, Attention, and Disturbed Subjectivity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.
Michael C. Keith. Radio Cultures: The Sound Medium in American Life. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2008.
Caleb Kelly. Gallery Sound. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
---, Cracked Media: The Sound of Malfunction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009.
---, ed., Sound, Documents of Contemporary Art Series, London/Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Press, 2011.
Friedrich A. Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. trans. Geoffrey Winthrop-Young & Michael Wutz, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.
Dan Lander and Micah Lexier, eds.,  Sound by Artists. Toronto and Banff: Art Metropole/Walter Philips Gallery, 1990.
Amy Lawrence, Echo and Narcissus: Women’s Voices in Classical Hollywood Cinema. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
Brandon LaBelle, Sonic Agency: Sound and Emergent Forms of Resistance. London; Goldsmiths Press, 2018.
---, Lexicon of the Mouth: Poetics and Politics of Voice and the Oral Imagination. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
---, Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2010.
---. Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art. London: Continuum, 2006.
Alan Licht, Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories, New York: Rizzoli, 2007.
Ming-Yuen S. Ma & Erika Suderburg, eds. Resolutions 3: Global Networks of Video. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
John Melillo, The Poetics of Noise from Dada to Punk. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
Paul D. Miller, Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.
David Morton, Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000.
John Mowitt. Sounds: The Ambient Humanities. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2015.
Jean Luc Nancy. Listening. Charlotte Mandell, trans., New York: Fordham University Press, 2007.
David Novak. Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.
--- & Matt Sakakeeny. eds. Keywords in Sound. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015.
Walter J. Ong. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New York: Routledge, 1991.
Dominic Pettman. Sonic Intimacy: Voice, Species, Technics (or, How to Listen to the World). Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 2017.
Trevor Pinch and Karin Bijsterveld, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, New York: Oxford University Press, 2013
Dylan Robinson. Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2020
Tara Rodgers, ed. Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.
Holly Rogers. eds. (with Jeremy Barham) The Music and Sound of Experimental Film. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2017.
---, Sounding the Gallery: Video and the Rise of Art-Music. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Tricia Rose. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1994.
R. Murray Schafer. The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1977.
Leigh Eric Schmidt. Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion and the American Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
David Schwarz. Listening Subjects: Music, Psychoanalysis, Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997.
Hillel Schwartz. Making Noise: From Babel to The Big Bang and Beyond. Cambridge, MA: Zone Books, 2011.
Mary Ann Smart. ed. Siren Songs: Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Opera. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Jacob Smith. Vocal Tracks: Performance and Sound Media. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2008.
Mark M. Smith. Sensing the Past: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching in History. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2007.
---, Listening to Nineteenth-Century America. Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2001.
---, ed. Hearing History: A Reader, Athens: Georgia University Press, 2004
Jonathan Sterne. MP3: The Meaning of a Format (Sign, Storage, Transmission), Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012.
---, The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.
---, ed., The Sound Studies Reader, New York: Routledge, 2012.
Jennifer Lynn Stoever. The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening. New York: NYU Press, 2016.
Peter Szendy, Listen: A History of Our Ears. New York: Fordham University Press, 2007.
Michael Taussig, Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses. New York: Routledge, 1993.
Timothy Taylor, Strange Sounds: Music, Technology and Culture. New York: Routledge, 2001.
Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America (1900-1933). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. (ebook available)
Marie Thompson. Beyond Unwanted Sound: Noise, Affect, and Aesthetic Moralism. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
Gary Tomlinson. The Singing of the New World: Indigenous Voice in the Era of European Contact. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007.
David Toop. Sinister Resonance: The Mediumship of the Listener. London: Continuum, 2010.
Steve Waksman. Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1999.
Alexander G. Weheliye. Phonographies: Groves in Sonic Afro-Modernity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.

Grading and Other Policies:

* Your general performance in class including participation, attendance, and punctuality, except in the special cases listed above, such as if you have more than 3 unexcused absences.

Generally, outstanding ('A') students in this class have good attendance and completed all their assignments on time. They are consistently well prepared for class, and actively participate in and advance our discussions with pertinent information, questions, and observations. Their work demonstrate their ability to innovate and respond to the topic at hand, awareness of the issues addressed by and the historical context for the media works and genres they are referencing, as well as their ability to articulate their observations and analyses in a clear and concise manner. Only letter grades are given out in this class.

