Film Studies Course Listing

Below are our course offerings. Beyond this, please also see our Film Studies Courses, not all of which are offered in a given year.

Please consult the University Calendar for the official Film Studies Calendar listings. Our department also offers English and Creative Writing courses.

Film Studies Courses (2023-2024)

See Bear Tracks for scheduling of the courses listed below.

Fall 2023

FS 100 Introduction to Film Study
This class will introduce you to the basic concepts, tools, and vocabulary of film aesthetics and criticism. By the time you finish this course, you will be conversant with the concepts of mise-en-scène, cinematography (e.g., types of shots, camera movement, camera lenses, etc.), editing, sound, genre, film acting, and narrative. We will explore these concepts by looking at examples from different film traditions, national cinemas, and artistic strategies. By studying the basics of film form and film style, you will learn to analyze and write about films.

FS 201 Film History I
The history of film has often been told as a narrative of classic films made by 'genius' directors and while this course will focus primarily on the development of the fiction film it will question the traditional narrative of film as a sequence of masterwork films made by great filmmakers. We will examine the development of film from its beginning in the late 19th century up to 1950 as both an art form as well as a commercial product. Major international film movements such Expressionism, Surrealism, Impressionism, Poetic Realism, Film Noir, and Italian Neo-Realism will be explored. Additionally, we will learn about key genres, developments in film technique and technology, but also some of the lesser-known figures and films that have been sidelined by traditional film histories.

FS 203 Television from Broadcasting to Screen Cultures
Many people argue that television has been “revolutionized” in an age of technological convergence and streaming services. Yet there remains continuity amidst the radical shifts within
the television industry. This course introduces students to the history of television broadcasting and the transition to a post-network era. It also provides an overview of the foundational theories of television analysis and issues of ideology and the representation of race, gender, class and
sexuality in televisual storytelling. Throughout the course there will be an emphasis on the
cultural dimensions of television and the political, economic, and social factors that both
constrain and are affected by TV.

FS 309 Quebec Cinema
This course provides an overview of the achievements in Quebec cinema placing the major developments in Quebec filmmaking in their social, political, and historical contexts. Attention will be paid to important auteurs such as Michel Brault, Denys Arcand, Anne Claire Poirier, Claude Jutra, Lea Pool, and Robert Lepage, as well as more contemporary directors such as Jean-Marc Vallée, Denis Villeneuve, and Xavier Dolan. Underpinning these investigations will be an exploration of the themes and concerns that dominate the formation of Quebec cinema including the role of women filmmakers and Quebec-Indigenous relations.

FS 399 Special Topics in Film Studies: Action Cinema
This course provides an up-to-date summary of the main approaches used in understanding action cinema in terms of its historical development, genres, aesthetics, national cinema modes, and gender representation.

FS 399 Special Topics in Film Studies: Screenwriting
Do you want to learn how to write a film? This course introduces you to the essentials of screenwriting including concept, story, plot, dialogue, and structure. Through analyzing films and scripts as well as working on your own project, you will learn the fundamental components of screenwriting including how to develop an outline and synopsis, formatting, developing a character, writing effective dialogue, and constructing scenes and sequences. The goal of the class to complete a 10-20 minute short narrative fiction film script.

FS 412 Topics in Film Studies: Cinemas of Revolution and Rebellion
This seminar will take a historical and theoretical approach to global cinemas of revolution and rebellion. We will explore how cinema has shaped, visualized, and participated in a range of revolutions and rebellions from the 1920s to the present, including but not limited to Soviet, Chinese, and Cuban communism, anti-fascist resistance movements, anti-colonial and decolonial struggles, demands for police and prison abolition, and queer and feminist liberation movements. At the same time, we will consider debates over what makes a film, variously, "revolutionary," "rebellious," "radical," or "militant." We will ask: What is the relation between cinematic form and revolutionary politics? What role have films played in political organization and mobilization? And, how has cinema been a site for imagining national liberation, as well as international and transnational solidarities? Film screenings will be supplemented with readings in Film Studies and Critical and Cultural Theory.

Fall 2023 Courses accepted as fulfilling the requirements of an FS Major or Minor

EASIA 342 Japanese Anime
Survey of Japanese anime, focused on history of the animation industry in Japan, processes and aesthetics of Japanese animation, anime's role in contemporary Japanese popular culture, and global fandoms of anime.

