Course Description
From its inception, cinema has often been conceptualized as having a “language” of its own. Film can be understood through distinct semiotic systems that can be studied from aesthetic, cultural, and historical perspectives. This course surveys the variety of structures which can organize moving pictures: ranging from audiovisual analysis, avant-garde cinema, cinema verite, early cinema, German expressionism, Hollywood continuity editing, Soviet montage, to postmodern multi-vocality. Overall, the course is intended to provide students with a broad introduction to film analysis and to the field of film and media studies. It is one of the three prerequisites to many intermediate and upper level Media Studies courses, including production courses such as Introduction to Video Art.

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

• To be aware of the components of the filmic language, such as the elements of shots, editing, mise-en-scene, sound, and be able to analyze film as text;
• To acquire a sense of the history of cinema and basic knowledge of the major film movements;
• To be able to discern different film genres, including narrative, documentary, experimental and avant-garde films, as well as components of these generic conventions within complex filmic texts;
• To be aware of the major schools of thought and debates within film and media studies
• 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 Mondays and Wednesdays 4:15pm-5:30pm PST. Monday classes are normally comprised of a lecture and media presentation. You need to complete all of your readings for the week by class on Monday. I will let you know which films you will need to watch by class time each week. Wednesday class sessions are normally reserved for discussion of the readings, media, and other relevant class topics. There is ample time allotted to discuss the readings and other course material.

You are required to help frame at least part of the discussion on Wednesday by posting 2-3 discussion questions or a prompt (see below) to Canvas by Tuesday night. Asynchronous discussion of these questions can take place on Canvas before and after the class discussion, which should focus the important questions and discourses for the class. Starting in Week 3 or 4, groups of students will prepare film-based presentations and discussions that will introduce new film forms, movement, and discussions to the class. 

Select guest speakers (filmmakers, media artists, 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 (including 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
Students will complete four film analyses, two group projects, and regularly post discussion questions or prompts:

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 and Film Assignments
You should complete all required reading and view all assigned films by the Tuesday class, during the week when they are assigned.

Required Textbooks
On sale at Huntley Bookstore. Please purchase copies for use in class
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art, (New York: McGraw-Hill, current edition)
John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson, eds., The Oxford Guide to Film Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998)

Optional Textbook
Required readings from these texts are posted on our class's Canvas site, under "Modules"
Rick Altman, Silent Film Sound (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004)
---, (ed.) Sound Theory, Sound Practice (New York: Routledge, 1992)
Michel Chion, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, (trans.) Claudia Gorbman (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994)
David Cook, A History of Narrative Film, current edition (New York: W.W. Norton and Company)
Fredric Jameson, “Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” New Left Review, 146, July/Aug 1984, pp. 53-92.
Robert Kolker, Film, Form, and Culture, (New York: McGraw-Hill, current edition)
Laura Mulvey, Visual and Other Pleasures (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, second edition)
Elisabeth Weis and John Belton Film (eds.) Film Sound: Theory and Practice, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985)

Films
All films we study in class are in Canvas/Pages, and are normally linked to the modules for each week/topic. If you have problems accessing the films, please let me know.

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 me during office hours.

Academic Accommodations
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@spritzer
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 also encouraged to attend relevant programs in-person or remotely (e.g. screenings, lectures, conferences, podcasts, Zoom events, etc.) and write a 1-2 page report of the event or activity for extra credit. Incorporate the event's relevance to the class as well as your personal responses to it. Students are allowed two extra credit reports. Announcements for events of interest to this class are done in the first 5 mins. of each class. Web links can also be posted to the online syllabus (by instructor) and to the class Sakai forum (by all class members).