Email Policy
Responding to students via email is a courtesy I extend to you. During the week I will do my best to respond to you within 48 hours (so please note: a “night before” email may not get answered in time!). If you write to me over the weekend you will not receive a reply until Monday. The best way to get my time and attention is to visit listed office hours or, if these conflict with another commitment, to email to make an appointment. Office hours are yours; please use them. I do not discuss grades or class performance over email; please see us during office hours.

Academic Accommodations
The Claremont Colleges value diversity and inclusion; we are committed to a climate of mutual respect and full participation. As such, our goal is to create learning environments that are equitable, inclusive and welcoming. If you have a learning disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, please contact the academic support service of your home campus by email at the beginning of the semester if you have not already registered for accommodations. Your home campus is responsible for establishing and providing accommodations and notifying the faculty teaching the class. Below is a list of contacts for each campus: 

CMC: accessibilityservices@cmc.edu
HMC: access@g.hmc.edu
Pitzer: academicsupport@pitzer.edu
Pomona: disability@pomona.edu
Scripps: ars@scrippscollege.edu

Academic Integrity
You are responsible for reading and adhering to the colleges’ policies regarding academic dishonesty and plagiarism (see below). If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism, you should direct them to the professor. All academic papers should include proper citations. Here are two of the often used forms of academic citations:

MLA: https://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/mla
Chicago: https://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/chicago/

Read your home college's policies on academic integrity here:
Claremont McKenna College Catalog
Harvey Mudd College Student Handbook
Pitzer College Student Handbook
Pomona College Student Handbook
Scripps College Student Handbook

Questions About Grading
I try my best to make my grading criteria as clear as possible, and you are welcome to come and discuss your grades and your class performance with me. However, I only consider legitimate concerns, and be aware that your grade is as likely to go down as it is to go up after I reassess your assignment. I do not tolerate haggling, bribing, threats, and any other pointless arguments. I consider all aspects of your performance before I assign a grade, please respect my assessment as I respect your efforts.

Extra credit - Students are encouraged to attend screenings, conferences, lectures, exhibitions and web events related to this course. Write a two-page (typed and double-spaced) report of the event or activity. Incorporate the event's relevance to the class as well as your personal responses to it. Proof of attendance is required (keep your ticket stubs, programs, etc.) Students are allowed two extra credit papers. Announcements for events of interest to this class are done in the first 5 mins. of each class.

Course Schedule:

Week 1: Introduction
Wednesday 1.22

Friday 1.24

Required Reading
Rick Altman, "The Material Heterogeneity of Recorded Sound" and "Introduction: Four and a Half Film Fallacies" in Sound Theory Sound Practice, pp. 15-45
Suggested Reading
Rick Altman, Sound Theory Sound Practice, pp. 1-15, 46-64
Jonathan Sterne, "Sonic Imaginations," The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 1-17

I. 'SILENT' TO SOUND CINEMA
Week 2: The Coming of Sound
Wednesday 1.29

Required Reading
Rick Altman, Silent Film Sound, pp. 289-319 (read), 249-269 (skim)
Suggested Reading
Scott Eyman, The Speed of Sound, pp. 25-107

Required Reading
James Lastra, Sound Technology and The American Cinema, pp. 92-122
Suggested Reading
James Lastra, Sound Technology and The American Cinema, pp. 1-92

Friday 2.14

No Reading Assignment Today - go over your notes on the first four weeks of class to prepare for Assignment #1

Friday 2.21

Required Reading
Michel Chion, Audio-Vision, pp. 3-34
Film
Persona (1966) Directed by Ingmar Bergman - in class
Psycho (1960) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock - watch
Hero (2002) Directed by Zhang Yimou - in class
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) Directed by Robert Aldrich - in class
Suggested Reading
Michel Chion, Audio-Vision, pp. 35-94

Required Reading
Michel Chion, Audio-Vision, pp. 185-198
Film
Blade Runner (1982) Directed by Ridley Scott - in class
Blue (1993) Directed by Derek Jarman - watch

Friday 2.28

Required Reading
Michel Chion, Audio-Vision, pp. 198-213
Suggested Reading
Michel Chion, Audio-Vision, pp. 95-137