WGS 321 Feminism and Film
This course offers an introduction to queer and feminist film studies, focusing on several key genres, directors, and themes in transnational queer and feminist film cultures and scholarship. We will explore what makes a particular film or media practice “queer” and/or “feminist,” and what role media production, distribution, and exhibition have in the process. We will examine constructions of sexuality, gender, race, and nation in a variety of films and investigate how transnational queer and feminist cinemas can both participate in and resist dominant ideas about sexuality, imperialism, race, gender, politics, and community.

Winter 2024

FS 100 Introduction to Film Study
This class will introduce you to the basic concepts, tools, and vocabulary of film aesthetics and criticism. By the time you finish this course, you will be conversant with the concepts of mise-en-scène, cinematography (e.g., types of shots, camera movement, camera lenses, etc.), editing, sound, genre, film acting, and narrative. We will explore these concepts by looking at examples from different film traditions, national cinemas, and artistic strategies. By studying the basics of film form and film style, you will learn to analyze and write about films.

FS 202 Film History II
A survey of world cinema from 1950 to the present, with emphasis on major historical developments and important individual films.

FS 215 Film Theory
General survey of major currents and debates in film theory, including early theories on medium specificity, authorship, semiotic approaches to film as language, psychoanalytic and cognitive concepts of spectatorship, emotion, and interpretation.

FS 330 Documentary Filmmaking
Theory and history of the documentary film, with emphasis on Flaherty, the Documentary Movement in Britain, the National Film Board of Canada, and recent developments in the field.

FS 340 TV Production Cultures
A complex series of negotiations and struggles among competing interests lies behind the half-hour comedies and one-hour dramas that continue to dominate the television landscape. This course explores the cultural and industrial dimensions of the “conventional wisdoms” that television professionals rely on in an increasingly competitive industry. Topics include: casting decisions, studio expectations, formulas/genres, target audiences, channel branding, marketing and promotion, the rise of the show-runner, and the culture of the writers’ room.

FS 386 Screening Race
Examines representations of race, ethnicity, and identity on screen with an emphasis on critical race theories.

FS 399 Special Topics in Film Studies: Latin America Cinema
This course is a historical, critical and theoretical survey of the cinemas of Latin America. The course will be divided into four units: 1. Modernization, the Arrival of Cinema and the Revolution of Sound 2. The Construction of National Industries 3. The New Latin American Cinema 4. Contemporary Cinema and New Transnationalisms.

FS 412 Topics in Film Studies: Film Criticism
As the saying goes, “Everyone’s a critic” and in the age of the Internet with its innumerable movie review sites and blogs this seems to be truer than ever. While writing about film proliferates on the Internet this course will tackle the vexing question of how one writes critically and engagingly about film for a non-academic audience. Students take a hands-on approach to writing film criticism with the aim of developing a personal voice and style that is responsive to all manner of film genres and forms for different audiences and contexts (newspapers, magazines, the Internet). The videographic essay will also be considered.

FS 415 Global Television and Screen Cultures
Classical theories of international television and movie distribution tended to focus on assumptions of Hollywood’s dominance over global audience markets. However, our contemporary media environment is marked by multi-directional flows of popular entertainment that contradict “cultural imperialism” arguments. This course focuses on theories of cultural globalization as they apply to television and new screen cultures. Topics include global TV formats, domestic adaptations, transnational co-productions, and the increasing importance of diasporic audiences.  

Winter 2024 Courses accepted as fulfilling the requirements of an FS Major or Minor

EASIA 422 Urban Crime Film in East Asia
This course looks at how the urban crime genre depicts urban space and the social transformations that have taken place with urbanization in the modern era in East Asia. We will trace the history of the genre from the interwar to the postwar era, and how it came to influence and intersect with art house films and other genres. We will follow aesthetic shifts in the formal presentation of urban space in these films, such as the prominence of location shooting in some films and the use of abstracted studio sets in others. Students will get an overview of the history of the urban crime genre in East Asian cinema from roughly 1930 to the present. They will also learn about how the genre relates to fears and discourses surrounding urbanization. In particular, we will be focusing on how the crime genre visualizes unseen networks of human relationships in the modern city, and how films in the genre use (or invent) the cityscape.

GERM 454 German Queer Cinema
Since the early years of filmmaking, German cinema has played a leading and innovative role in depicting and reflecting on diverse sexualities in society and culture. In this sense, queer German films are present throughout a variety of movements in German cinema such as Weimar cinema, New German Cinema, and the Berlin School, and therefore can also chart a path through crucial events of the 20th and 21st centuries. Throughout this class, we will engage with a variety of major directors and works important to Queer German cinema. In addition to examining the content of the films, we will acquire the vocabulary and skills to understand and interpret films and see them in their historical and cultural frameworks. We will discuss individual films and directors along with the conditions of production and reception of moving pictures from the early twentieth century to the present. Taught in English, this course will examine the depictions of gender and sexuality alongside race, socio-economic and citizenship status, disability, and other identity markers in German film.

