Film and Media Studies

FILM UN1000 INTRO TO FILM ＆ MEDIA STUDIES. 3.00 points.

Lecture and discussion. Priority given to declared film majors. Fee: $75.

This course serves as an introduction to the study of film and related visual media, examining fundamental issues of aesthetics (mise-en-scene, editing, sound), history (interaction of industrial, economic, and technological factors), theory (spectatorship, realism, and indexicality), and criticism (auteurist, feminist, and genre-based approaches). The course also investigates how digital media change has been productive of new frameworks for moving image culture in the present. Discussion section FILM UN1001 is a required corequisite

FILM UN1010 Genre Study. 3 points.

Fee: Course Fee - 75

This course examines how globalization and the global success of American blockbuster films have affected Hollywood film production, stardom, distribution, and exhibition. The course will analyze blockbuster aesthetics, including aspects of special effects, 3-D, sound, narration, genre, and editing. We will also study the effects of new digital technologies on Hollywood and the cross-pollination among Hollywood, art house, and other national cinemas. Finally, we will examine the effects of 9/11, the “war on terrorism,” climate change and other global concerns on marketing, aesthetics and other aspects of this cinema

FILM UN2010 CINEMA HIST I: BEGIN-1930. 3.00 points.

This course rethinks the ;birth of cinema; from the vantage of ;when old media was new.; Following standard approaches, it moves from actualities to fiction, from the ;cinema of attractions; to narrative, from the cinematographe to cinema, from cottage industry to studio system. Units in silent film music, early genres, film piracy and copyright, word and moving image, and restoration--the film archivists dilemma in the digital era. FILM W2011

FILM UN2020 CINEMA HIST II: 1930-1960. 3.00 points.

This course examines major developments and debates in the history of cinema between 1930 and 1960, from the consolidation of the classic Hollywood studio system in the early sound era to the articulation of emergent ;new waves; and new critical discourses in the late 1950s. Our approach will be interdisciplinary in scope, albeit with an emphasis on social and cultural history - concerned not only with how movies have developed as a form of art and medium of entertainment, but also with cinemas changing function as a social institution. Discussion section FILM UN 2021 is a required co-requisite

FILM UN2030 CINEMA HIST III:1960-1990. 3.00 points.

By closely watching representative classics from countries including Italy, Poland, Russia and Argentina, we will study the distinctive trends and masters of this vibrant era. Special attention will be paid to the French New Wave (60s); the New German Cinema (70s); the reformulation of Hollywood studio filmmaking in the 70s (Altman, Cassavetes, Coppola), and the rise of the independent American cinema (80s). Discussion section FILM UN 2031 is a required co-requisite

FILM UN2040 CINEMA HISTORY IV: AFTER 1990. 3.00 points.

This course brings our survey of the development of the art, technology, and industry of motion images up to the present. During this era, most people no longer watched movies (perhaps the most neutral term) in theaters, and digital technology came to dominate every aspect of production, distribution, and exhibition. Highlighted filmmakers include Michael Haneke, Lars von Trier, Wong Kar-wei, and Steve McQueen. Topics range from contemporary horror to animation. Requirements: short (2-3 pages) papers on each film shown for the class and a final, take-home exam. FILM W2041

FILM UN2190 TOPICS IN AMERICAN CINEMA. 3.00 points.

This course surveys the American film genre known as film noir, focusing primarily on the genre’s heyday in the 1940s and early 1950s, taking into account some of its antecedents in the hard-boiled detective novel, German Expressionism, and the gangster film, among other sources. We will consider a number of critical and theoretical approaches to the genre, and will also study a number of film noir adaptations and their literary sources

FILM UN2290 Topics in World Cinema: Arab and Africa. 3 points.

FILM W2291

FILM UN2292 Topics in World Cinema: China. 3 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

Fee: Course Fee - 75

The international revelation of Chinese cinema in the 1980s was one of the great events both for film studies and film production in the past fifty years: the depth and richness of the classic cinemas of the PRC, Hong Kong and Taiwan were complemented by the emergence of exciting new films and filmmakers from each of those film cultures. This course will trace the history and development of filmmaking in mainland China and Hong Kong, from the Shanghai cinema of the 1930s to recent examples of digital media production, examining changes in film style and technique within the context of ever-shifting political currents and production models. A special focus will be the ongoing dialogue between Chinese film and international trends ranging from realism to postmodernism.

