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Film & Media Studies Current Courses

Spring 2025

Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
FMST 102-01 Fundamentals of Digital Film Production
Instructor: Salim Makhlouf
Course Description:
This course provides instruction in the basic aesthetic and technical aspects of digital film production, including writing, producing, directing, shooting, lighting, recording and mixing sound, and editing. Students will learn to harness digital tools while focusing on their roles as storytellers. Each participant will write and direct a video, rotating through various crew positions as they carry out exercises designed to deepen their knowledge of the different elements of moviemaking. Ultimately, students will collaborate in teams on short movies, which will be screened at the final class. Offered spring semesters.
04:30 PM-05:45 PM, MW
BOSLER 314
FMST 210-01 Middle Ages on Film
Instructor: Chelsea Skalak
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 101-02. The Middle Ages has proved a rich treasure trove of ideas, images, and narratives for modern filmmakers. Yet "medieval" as a descriptor is also often hurled as an insult, indicatingoutmoded or backwards-looking modes of thought. In this class, we will consider the ramifications of the resurgence of medievalism in popular film, taking on questions of gender, race, historical influence, and the individual in society. We will move beyond questions of whether a film is "really medieval" and instead ask ourselves what creators and audiences gain from drawing upon medieval influences. What do we think about medieval culture? How do we use these ideas about medievalism in our own art and culture, and what does that say about us? Our goals will include your enhanced ability to understand, discuss, and write about the ways in which these texts respond to each other and the particularities of their own time.
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
EASTC 411
FMST 210-02 East Asian Cinema
Instructor: Alex Bates
Course Description:
Cross-listed with EASN 204-01. This class is intended as an introduction to the cinematic traditions of East Asia, including China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. No semester long course can do justice to the subject, so we will focus on certain historical moments, genres, and themes. We will begin in the postwar era when the region was emerging from the devastation of war. We then turn to blockbuster Asian films in the gangster and wuxia genres and how other films situate themselves as alternatives to the classical Hollywood style. From there, we explore the role of film festivals in bringing Asian cinema to the world. Additional Time Slot: Mondays 7-10pm for film screenings. Alternate modes of viewing will be made available for those with unavoidable conflicts.
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
DENNY 103
FMST 210-03 Protest! Creative activism in film and media
Instructor: Antje Pfannkuchen
Course Description:
Cross-listed with GRMN 250-01. Taught in English. Filmmakers of the New German Cinema like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Rosa von Praunheim, Volker Schlndorff and others used film as a medium of social and artistic awareness and change. They experimented in content and form to address pressing issues in society. Since then, film, video and other media have been used creatively to support a range of different protests, from feminism to climate change. We will study the origins and legacies of these imaginative forms of activism, building on them to create original statements of our own.
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
BOSLER 213
FMST 210-04 Middle Eastern Francophone Cinema
Instructor: Mireille Rebeiz
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FREN 305-01 and MEST 200-02. This class provides a general overview of Francophonie in the Maghreb (North Africa) and the Mashreq (Levant). It focuses on the relationship between previously colonized Arab countries like Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and their former colonizer France. It examines literary and film productions from these countries and aims to show the way by which French and Arabs are represented in these narratives. It also seeks to study the human rights issues raised during the colonial and postcolonial areas, such as women's rights, legal and illegal migration, war, resistance to oppression and terrorism, cultural and religious identities.
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
BOSLER 314
FMST 210-05 Silent Film
Instructor: Russell McDermott
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 101-01. This course explores the emergence of the art of film from the end of the 19th century to the introduction of talkies in the late 1920s. Students will consider the foundational figures in cinema, counter-narratives in cinematic history, the rise of the studio system, and the emergence of stars. They will also examine how cinematic language developed and discuss early alternatives to the classical model. Students will engage with contemporaneous film discourse as well as contemporary reflections on the art in its nascent state. Students will discuss "attractions," the development of "national" cinemas, and the politics and aesthetics of a variety of works. Films discussed will include Modern Times, Nosferatu, Fantmas vs Fantmas, and A Cottage on Dartmoor among others. Film showings will be Mondays at 7 p.m. in East College 411.