Week 7: The Voice in Cinema, Assignment #4 Groups
Wednesday 3.5

Required Reading
Michel Chion, The Voice in Cinema, pp. 49-57, 125-151
Film
Psycho (1960) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock - in class
News From Home (1976) Directed by Chantal Akerman - in class

Required Reading
Kaja Silverman, The Acoustic Mirror, pp. 41-71

Week 9: Spring Break, No Class Meeting

Week 10: The Fantasy of The Maternal Voice
Wednesday 3.26

Required Reading
Kaja Silverman, The Acoustic Mirror, Ch. 3, pp. 72-100, Ch. 4, pp. 101-140
Film
Diva (1981) Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix - watch
Riddles of The Sphinx (1981) Directed by Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen - in class, try to watch enough to understand its filmic language

Friday 3.28: César Chavez Day, No Class Meeting

III. FILM MUSIC
Week 11: The Screaming Point, Film Music
Wednesday 4.2

Required Reading
Michel Chion, The Voice in Cinema, pp. 75-79
Kaja Silverman, The Acoustic Mirror, pp. 72-79
Film
Friday the 13th (1980) Directed by Sean Cunningham - in class
Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) Directed by Anatole Litvak - in class
Kung Fu Hustle (2004) Directed by Stephen Chow - in class

Friday 4.4

Required Reading
Claudia Gorbman, Unheard Melodies, Introduction, pp. 1-7, Ch.4 pp. 70-98
Film
King Kong (1933) Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack (uncredited) - in class
Mildred Pierce (1945) Directed by Michael Curtiz - watch
Suggested Reading
Claudia Gorbman, Unheard Melodies, Ch. 1-3 pp. 8-69

Week 12: Film Music
Wednesday 4.9

Required Reading
Anahid Kassabian, Hearing Film, Prologue pp. 1-14 (skim), Ch. 3 pp. 61-89
Film
Thelma and Louise (1991) Directed by Ridley Scott - watch
Desert Hearts (1985) Directed by Donna Deitch - in class
Dirty Dancing (1987) Directed by Emile Ardolino - in class
Suggested Reading
Anahid Kassabian, Hearing Film, Ch. 1-2 pp. 15-60
Suggested Film
Desert Hearts (1985) Directed by Donna Deitch
Bagdad Cafe (1987) Directed by Percy Aldon
Dangerous Liaisons (1988) Directed by Stephen Frears

IV. DOCUMENTARY SOUND
Week 13: Film Music, Sound and Early Documentaries
Wednesday 4.16

Required Reading
Anahid Kassabian, Hearing Film, Ch. 4 pp. 90-116
Film
The Hunt for Red October (1990) Directed by John McTiernan - in class
Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984) Directed by Steven Spielberg - in class
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) Directed by Richard Donner - in class
Suggested Reading
Anahid Kassabian, Hearing Film, Ch. 5 and Epilogue pp. 117-148

Friday 4.18

Week 14: Voice in Documentary, Essay Film, and Performance
Wednesday 4.23

Required Reading
Orlene Denice McMahon, "Reinventing the Documentary: Early Essay Film Soundtracks of Chris Marker" in Music and Sound in Documentary Film, pp. 86-103
Film
Sans Soleil (1983) Directed by Chris Marker- watch
Lettre de Sibérie (1958) Directed by Chris Marker - in class
Suggested Reading
Tim Corrigan, The Essay Film: From Montaigne, After Marker. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011)

Friday 4.25

Required Reading
Ming-Yuen S. Ma, There is No Soundtrack, Chapter 1, pp. 27-65
Film
News From Home (1979) Directed by Chantal Akerman - in class
Rebirth of A Nation (2004) Directed by Paul D. Miller - in class
Nanook of the North (1915) Directed by Robert Flaherty - in class
Suggested Reading
Mary Ann Doane, "The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of the Body and Space" in Film Sound, pp. 162-176.
Suggested Film
Nanook of the North (1915) Directed by Robert Flaherty
Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989) Directed by Trinh T. Minh-ha

No Screening or Reading This Week

Week 16: Last Week of Classes

Wednesday 5.7

No Reading or Films This Week

Final Deadline for Documentary Assignment: Wednesday 5.14, 5PM PST
Deadline for Graduating Seniors: Wednesday 5.7, 5PM PST
Please upload the MS Word document (.doc or .docx) to your Sakai Drop Box.

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