FILM UN2293 TOPICS IN WORLD CINEMA-DISC. 0.00 points.

See above.  This submission is to generate a course number for the discussion section to go with the lecture course.

FILM UN2294 WORLD CINEMA: LATIN AMERICA. 3.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

An overview of the major developments in the art and industry of cinema in Latin America, ranging from its earliest days to the most recent works of the digital era. The interaction of Latin American filmmakers with international movements such as neorealism, modernism, cinema vérité, and postmodernism will be addressed. Among the filmmakers to be studied are Luis Buñuel, Glauber Rocha, Raúl Ruiz and Lucrecia Martel. Students will discover the major industrial tends as well as artistic currents that have defined Latin American cinema, as well as have the chance to analyze a number of key works both in terms of their varying approaches to filmmaking as well as their resonance with political/social/historical issues

FILM UN2295 World Cinema: Latin America - Discussion Section. 0 points.

Discussion section lead by a Teaching Assistant to review lecture, reading and screening.

FILM UN2310 THE DOCUMENTARY TRADITION. 3.00 points.

Film screening, lecture, and discussion. Fee: $75.

This class offers an introduction to the history of documentary cinema and to the theoretical and philosophical questions opened up by the use of moving images to bear witness, persuade, archive the past, or inspire us to change the future. How are documentaries different than fiction films? What is the role of aesthetics in relation to facts and evidence in different documentary traditions? How do documentaries negotiate appeals to emotions with rational argument? From the origins of cinema to our current “post-truth” digital age, we will look at the history of how cinema has attempted to shape our understanding of reality. FILM W2311

FILM UN2400 Script Analysis. 3 points.

Lecture and discussion. Fee: $50.

The dramatic and cinematic principles of screen storytelling, including dramaturgy, character and plot development, use of camera, staging, casting, sound, editing, and music. Diverse narrative techniques, story patterns, dramatic structures, and artistic and genre forms are discussed, and students do screenwriting exercises. FILM UN2401 discussion section is required

FILM UN2410 LAB IN WRITING FILM CRITICISM. 3.00 points.

Priority is given to film majors.

Prerequisites: the instructor's permission. Non-majors must also submit a writing sample, approximately 3 pages long, to cj2374@columbia.edu.
Lab in Writing Film Criticism This course will focus on writing fresh, original criticism, on developing an individual voice, and on creating strong arguments supporting your ideas (qualities that translate to many areas, from reviewing to pitching a film project). Screenings in and outside class will be followed by discussion and in-class writing exercises, as well as regular writing assignments. How do you choose an effective critical approach? How do you make your opinions vivid and convincing on the page? We will also analyze recent criticism and consider the changing landscape of film criticism today. Prerequisite: Instructor’s permission. Submit a short, film-related sample to cj2374@columbia.edu Note: Because permission is required, on-line registration may say the course is full when it is not. Priority given to film majors

FILM UN2420 LABORATORY IN SCREENWRITING. 3.00 points.

This lab is limited to declared Film and Media Studies majors. Exercises in the writing of film scripts

FILM UN2510 LAB IN FICTION FILMMAKING. 3.00 points.

Open to film majors only. Fee: $75.

This lab course is limited to declared Film ＆ Media Studies majors. Exercises in the use of video for fiction shorts

FILM UN2520 LAB IN NONFICTION FILMMAKING. 3.00 points.

Open to film majors only. Fee: $75.

Exercises in the use of video for documentary shorts

FILM UN3010 AUTEUR STUDY. 3.00 points.

Fee: $50.

This seminar in Auteur Study explores the cinematic work of the renowned Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski, best known for such classics as Three Colors: Blue, White, Red and Decalogue. Special attention will be paid to the latter--ten 1-hour films loosely based on the 10 Commandments--considered a towering achievement of poetic style as well spiritual vision. Through in-class screenings, discussions, and readings, we will focus on the formal, political and thematic richness of his films. Requirements include weekly attendance, punctuality, classroom participation, a midterm paper (5 - 7 pages), and a final paper (10 - 12 pages)

FILM UN3020 INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES. 3.00 points.

Fee: $75.