07:00 PM-09:30 PM, M
EASTC 411
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
DENNY 313
FMST 210-07 Ancient Worlds on Film
Instructor: Emma Ianni
Course Description:
Cross-listed with CLST 140-01. An introduction to ancient Greek and Roman history and civilization (excluding mythology) through viewing popular films about this period and reading the historical and literary sources on which those films are based. The course focuses on the stories of remarkable men and women from antiquity, what those stories reveal Greek and Roman values and ideas, and ways to apply those insights critically to our own time.
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
TOME 115
FMST 220-02 Indigenous Storytelling: Digital Media & Beyond
Instructor: Amanda Cheromiah
Course Description:
Cross-listed with AMST 101-03. Since the beginning of time, Indigenous Peoples and Communities have shared stories through the oral tradition. This interactive course explores Indigenous storytelling traditions, Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being, and the dynamic intersection with modern digital platforms. Students will explore how Indigenous Communities use digital tools to preserve and amplify their cultural narratives, challenge stereotypes, and advocate for the futures of Native Peoples. The course will cover traditional Indigenous storytelling techniques and how these have been adapted to contemporary forms such as podcasts, photography, blogs, videos, and social media. Through critical analysis and hands-on projects, students will examine the role of storytelling in identity formation, community building, and resistance against cultural erasure. By the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of the power of storytelling in Indigenous cultures, and they will develop the skills and confidence to create and amplify their own stories.
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
LIBRY MMORRIS
FMST 220-03 Introduction to Photography
Instructor: Andy Bale
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ARTH 221-01. An entry-level course in black-and-white photography emphasizing theory, history, and practice. Students learn how to create images, use cameras, develop film and make prints using conventional darkroom processes. Students will also be introduced to Photoshop as well as the basics of scanning and digital printing.
09:30 AM-11:30 AM, TR
GDYRST 101
FMST 220-04 "A Black Gaze": How Black Visual Artists Imagine a World Otherwise
Instructor: Anna Neumann
Course Description:
Cross-listed with AMST 200-05. Engaging with thought-provoking visual texts -- music videos, photographs, short films, and documentary film -- we come to know an array of contemporary Black artists whose creative practices "reject traditional ways of seeing blackness - ways of seeing that historically depict blackness only in a subordinate relation to whiteness" (Tina M. Campt, 2021). Concerned with images of everyday life that challenge said ways of narrating the Black experience, we will engage with visual texts alongside Campt's book, A Black Gaze. Centered around works of art that point us to the precarity of Black life while celebrating Black joy and beauty, we uncover the productive tension between the harsh realities these artists grapple with and the worlds they imagine in response. One goal of the course is to familiarize students with this cohort of Black visual artists who have powerfully changed the ways we engage with Black visual culture and to make them critically aware of the significant moment we are in. Questions we will ask ourselves are: How does the concept of a Black gaze challenge our ways of seeing the world? How do these artists imagine "a future beyond the confines of the given" and what are this moment's possibilities (and limitations)?
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF
DENNY 112
FMST 220-05 Movement and Media
Instructor: Jungeun Kim
Course Description:
Cross-listed with THDA 214-01. This introductory studio class focuses on multiple ways of tracking, viewing, and capturing bodies in motion and daily choreographic movement, such as walking to a chair to sit, closing a door or opening a drawer. The course will emphasize working with the camera as an extension of the body to explore radically different points of view. We will experiment with framing, composition, and camera movement to bring a heightened awareness of kinesthetic involvement and emotional immediacy to the bodies on screen and behind the camera. The course examines various artists practices and their creative research to expand the methodologies of art making. The course will balance discussion and studio/lab time as students create collaborative & individual projects. This course will focus on experimentation and exploration rather than technical skill building. It is about familiarizing yourself with the uses of various mediums and processes to explore work through practices and projects. Previous experience in performance/video composition can be beneficial but is not required.
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TR
2527WH DANCE STU
FMST 220-06 Theories and Methods in Media Studies
Instructor: Russell McDermott
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 222-01.
