• Course Description:

    This course introduces students to analytical concepts for understanding how films “work” at levels of form, theme, and culture. Through close analyses of individual films, we will see how spectators’ experiences and interpretations are shaped by cinematic techniques such as mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound design, among others. We will also examine the historical, cultural, and political conditions that impact who gets to make films and why according to race, gender, class, and geography. By learning how to “read” a film via terminology specific to the cinema, students will develop the ability to examine the cinema as an art, an experience, and a cultural artifact. To this end, we will generate a shared vocabulary so that we can all speak and write with intelligence, confidence, and specificity about the how movies make meaning and affect us in various ways

  • Instructor(s): DAVID FRESKO (Assistant Undergraduate Director)