Is this cinema or television? While it may seem that this question has only recently been asked with the advent of streaming platforms like Netflix and the rise of “global television” (Lobato 2019) in this seminar we will learn that the close relationship between cinema and television is long-standing. The course will focus on the 1970s and 1980s, an exciting period of collaboration between European public television and independent filmmakers from all over the world. From a historical and theoretical perspective, we will examine key debates around media specificity and convergence, television as a “utopia,” and the challenges of co-production between the “North” and the “South,” among other issues. Focus is on a wide range of directors from the U.S., Europe, and the “Global South” who made films for European public television (e.g. Rossellini, Godard ＆ Miéville, Jarmusch, Burnett, Ruiz, Black Audio Film Collective, Sarmiento, etc.)

FILM UN3900 SENIOR SEMINAR IN FILM STUDIES. 3.00 points.

Fee: $30.

A seminar for senior film majors planning to write a research paper in film history/theory/culture. Course content changes yearly

FILM UN3910 Senior Seminar in Filmmaking. 3 points.

Prerequisites: FILM UN2420 or FILM UN2510 FILM W2420 or FILM W2510.

An advanced directing workshop for senior film majors who have already completed FILM UN2420 or FILM UN2510.

FILM UN3915 ADVANCED FILM PRODUCTION PRACTICE. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: FILM UN2510 or FILM UN2520
Advanced Film Production Practice is an advanced production and lecture course for students who wish to obtain a deeper understanding of the skills involved in screenwriting, directing and producing. Building on the fundamentals established in the Labs for Fiction and Non-Fiction Filmmaking, this seminar further develops each student’s grasp of the concepts involved in filmmaking through advanced analytical and practical work to prepare Thesis film materials

FILM UN3920 SENIOR SEM IN SCREENWRITING. 3.00 points.

A seminar for senior film majors. Students will complete a step outline and minimum of 30 pages of their project, including revisions. Through reading/viewing and analyzing selected scripts/films, as well as lectures, exercises and weekly critiques, students will expand their understanding of dramatic writing and narrative-making for film and TV, including adaptations. They will learn appropriate structure for each specific screen-writing form, and endeavor to apply their understanding of drama, character, theme, and structure to their chosen narrative project

FILM UN3925 NARRATIVE STRAT-SCREENWRITING. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: FILM W2420.
Prerequisites: FILM W2420. This workshop is primarily a continuation of Senior Seminar in Screenwriting. Students will either continue developing the scripts they began in Senior Seminar in Screenwriting, or create new ones including a step outline and a minimum of 30 pages. Emphasis will be placed on character work, structure, theme, and employing dramatic devices. Weekly outlining and script writing, concurrent with script/story presentation and class critiques, will ensure that each student will be guided toward the completion of his or her narrative script project

FILM UN3930 The Actor's Art: Jeanne Moreau. 3.00 points.

Study of major films in the seven-decade career of Jeanne Moreau (1928-2017), the performing artist who is widely recognized as France’s greatest actress of the post-World War II era and who has also been a pioneering female director. Topics include: the value for film criticism and history of conceptualizing the performer as a creative auteur; Moreau’s manner(s) of film acting and role realization; the risks and the productive consequences of her serving as “muse” to such male directors as Louis Malle, François Truffaut, Orson Welles, Joseph Losey, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Paul Mazursky, and as a creative partner to such female directors as Marguerite Duras and Josée Dayan; her embodiments and projections of sexuality and sensuality and how they differ from those of other so-called “screen love goddesses” (Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Simone Signoret, Catherine Deneuve); Moreau’s own work as a director of feature-length films; the rewards and burdens of international stardom and the challenge of being expected to “represent” France and its cinema; growing old in the public eye and life-long strategies for career renewal and sustainability

FILM UN3950 SEMINAR IN MEDIA: SERIALITY. 3.00 points.

From streaming to binge-viewing, Serial to Breaking Bad, seriality is a preeminent framework for the orchestration of contemporary media production and consumption. This course explores histories and theories of seriality as a recurrent trope of media cultures over the last century and more. To this end, the course adopts a comparative media perspective, exploring seriality in its varied textual manifestations across diverse media forms (the penny press, early cinema, television, podcasts, and social media). It also focuses on the range of functions that seriality has performed, as, e.g., a mode for the systematization of mass cultural reproduction, as a framework for the integration of fan networks and media systems, even as a vehicle for the creation of national and political communities.

FILM UN3960 INTRO TO EXPERIMENTAL FILM ＆ VIDEO. 3.00 points.