SCAND 399 Scandinavian Cinema 
This survey course explores the formidable contributions that the Scandinavian region has made to world cinema. Through screenings, lectures, discussions, and readings we will trace the development of Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, and Norwegian cinema through films famous the world over as well as those, which while lesser known, should be considered masterpieces in their own right. The course will also focus on the Scandinavian or "Nordic" Auteur. The Nordic countries have notable auteurs such as Ingmar Bergman, Lukas Moodysson, and Lars von Trier. In this course we will attempt to trace the development of the Nordic auteur as we critique their controversial cinematic representations of existential, moral, sexual, and spiritual crises.

Previous Offerings
Spring 2021

Course Title Instructor Time
FS 100 A1 Introduction to Film Study E. Ostrowska MWF 0930-1120
Film Studies Spring 2021 Previous Offerings

 Fall 2021

Course Title Instructor Time
FS 100 A1 Introduction to Film Study TBA TBA
FS 100 A2 Introduction to Film Study TBA TBA
FS 100 A3 Introduction to Film Study TBA TBA
FS 201 A1 Introduction to Film History I L. Czach MWF 1000-1050
FS 203 A1 Television from Broadcasting to Screen Cultures S. Tinic TR 1100-1220
FS 319 A1 Film Noir W. Beard MWF 1400-1450
FS 321 A1 Animation L. Czach TR 0930-1050
FS 412 A1 Approaches to Action Cinema T. Romao M 1500-1750
FS 415 A1 Global TV & Screen Cultures S. Tinic  T 1400-1650
Film Studies Fall 2021 Previous Offerings

Winter 2022

Course Title Instructor Time
FS 100 B1 Introduction to Film Study TBA TBA
FS 100 B2 Introduction to Film Study TBA TBA
FS 100 B3 Introduction to Film Study TBA TBA
FS 202 B1 Introduction to Film History II T. Romao TR 1230-1350
FS 215 B1 Introduction to Film Theory T. Romao MWF 1000-1050
FS 330 B1 Documentary Film T. Hubbard TR 0930-1050
FS 340 B1 Making Television: Production Cultures S. Tinic MWF 1300-1350
FS 367 B1 German Cinema W. Beard TR 1400-1520
FS 399 B1 Special Topics in Film Studies: Screenwriting K. Williams W 1500-1750
FS 412 B2 Storytelling in Film M. Nasrin M 1500-1750
FS 412 LEC850 Extractivism and Canadian Film K. Richards TR 1100-1220
Film Studies Winter 2022 Previous Offerings

Winter 2021

Course Title Instructor Time
FS 100 B1 Introduction to Film Study S. Tinic MWF 1100-1150
FS 100 B2 Introduction to Film Study MWF 1300-1350
FS 100 B3 Introduction to Film Study TR 1100-1220
FS 202 B1 Introduction to Film History II J. Baron MWF 1000-1050
FS 215 B1 Introduction to Film Theory E. Del Rio TR 1100-1220
FS 331 B1 Silent Cinema W. Beard TR 1400-1520
FS 340 B1 Making Television: Production Cultures S. Tinic MWF 1200-1250
FS 399 B1 Screenwriting L. Czach W 1500-1750
FS 412 B1 Topics in Film Studies: Indigenous Women's Media T. Hubbard TR 0930-1050
FS 412 B2 Topics in Film Studies:Cinema and Performance E. Del Rio TR 1230-1350
Film Studies Winter Winter 2021 Previous Offerings

Fall 2020

Course Title Instructor Time
FS 100 A1 Introduction to Film Study E. Ostrowska MWF 1100-1150
FS 100 A2 Introduction to Film Study E. Ostrowska MWF 1300-1350
FS 100 A3 Introduction to Film Study L. Czach TR 0930-1050
FS 100 A4 Introduction to Film Study Cancelled TR 1100-1220
FS 201 A1 Introduction to Film History I E. Ostrowska MWF 1000-1050
FS 203 A1 Television from Broadcasting to Screen Cultures S. Tinic TR 1100-1220
FS 309 A1 Quebec Film L. Czach TR 1230-1350
FS 317 A1 The Gangster Film W. Beard MWF 1400-1450
FS 416 A1 Analyzing Television S. Tinic T 1400-1650
Film Studies Fall 2020 Previous Offerings

 

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