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
ALTHSE 08
FMST 310-01 Family Matters in Italian Films & Literature
Instructor: Mattia Mossali
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ITAL 323-01, SOCI 230-03 and WGSS 301-01. Taught in English. How have concepts of love, marriage, and family evolved over time? How have these ideas responded-or failed to respond-to the profound transformations within Italian and Western society, particularly in the context of capitalism and globalization? Have they adapted to reflect new values and societal shifts? This course begins with an analysis of Germi's Divorce Italian Style (1961), a film that critically engages with the patriarchal structures embedded in Italian society, and Antonioni's tetralogy (1960-64), exploring through a transnational perspective how contemporary Italian filmmakers and writers have questioned and deconstructed the notions of "traditional" love and family, along with their associated values. We will critically examine the themes of incommunicability and failure within family dynamics (Ferrante), particularly in the context of pervasive capitalism, finance, and the rise of social networks (Genovese). Emphasizing a challenge to conventional heteronormative paradigms, the course will pay special attention to representations of same-sex families and their portrayal in visual media (Ozpeteck). Through critical readings in history, sociology, and psychoanalysis, we will lay the groundwork for a deeper understanding of the literary texts and films studied throughout the semester, with a focus on how gender, sexuality, and social structures intersect to shape contemporary notions of love, marriage, and family.
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
BOSLER 314
FMST 320-01 Video Games
Instructor: Russell McDermott
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 331-02. This course introduces students to game studies. Students will examine games as an art form, as a cultural phenomenon, as a fan activity, as a form of storytelling, and as one kind of ludic experience in the history of games. Students will discuss whether or not games are texts or some other kind of thing altogether. They will consider questions of authorship, interactivity, genre, and effects. Students will read both early and contemporary games studies scholarship and will be expected to generate their own sustained work of scholarship on a single game title, a set of games, or on a conceptual subject related to video games. Games played will include Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Chrono Trigger, Jumping Jack Flash, Halo, Dark Souls, Stardew Valley and more.
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
EASTC 301
FMST 320-02 Digital Studio 2: Time-Based Process
Instructor: Emily Lehman
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ARTH 322-01. This course will allow students to explore time-based approaches to making art with a focus on the moving image and sound. Topics will include short film, animation, experimental film, and installation art. This course will be beneficial to students working at an advanced level and are interested in the possibilities time-based mediums can bring to their process. The work of artists and media specific art trends, from the 20th century to the present, will provide a working model for the course. Process and making will be the main focus, and students will be encouraged to consider the relationship between digital processes and traditional mediums such as drawing and sculpture. Students will gain a thorough understanding of editing in Apple's Final Cut Pro.
09:30 AM-11:29 AM, MW
GDYRST 101
Courses Offered in ARTH
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
ARTH 221-01 Introduction to Photography
Instructor: Andy Bale
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 220-03. An entry-level course in black-and-white photography emphasizing theory, history, and practice. Students learn how to create images, use cameras, develop film and make prints using conventional darkroom processes. Students will also be introduced to Photoshop as well as the basics of scanning and digital printing.
09:30 AM-11:30 AM, TR
GDYRST 101
Courses Offered in CLST
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
CLST 140-01 Ancient Worlds on Film
Instructor: Emma Ianni
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 210-07. An introduction to ancient Greek and Roman history and civilization (excluding mythology) through viewing popular films about this period and reading the historical and literary sources on which those films are based. The course focuses on the stories of remarkable men and women from antiquity, what those stories reveal Greek and Roman values and ideas, and ways to apply those insights critically to our own time.
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
TOME 115
Courses Offered in ENGL
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
ENGL 101-01 Silent Film
Instructor: Russell McDermott
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 210-05. This course explores the emergence of the art of film from the end of the 19th century to the introduction of talkies in the late 1920s. Students will consider the foundational figures in cinema, counter-narratives in cinematic history, the rise of the studio system, and the emergence of stars. They will also examine how cinematic language developed and discuss early alternatives to the classical model. Students will engage with contemporaneous film discourse as well as contemporary reflections on the art in its nascent state. Students will discuss "attractions," the development of "national" cinemas, and the politics and aesthetics of a variety of works. Films discussed will include Modern Times, Nosferatu, Fantmas vs Fantmas, and A Cottage on Dartmoor among others. Film showings will be Mondays at 7 p.m. in East College 411.