This course provides an overview of experimental film and video since the early 20th century European art movements (abstract, Dada, Surrealism), including the emergence of American experimental film in the 1940s, post-World War II underground experimental films, structuralist films and early video art in the 1960s and 70s, post-1960s identitarian experimental work, the emergence of digital video in museums and online in the 1990s to the present. The course surveys and analyses a wide range of experimental work, including the artists Hans Richter, Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali, Joseph Cornell, Maya Deren, Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage, Michael Snow, Martha Rosler, Vito Acconci, Barbara Hammer, Su Friedrich, Julie Dash, Isaac Julien, Matthew Barney, Ryan Trecartin, and others. The course will study the structural, aesthetic and thematic links between mainstream and avant-garde cinema, theater, and art movements, and will place the films in their economic, social, and political contexts

FILM GU4000 FILM AND MEDIA THEORY. 3.00 points.

Fee: $50.

Prerequisites: FILM W1000.
This course offers a historical and critical overview of film and media theory from its origins up to the present

FILM GU4300 Black Film and Media. 3.00 points.

This course examines the historical and theoretical issues concerning the representation of African Americans in film and media. The course will provide a historical overview while focusing on key themes, concepts, and texts

FILM GU4310 EXPERIMENTAL FILM ＆ MEDIA. 3.00 points.

This course provides an overview of experimental film and video since the early 20th century European art movements (abstract, Dada, Surrealism), including the emergence of American experimental film in the 1940s, post-World War II underground experimental films, structuralist films and early video art in the 1960s and 70s, post-1960s identitarian experimental work, the emergence of digital video in museums and online in the 1990s to the present. The course surveys and analyses a wide range of experimental work, including the artists Hans Richter, Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali, Joseph Cornell, Maya Deren, Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage, Michael Snow, Martha Rosler, Vito Acconci, Barbara Hammer, Su Friedrich, Julie Dash, Isaac Julien, Matthew Barney, Ilana Harris-Babou, and others. The course will study the structural, aesthetic and thematic links between mainstream and avant-garde cinema, theater, and art movements, and will place the films in their economic, social, and political contexts

FILM GU4320 New Directions in Film and Philosophy. 0 points.

FILM GU4910 Seeing Narrative. 3 points.

Prerequisites: the instructor's permission.

An advanced film theory “workshop” in which we shall avoid reading film theory in favor of a selection of other texts, taken mainly from the domains of art history, philosophy, and literature. Our central question will be: What can filmmakers and film theorists learn from discourses about vision and its relation to narrative that pre-date the cinema, or that consider the cinema only marginally?

FILM GU4940 QUEER CINEMA. 3.00 points.

This course examines themes and changes in the (self-)representation of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in cinema from the early sound period to the present. It pays attention to both the formal qualities of film and filmmakers’ use of cinematic strategies (mise-en-scene, editing, etc.) designed to elicit certain responses in viewers and to the distinctive possibilities and constraints of the classical Hollywood studio system, independent film, avant-garde cinema, and world cinema; the impact of various regimes of formal and informal censorship; the role of queer men and women as screenwriters, directors, actors, and designers; and the competing visions of gay, progay, and antigay filmmakers. Along with considering the formal properties of film and the historical forces that shaped it, the course explores what cultural analysts can learn from film. How can we treat film as evidence in historical analysis? We will consider the films we see as evidence that may shed new light on historical problems and periodization, and will also use the films to engage with recent queer theoretical work on queer subjectivity, affect, and culture

FILM GU4950 Visual Bodies: From Cinema to New Media. 3 points.

How is the human body, in its diversity, portrayed on screen ? And how may filmic languages—from cinema to new media—be affected by the multifaceted experience of our embodied dimension ? In this course we will examine the intricate relationship between cinema and the body as a paradigmatic way to study how moving images are seen, made, and experienced today. From a plurality of standpoints (historical, formal, theoretical) and across a wide range of corpus (documentary, fiction, experimental, new media, art cinema), we will ask ourselves how different filmic discourses are able to represent and explore the creative faculties but also the darker sides of the body, its gestures, desires, impulses or drives. We will investigate how they can account for the cognitive, gender, cultural, technological and political revolutions associated with the body throughout history, with a particular emphasis on contemporary contexts of new images, mediascapes, and practices. Focusing on several key-sites of the (post-)modern condition—cosmopolitan/metropolitan experiences, narrative technolo-gies, pluralist (dis-)identifications, tansmedial mobility, immanent temporalities—the course will offer rich critical opportunities to make sense of contemporary bodies via moving images, and vice versa.