Principles and Guidelines on Generative AI
Generative AI (artificial intelligence) is a rapidly developing technology that already influences the production and study of media. While Generative AI can certainly be used ethically in academic reading, writing, and thinking as well as in media production, we should be mindful of how specific uses can promote or undermine Pitzer's goals for a liberal arts education. In order to try to navigate the unchartered and evolving terrain of thinking and learning in the context of proliferating LLM and Media generator tools, we will conduct class with these principles in mind:

• AI tools, if used in or as a part of our class, should be used to support Pitzer's educational goals
• Academic integrity is maintained in any use of AI in and for class
• The privacy and security of student and faculty data is protected
• Equitable access to all is ensured if AI tools are authorized or required for use in class

In this class we value:

• Slow methods over efficiency, cost effectiveness, and speed
• Risk-taking, friction, and creative process over product-oriented perfection and compliance
• Linguistic justice and neurodiversity over standardization, erasure, and productivity framed in quantity
• Awareness of the externalized environmental costs of a LLM or Media generator query or other use
  

Our class will operate under a dual disclosure policy to encourage a culture of transparency and academic integrity. Here are some common scenarios that may come up in class:

• AI is not different from other resources that are available to students and scholars at Pitzer. Just as proper citation of the sources of ideas in written work and just as the ultimate responsibility for the content of work submitted for credit lies with the author, the same is true in the case of any AI assistance in your work for this class
• Faculty will not use generative AI technologies when grading or evaluating student work, nor to write, design, or otherwise generate course material, unless said material is directly concerned with the subject of AI
• Student work will not be submitted to generative AI systems to check for plagiarism or grading without students’ explicit consent

These principals are summarized from "The Ethical Use of Generative AI", a document produced by Pitzer's Ethical Use of Generative AI faculty working group in 2026. Consult the full document for more detailed information and discussion.

Course Schedule:

Week 1: Introduction, What is Film? How Do We Study Film?

Monday 8.31: Introduction to Film as a Language
__ • Course structure
__ • Syllabus
__ • Class policy/structure
__ • Filmic language - is film a language?

Wednesday 9.2
__• What is film studies?
__• Film as text
__• Film form
__• Film as an industrial production

Required Reading (please read by Tuesday)
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 1.1, 1.2
Film Art, Ch.1 (skim - assignment for next week)

Media (on Canvas)
__• Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory (1895) Dir. Lumière brothers

Suggested Reading for Week 1
History of Narrative Film, Ch. 1
Film, Form, and Culture, Ch. 1

Week 2: Pre-Cinema and Early Cinema

Key Terms
__• Persistence of vision, emulsion, diegesis, form;
__• Shot, long shot, single shot, two shot, full shot, three quarter shot, medium shot, medium close up, point-of-view shot, reaction shot;
__• Reflexivity, editing, narrative film, inter-title, crosscutting, parallel action

Monday 9.7: Labor Day Holiday - No Class Meeting

Wednesday 9.9
__• Pre-cinema
__• Early Edison and Lumière films
__• Film form, meaning, and the criteria for evaluation
__• Melies and Porter

Required Reading
Film Art , Ch. 1 (cont.), 2

Media (on Canvas)
__• 1870s - Eadweard Muybridge's motion photography, Zoopraxiscope (PPT)
__• Examples of Zoetropes (PPT)
__• Marey - Chronophotographic images (PPT)
__• Selected Lumière films, late 1800s
__• Selected Edison shorts, late 1800s
__• GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1903) Dir. Edwin Porter
__• Selected shorts by Melies, 1897-1912
__• A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902) Dir Georges Melies

Suggested Reading for Week 2
History of Narrative Film, Ch. 3
Film, Form, and Culture, Ch. 2

Week 3: Early Cinema

Key Terms
__• Shot, long shot, single shot, two shot, full shot, three quarter shot, medium shot, medium close up, point-of-view shot, reaction shot;
__• Reflexivity, editing, narrative film, inter-title, crosscutting, parallel action

Monday 9.14
__• Cinematography
__• Cinema of attractions
__• Development of a U.S. film industry

Wednesday 9.16
__• Film, narrative, history, race
__• Film and ideology
__• Sound + music in early cinema

Required Reading
Silent Film Sound, Ch. 5, 15 (read pp. 290-300, skim rest of the chapter)
Film Art , Ch. 7 & 8 (cont. into next week)