07:00 PM-09:30 PM, M
EASTC 411
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
DENNY 313
ENGL 101-02 Middle Ages on Film
Instructor: Chelsea Skalak
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 210-01. The Middle Ages has proved a rich treasure trove of ideas, images, and narratives for modern filmmakers. Yet "medieval" as a descriptor is also often hurled as an insult, indicatingoutmoded or backwards-looking modes of thought. In this class, we will consider the ramifications of the resurgence of medievalism in popular film, taking on questions of gender, race, historical influence, and the individual in society. We will move beyond questions of whether a film is "really medieval" and instead ask ourselves what creators and audiences gain from drawing upon medieval influences. What do we think about medieval culture? How do we use these ideas about medievalism in our own art and culture, and what does that say about us? Our goals will include your enhanced ability to understand, discuss, and write about the ways in which these texts respond to each other and the particularities of their own time.
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
EASTC 411
ENGL 222-01 Theories and Methods in Media Studies
Instructor: Russell McDermott
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 220-06. This course introduces students to the study of mediated communication or "media," with particular emphasis placed on mass media forms, such as print journalism, radio, television, and film, as well as digital platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat. Students will examine these or other media forms from political, industrial, and aesthetic perspectives. They will also explore how these forms have both contributed to and themselves been impacted by broader processes of social and technological change. By examining media in this manner-and by engaging with current debates regarding media's role in contemporary society-students will develop their understanding of how media functions and become, by the course's end, more literate consumers, producers, and critics of media today.
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
ALTHSE 08
ENGL 331-02 Video Games
Instructor: Russell McDermott
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 320-01. This course introduces students to game studies. Students will examine games as an art form, as a cultural phenomenon, as a fan activity, as a form of storytelling, and as one kind of ludic experience in the history of games. Students will discuss whether or not games are texts or some other kind of thing altogether. They will consider questions of authorship, interactivity, genre, and effects. Students will read both early and contemporary games studies scholarship and will be expected to generate their own sustained work of scholarship on a single game title, a set of games, or on a conceptual subject related to video games. Games played will include Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Chrono Trigger, Jumping Jack Flash, Halo, Dark Souls, Stardew Valley and more.
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
EASTC 301
Courses Offered in FREN
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
FREN 305-01 Middle Eastern Francophone Cinema
Instructor: Mireille Rebeiz
Course Description:
Cross-listed with MEST 200-02 and FMST 210-04. This class provides a general overview of Francophonie in the Maghreb (North Africa) and the Mashreq (Levant). It focuses on the relationship between previously colonized Arab countries like Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and their former colonizer France. It examines literary and film productions from these countries and aims to show the way by which French and Arabs are represented in these narratives. It also seeks to study the human rights issues raised during the colonial and postcolonial areas, such as women rights, legal and illegal migration, war, resistance to oppression and terrorism, cultural and religious identities. Prerequisite: FREN 231 or 232
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
BOSLER 314
Courses Offered in MEST
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
MEST 200-02 Middle Eastern Francophone Cinema
Instructor: Mireille Rebeiz
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 210-04 and FREN 305-01. This class provides a general overview of Francophonie in the Maghreb (North Africa) and the Mashreq (Levant). It focuses on the relationship between previously colonized Arab countries like Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and their former colonizer France. It examines literary and film productions from these countries and aims to show the way by which French and Arabs are represented in these narratives. It also seeks to study the human rights issues raised during the colonial and postcolonial areas, such as women's rights, legal and illegal migration, war, resistance to oppression and terrorism, cultural and religious identities.
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
BOSLER 314
Courses Offered in THDA
Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
THDA 214-01 Movement and Media
Instructor: Jungeun Kim
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 220-05. This introductory studio class focuses on multiple ways of tracking, viewing, and capturing bodies in motion and daily choreographic movement, such as walking to a chair to sit, closing a door or opening a drawer. The course will emphasize working with the camera as an extension of the body to explore radically different points of view. We will experiment with framing, composition, and camera movement to bring a heightened awareness of kinesthetic involvement and emotional immediacy to the bodies on screen and behind the camera. The course examines various artists practices and their creative research to expand the methodologies of art making. The course will balance discussion and studio/lab time as students create collaborative & individual projects. This course will focus on experimentation and exploration rather than technical skill building. It is about familiarizing yourself with the uses of various mediums and processes to explore work through practices and projects. Previous experience in performance/video composition can be beneficial but is not required.
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TR
2527WH DANCE STU