The film studies minor develops a conscious awareness of film as a basic and widespread medium of cultural communication. It provides students with the critical tools necessary for analyzing and evaluating film texts, and for beginning to understand film technologies. It also prepares students to pursue academic and creative paths for advanced study and professional interests in film.
The College’s student-run groups, including Minerva Houses, host a number of film series throughout the academic year, showcasing popular, classic, foreign, multicultural and fine art forms as well as current movies. Many are open to the public at no cost. In addition, there are films shown in connection with visual arts and other courses and with Mandeville Gallery exhibits.
Sample Courses
EGL-247. Irish Literature and Film. The aim of this course is to introduce you to the field of Irish Studies, examining how issues relating to language, identity and nationhood are intimately connected in Irish literature and film. In this course we will be studyingIrish literary texts from the beginning of the 19th century to the late 20th century, examined alongside a selection of contemporary films. This course will ask you to consider the ways in which cultural concerns of the Irish past continue to haunt the landscape of the present day, paying attention toissues of gender, class, race and sexuality. Texts will include Lady Morgan’s Wild Irish Girl, BramStoker’s Dracula, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Neil Jordan’s film Michael Collins.
MLT-212. Sex Lives and Videotape: Casting Sexuality in French and Francophone Film. Analysis and critique of films whose focus is the “sexual orientation” of its characters. Films may include La Cage aux folles, Les Diaboliques, French Twist,Sitcom, Ma Vie en rose, Woubi Chéri. Theoretical and critical works by authors such as MichelFoucault, Monique Wittig, Simone de Beauvoir, Susan Hayward, Laura Mulvey, Sigmund Freud, andKate Bornstein will inform our study of these films. Readings in both French and English.
PSC-340 (247). Politics and Film. This course explores political themes through the rigorous viewing of feature films and documentaries from the United States and abroad. Films present differing perspectives on the subject. Themes include war, revolution, counter-revolution,role of the individual in social conflict, and US intervention in foreign lands. Class requires critical analysis of the films, supplementary readings, and six conceptual-analytical papers.
ECE-370. Engineering Acoustics. Course topics will include principles of acoustics, electromagnetics, circuit theory and signal processing applied to the analysis of musical instruments, experimental characterization techniques, digital instruments, MIDI. The symbiosis between music and the hard sciences will be surveyed. Attendance at some out-of-class events is required. Please contact the instructor in advance for a list of dates.