Media (on Canvas)
__• WITHIN OUR GATES (1920) Dir. Oscar Michaeux (excerpt)
__• THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) Dir. D.W. Griffith
__• REBIRTH OF A NATION (2004) by Paul D. Miller, AKA DJ Spooky - That Subliminal Kid (excerpt)

Suggested Reading for Week 3
History of Narrative Film, Ch. 5
Film Art , pp. 443-446, 478-481
Film, Form, and Culture, Ch. 3

Week 4: Soviet Montage

Key Terms
__• Soviet montage
__• Framing - centered, open, tight, canted, high angle, low angle;
__• Overhead shot, full face shot, side view, three-quarter view

Monday 9.21
__• Film form and meaning
__• Soviet montage as an oppositional style

Wednesday 9.23
__• Montage and sound
__• Formalism, Marxism, and film

Required Reading
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 1.7, 1.12
Film Sound, writings by Soviet filmmakers pp. 83-91

Media (on Canvas)
__• BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) Dir. Sergei Eisenstein
__• MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (1928) Dir. Dziga Vertov (excerpts)
__• BABY DRIVER (2017) Dir. Edgar Wright (excerpts)

GROUP PROJECT #1: AVANT-GARDE CINEMA
UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1928) Dir. Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dali
MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (1943) Dir. Maya Deren
SCORPIO RISING (1962) Dir. Kenneth Anger
PASSAGE À L'ACTE (1993) Dir. Martin Arnold
*All films on Canvas

Suggested Reading for Week 4
History of Narrative Film, Ch. 7 & 8
Film Sound, pp. 25-53
Film, Form, and Culture, Ch. 5 & 6

Week 5: Sound Film, Continuity Editing, and the Studio System

Key Terms
__• the 'coming of sound', synchronization (synchronous and asynchronous sound), diegetic sound, non-diegetic sound, internal diegetic sound, external diegetic sound, sound bridge, off-screen sound, off-screen space
__• Continuity editing, 180-degree rule, establishing shot, shot/reverse shot, over-the-shoulder two shot, match on action, eyeline match, sequence
__• Overhead shot, full face shot, side view, three-quarter view

Monday 9.28
__• The 'coming of sound' and the studio system
__• Is The Jazz Singer the first sound film?
__• Film sound history and theory

Wednesday 9.30
__• The Hollywood studio system
__• Classical Hollywood cinema and continuity editing

Required Reading
Film Art, Ch. 8, 9
Film Sound, pp. 5-24
Sound Theory, Sound Practice, pp. 35-45, 126-137
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 1.3, 1.5, 1.22, 2.5

Media (on Canvas)
__• THE JAZZ SINGER (1927) Dir. Alan Crosland
__• SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) Dir. Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly (excerpts)
__• DICKSON EXPERIMENTAL SOUND FILM (1894-95) Dir. William Kennedy Laurie Dickson / Edison Lab
__• EDISON KINETOPHONE DEMONSTRATION (1912) Dir. Edison Lab
__• FLOWER DRUM SONG(1961) Dir. Henry Koster (excerpts)
__• DANCE, GIRL, DANCE (1940) Dir. Dorothy Arzner (excerpts)

Suggested Reading for Week 5
History of Narrative Film, Ch. 8, 11, 12
Film, Form, and Culture, Ch.4, pp. 156-157, 236-243, 278-293

Week 6: Continuity Editing and the Studio System, Expressionist Mise-en-Scène

Key Termsinternal diegetic sound, external diegetic sound, sound bridge, off-screen sound, of
__• Mise-en-scene
__• Expressionism
__• Tone, saturation, warm and cool colors, chiaroscuro
__• Three-point lighting (key light, fill light, back light), high contrast lighting, low contrast lighting
__• Film Noir

Monday 10.5
__• Analysis of Classical Hollywood cinema
__• Conventions and alternatives to continuity editing
__• Film sound history and theory

Wednesday 10.7
__• Mise-en-scene
__• German expressionism and expressionist cinema
__• Film Noir - expressionist influence in U.S. cinema

Required Reading
Film Art, Ch. 6
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 1.4