Theoretical/critical works read in class will include texts by Bergson, Epstein, Pierce, Deleuze, Bellour, Elsaesser, Doane, Lastra…

The course is organized around lectures/seminars and film screenings. Students are expected to participate fully by carrying out assessed readings and writing assignments, actively involve in classroom discussions/viewings, and give scheduled oral presentations.

FILM GU4951 NEW MEDIA ART. 3.00 points.

The rapid democratization of technology has led to a new wave of immersive storytelling that spills off screens into the real world and back again. These works defy traditional constraints as they shift away from a one-to-many to a many-to-many paradigm, transforming those formerly known as the audience from passive viewers into storytellers in their own right. New opportunities and limitations offered by emergent technologies are augmenting the grammar of storytelling, as creators wrestle with an ever-shifting digital landscape. New Media Art pulls back the curtain on transmedial works of fiction, non-fiction, and emergent forms that defy definition. Throughout the semester well explore projects that utilize Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and the Internet of Things, alongside a heavy-hitting selection of new media thinkers, theorists, and critics. The course will be co-taught as a dialogue between artistic practice and new media theory. Lance Weiler, a new media artist and founder of Columbia’s Digital Storytelling Lab, selected the media artworks; Rob King, a film and media historian, selected the scholarly readings. It is in the interaction between these two perspectives that the course will explore the parameters of emerging frontiers in media art and the challenges these pose for existing critical vocabularies

FILM UN2530 Lab in the Video Essay. 3.00 points.

This media lab is a hands-on exploration of producing video essays as an essential aspect of scholarly discourse in the digital age. The course challenges students to actively engage with a range of media projects, guided by the tenets of critical media practice. Through a mode of scholarship and research through the creation of media, students will acquire both theoretical understanding of critical media and practical skills such as scriptwriting, video editing, audio narration, and publishing. Drawing on case studies from media and film studies, students are invited to review and deconstruct video essays, podcasts, interactive essays, and digital storytelling. The course aims to encourage students to think beyond traditional written formats, explore new methods of critical analysis and argument, and to create publishable or presentable video essays. It supports the conception and production of new knowledge through media, constructing critical insights that utilize the expressiveness of our contemporary audiovisual networks

FILM GU4111 Auteur Study: David Lynch and The American Imaginary. 3.00 points.

The course explores the work of David Lynch, one of American cinema’s most singular figures. We will consider Lynch’s narrative features, experimental shorts, and TV series, as well as his painting, photography, and music. One of our aims is to situate Lynch within (and alongside, and against) Hollywood and other cinematic and artistic traditions, while also suggesting connections, overt and otherwise, to a range of filmmakers and artists who have come after him. At the heart of our investigation is Lynch’s distinctive sensibility, which is at once easy to recognize and hard to define. By looking closely at his use of cinematic language, we will ask how Lynch’s films achieve their particular effects, and how they might give form to the desires and fears of their times. Drawing on multiple frameworks — including politics, place, gender, race, surrealism, spirituality, trauma, psychoanalysis, narratology, language, and architecture — we will examine the contradictions at the heart of the Lynchian aesthetic and its relationship to the myths, icons, and taboos of postwar America

FILM GU4945 Contemporary Russian Media. 3.00 points.

This course explores the evolution of Russian media during the decades following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The fall of the communist state had an outsized effect on the Russian mediascape. The four pillars of mass media which had previously been nationalized — cinema, television, radio, and the paper press — now had to contend with the challenges of the free market. These new economic conditions, together with technological developments and the disappearance of tight ideological control imposed by the state, led to a radical redefinition of the media industry. The Internet, which officially came to Russia in 1994, complicated the picture further. The course primarily focuses on moving image media — cinema, television and the Internet, tracing the historical development of each, analyzing a range of key works produced during this period. Our focus will be on the relationship between media and politics. We deliberately avoid referring to the period in question as post-Soviet or Putin’s Russia because both of these terms come with a set of assumptions and expectations which would limit the scope of our conversation. Instead, we emphasize the diversity of the contemporary Russian mediascape and how different productions negotiated questions of gender, national identity, and politics during the period in question. We conclude by examining the sudden recent conclusion of the relative ideological flexibility which was prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as well as the way platforms such as YouTube and services such as VPN continue making an alternative media sphere possible for Russian speakers. There is no language requirement to take this seminar. All required readings and course materials will be available in English