FILM AND MEDIA STUDIES

Coordinator: Patricia White, English Literature

Committee: Miguel Diaz-Barriga, Sociology/Anthropology*
Marion Faber, German*
Bruce Grant, Sociology/Anthropology*
Hai-li Kong, Chinese
Kaori Kitao, Art History
Chris Pavsek, German
Sunka Simon, German
Craig Williamson, English Literature

*on leave 2000-2001

Moving images have been one of the most distinctive innovations and experiences of the past century. In a media-dependent culture, developing a critical understanding and a historical knowledge of media forms is vital. Film and Media Studies provides an interdisciplinary understanding of the history, theory, language, and social and cultural aspects of film, with some emphasis on other moving-image genres such as video, television, and computer-based media; introduces research and analytical methods; and encourages cross-cultural comparison of media forms, histories, institutional contexts and audiences. Film and Media Studies incorporates courses in visual ethnography, psychology, and literary and cultural studies and offers core courses in the field, providing some opportunity for training in production to enhance critical studies.

Students may add a concentration in Film and Media Studies to any major by meeting the requirements set forth below or design a special major in consultation with the Film and Media Studies Coordinator. Students in the Honors Program may minor in Film and Media Studies by following the requirements outlined below. Students interested in the concentration must submit a proposal as part of their Sophomore Paper or apply for the concentration by submitting a modified plan of study in the junior year or early in the senior year. This proposal should be developed in consultation with advisors from the Film and Media Studies Committee and is subject to approval.

Concentration

All students must take a minimum of five credits which may be selected from the courses and seminars listed below or from those taken abroad, at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, or University of Pennsylvania, when the work is approved by the Committee. The five credits should include: Film and Media Studies 1: Introduction to Film and Media Studies, normally taken in the first or second year; and Film and Media Studies 92: Film Theory and Culture (or a course offered as its equivalent), normally taken in the senior year. Each program must include work from at least two departments. Additional courses in aesthetics, film/media history, national cinemas, production, visual ethnography, and cultural studies should be selected with a broad program in mind.

Honors Minor

Students in the honors program may minor in Film and Media Studies by meeting the requirements of the concentration and preparing for and taking one external exam. The preparation usually consists of FMST 92: Film Theory and Culture plus the one-credit honors attachment 92A but may incorporate a one- or two-credit thesis or other course combination or seminar work with the approval of the Committee.

At least two credits of the work in the Honors minor must be in a department or field outside the student's Honors Major. In the case of an interdisciplinary thesis at least half of the work of the thesis whould be in a subject outside the student's major. Senior Honors Study may consist of a revised essay submitted for a course or seminar in the preparation or may follow the SHS procedures for the seminar in question. There is no SHS for a thesis.

Course Descriptions

FMST 1: Introduction to Film and Media Studies (White)
Provides groundwork for further study in the discipline. Introduces students to concepts, theories and methods of film, video, and television studies such as: formal analysis of image and sound, aesthetics, historiography, genres, authorship, issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and nation, economics, and reception and audience studies. Emphasis on developing writing, analytical, and research skills. Films and videos by Griffith, Murnau, Hitchcock, Godard, Sembene, Scorsese, Haynes, Bigelow, Benning, and selected television genres.
Fall 2000

FMST 2: Introduction to Film/Video Production (Pavsek)
Basic technical aspects of Super-8 film and digital video production as well as basic formal properties of filmmaking. Exercises designed to ensure a sound technical foundation as well as familiarize students with the aesthetic and formal principles underlying a variety of film styles and traditions, including classical narrative and continuity, early or "primitive" cinema, and montage. Prerequisite: A prior film course and permission of instructor.
Limited to eight students. Fall 2000

FMST 92: Film Theory and Culture (White)
Culminating course covering major paradigms and debates in classical and contempoary film theory and historiography: realism, montage, narratology, semiotics, apparatus theory, theories of the avant-garde, Third Cinema, spectatorship, and cultural studies. For senior concentrators and seniors and juniors with instructor's permission. Authors: Eisenstein, Bazin, Kracauer, Benjamin, Wollen, De Lauretis, Heath, Deleuze, Doane. Directors: Eisenstein, Vertov, Welles, Ophuls, Powell, Godard, Frampton, Akerman, Lanzman, Trinh.
Spring 2001

FMST 92A
Attachment to Film Theory and Culture

FMST 97. Independent Study
.5-1 credit

FMST 98. Thesis
1 credit

FMST 99 Senior Culminating essay
For students completing a special major in course.
.5 credit

FMST 180 Thesis
For students completing a special major in honors.
2 credits

Courses in the Concentration

Chinese 55 Contemporary Chinese Cinema (Kong)
Chinese 56 History of Chinese Cinema (Kong)
English 88 American Attractions (White)
English 87 American Narrative Cinema (White)
English 87B Topics in American Cinema (White)
English 89 Women and Popular Culture Fiction, Film, and Television (White)
English 90 Queer Media (White)
English 91 Feminist Film and Media Studies (White)
English 93 Studies in Film and Literature (Williamson)
Film and Media Studies 1 Introduction to Film and Media Studies (White)
Film and Media Studies 2 Introduction to Film/Video Production (Pavsek)
Film and Media Studies 92 Film Theory and Culture (White)
Film and Media Studies 92A Attachment to Film Theory and Culture (White)
German 51G Race and Gender in European Cinema (Simon)
German 88 Frauen und Film (Faber)
German 54 Postwar German Cinema (Pavsek)
German 56 German Popular Culture (Simon)
German 111 German Film (Pavsek)
Literature 44G Film Before WWII (Pavsek)
Literature 53G Politics and Utopia in Postwar Cinema (Pavsek)
Literature 55G Film and Literature in Weimar Germany (Faber)
Literature 68G History of German Film (Pavsek)
Spanish 45: Cine y literatura de la España del Siglo XX
Psych 48 Technology, Self, and Society (Gergen)
Psych 68 Reading Culture (Gergen)
SA 91 Practicum in Visual Ethnography (Diaz-Barriga)
SA 96 Soviet Cinema (Grant)
SA 111 Visual Ethnography (Diaz-Barriga)

Projected Course Offerings in Film and Media Studies

Fall 2000
Film and Media Studies 1: Introduction to Film and Media Studies (White)
Film and Media Studies 2: Introduction to Film/Video Production* (limited enrollment) (Pavsek)
SA 111: Visual Ethnography* (*seminar, limited enrollment) (Diaz-Barriga)
English 90: Queer Media (White)
German 56: Popular German Culture: Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein (Simon)
Chinese 56: History of Chinese Cinema (Kong)

Spring 2001
English 91: Feminist Film and Media Studies (White)
Film and Media Studies 92: Film Theory and Culture (White)
German 107: German Film (Pavsek)

Fall 2001
Film and Media Studies 1: Introduction to Film and Media Studies (staff)
Psych 48: Technology, Self and Society (Gergen)
Spanish 45: Cine y literatura de la España del Siglo XX
Lit 55G: Film and Literature in Weimar Germany (Faber)

Spring 2002
English 93: Studies in Film and Literature (Williamson)
French 28: Francociné: Francophone Film (Lane)
Psych 68: Reading Culture
SA 96: Soviet Cinema (Grant)