Media (on Canvas)
__• THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919) Dir. Robert Weine
__• RUSSIAN ART(2002) Dir. Aleksandr Sokurov (excerpt)
__• SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) Dir. Billy Wilder (excerpt)

GROUP PROJECT #2: "MUSICALS"
BALLET MECHANIQUE (1924) Dir. Fernand Léger & Dudley Murphy
GOLD DIGGERS (1935) Dir. Busby Berkeley
ILLUSIONS (1983) Dir. Julie Dash
DANCER IN THE DARK (2000) Dir. Lars von Trier
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (2001) Dir. John Cameron Mitchell
*All films on Canvas

Suggested Reading for Week 6
History of Narrative Film, Ch. 4
Film Art, pp. 472-474
Film, Form, and Culture, Ch.3, pp. 64-70

Week 7: Long Take, Deep Focus

Key Terms
__• Long take, deep focus, depth of field, deep space, focus, focal length, focus plane, rack focus, shallow focus;
__• Tracking shot, dolly shot, tilt, pan, crane shot;
__• Aspect ratio / academy ratio, widescreen, anamorphic lens

Monday 10.12: Film Analysis Assignment #1: Editing
Screening in class, assignment due on Tuesday 10.13, 9:00AM PST
Your assignments should be a MS Word document (.doc or .docx)

Wednesday 10.14
__• Long take
__• Deep focus
__• Orson Welles and Citizen Kane

Required Reading
Film Art , Ch. 3 (focus on pp. 91-103)
Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Ch. 2.7 pp. 26-29

Media (on Canvas)
__• CITIZEN KANE (1941) Dir. Orson Welles
__• THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1947) Dir. Orson Welles (excerpt)

Suggested Reading for Week 7
History of Narrative Film, Ch. 9 & 10
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 1.8, 3.2, 3.7
Film Art, pp. 146-162, 474-478
Film, Form, and Culture, Ch. 6 (focus on auteur theory), pp. 70-80, 243-252

Week 8: Long Take, Deep Focus + Film Genres

Monday 10.19: Fall Break - No Class Meeting

Wednesday 10.21
__• Film genres
__• Auteur theory
__• Genre analysis

Required Reading
Film Art, Ch. 4
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 2.8, pp. 339-341; 1.20, 1.21

Media (on Canvas)
__• ALIENS (1986) Dir. James Cameron

Suggested Reading for Week 8
History of Narrative Film, pp. 374.384, 406-424
Film, Form, and Culture, Ch. 7 & 9
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 2.9, 2.10, 2.11, 2.12

Week 9: Audiovisual Analysis

Key Terms
__• Added value
__• Vococentrism, verbocentrism, music (empathetic and anempathetic) spotting, synchresis, temporalization;
__• Three modes of listening - causal, semantic, reduced

Monday 10.26 Film Analysis Assignment #2: Meaning
Screening in class

Wednesday 10.28
__• Chion's film sound theories
__• Audiovisual contract
__• Chion's methodology: forced marriage and masking
__• Time and listening

Required Reading
Michel Chion, Audio-Vision, pp. 3-34
Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Ch. 1.20, 1.21 (if you did not read these last week)

Media (on Canvas)
__• PSYCHO (1960) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (excerpt)
__• LA JETEE (1962) Directed by Chris Marker (excerpt)

Suggested Reading for Week 9
History of Narrative Film, Ch. 12, pp. 269-284, 777-794
Film Art, pp. 493-296
Film, Form, and Culture, Ch. 8

 


Week 10: Documentary

Key Terms
__• Documentary
__• Realism, cinéma vérité, direct cinema;
__• Real time, location shooting, zoom, hand held shot;
__• Direct sound, contrapuntal sound, voice over, pitch, timbre

Monday 11.2: Film Analysis Assignment #2 Due
Upload to Box by 5:00PM PST - MS Word documents (.doc or .docx) only

__• Documentary film language
__• Documentary genres

Wednesday 11.4
__• Documentary form
__• Modes of documentary
__• Documentary sound

Required Reading
Film Art, Ch. 5 (focus on pp. 128-146)
Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Ch. 3.4

Media (on Canvas)
__• NANOOK OF THE NORTH (1922) Dir. Robert Flaherty
__• HIGHSCHOOL (1968) Dir. Frederick Wiseman
__• AN AMERICAN FAMILY, EPISODE 1 (1973) Craig Gilbert, series director

Suggested Reading for Week 10
Film, Form, and Culture, Ch. 8
Film Sound, pp. 162-176
Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001/2010)
Holly Rogers, (ed.) Music and Sound in Documentary Film, (New York: Routledge, 2015)
Leslie C. Dunn & Nancy A. Jones, (eds.) Embodied Voices: Representing Female Vocality in Western Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994) pp. 166-178

Week 11: Feminist Film Theory

Monday 11.9
__• Feminism and film studies
__• Feminist film theories

Wednesday 11.11: Film Analysis Assignment #3 Due
Please upload to Box by 5:00PM PST
MS Word documents only
__• Areas of study and production
__• Psychoanalysis

Required Reading
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 1.9, 1.13
Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (focus on pp. 14-26)

Media (on Canvas) Canvas
__• BLOND VENUS (1932) Dir. Josef von Sternberg (excerpt)
__• VERTIGO (1958) Dir. Alfred Hitchcock (excerpt)

GROUP PROJECT #3: AUTOETHNOGRAPHY, FAKE DOCUMENTARY, MOCKUMENTARY
BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) Dir. Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez 
BONTOC EULOGY (1995) Dir. Marlon Fuentes
CALENDAR (1993) Dir. Atom Egoyan
SURNAME VIET GIVEN NAME NAM (1989) Dir. Trinh T. Minh-ha
THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984) Dir. Rob Reiner
* All films on Canvas

Suggested Reading for Week 11
Film, Form, and Culture, Ch. 6
B. Ruby Rich, Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012) pp. xv-6, 57-84

Week 12: Postmodernism

Monday 11.16
__• Theories of culture
__• Postmodernism

Wednesday 11.18
__• Postmodernist debates

Required Reading
Fredric Jameson, “Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” pp. 53-92
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 1.10, 1.11

Media (shown in class)
__• RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX (1975) Dir. Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen

Suggested Reading for Week 12
History of Narrative Film, Ch. 20, 21
Film, Form, and Culture, Ch. 7
Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Ch. 2.6, 2.12

Week 13: Postmodern Cinema

Monday 11.23
__• Postmodernism & film

Wednesday 11.25 Day Before Thanksgiving - No Class Meeting

Required Reading for the week
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 1.14, 1.15, 3.3

Media (on Canvas)
__• THE WATERMELON WOMAN (1995) Dir. Cheryl Dunye

Suggested Reading for Week 135
History of Narrative Film, Ch. 13
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 3.9, 3.26, 3.27
Film Art , pp. 486-489

Week 14: Postmodern Cinema (Cont.)

Monday 11.30
__• Postmodernism & film

Wednesday 12.2
__• Group project #4

Required Reading for the week
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 1.14, 1.15, 3.3

Media (on Canvas)
__• THE WATERMELON WOMAN (1995) Dir. Cheryl Dunye

GROUP PROJECT #4: QUEER NEW WAVE
FRESH KILL (1994) Dir. Shu Lea Cheang
LOOKING FOR LANGSTON (1989) Dir. Isaac Julien
MOD FUCK EXPLOSION (1994) Dir. Jon Moritsugu
PARIS IS BURNING (1990) Dir. Jennie Livingston
SWOON (1992) Dir. Tom Kalin
* All films on Canvas

Suggested Reading for Week 145
History of Narrative Film, Ch. 13
Oxford Guide to Film Studies , Ch. 3.9, 3.26, 3.27
Film Art , pp. 486-489

Week 15: Last Week of Classes

Monday 12.7
__• Film analysis assignment #4

Wednesday 12.9
__• Wrap up
__• Class evaluation

No Media or Reading This Week

Film Analysis Assignment #4: Postmodernism
Due Monday 12.14, 5:00PM PST (Final deadline Wednesday 12.16, 12:00PM PST)
Please upload the MS Word document (.doc or .docx) to Box.

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