FILM-Film and Digital Media

Study of film and television culture in Reagan-era America, focusing on concepts of ideology, post-modernism, and spectacle through an examination of such phenomena as MTV, teen pics, indie cinema, and Rambo.

Combines critical studies and production exercises that explore how visual information for interactive media is conceptualized, structured, and represented. Readings on historical and contemporary information architecture and interactive design offer models for weekly assignments and a final project.

Surveys a range of cinematic representations of the US-Mexico border region from the 1950s to the present-Hollywood, independent, Chicano/Latino, Mexican. Examines border as concrete physical (trans)location, site of metaphor and projection, and trope for new ways of knowing and being.

A critical exploration of how cultural differences of race, class, gender, and nation are represented in documentary film and video, experimental film, reportage, and fiction film. Changing focus on one or more topics with selected theoretical, critical, and historical readings. Students are billed for a course fee.

Examines current structure of American film industry tracing history of shifting industrial practices. Who has power in Hollywood? How does the exercise of power affect the creative process? How does it change what we see?

Study of computer tools involving interactive forms and formats. Students will develop both personal and/or collaborative projects for dissemination as digital media, both on screen and online in networked information and communications spaces. Prerequisite(s): course 170A; admission by application at first class meeting; priority given to students who have been accepted into the production concentration. Other students who are not in the production concentration and who have completed course 170 may apply by submitting sample of production work at first class meeting. See the enrollment conditions section in the quarterly Schedule of Classes for other application instructions that may apply.

Survey of African American participation and representation within American film which examines the cultural and historical context of racist images in film as well as recent critical and theoretical work on the issues of race and representation. Students are billed for a course fee.

Created to make a quick profit by shocking and titillating audiences with sensational topics, the exploitation film is addressed in terms of its historical significance. Topics include important filmmakers and movements including the drug scare film, the burlesque and nudist camp film, the work of Russ Meyer, John Waters, Doris Wishman, etc. Students are billed for a course fee.

Intensive research and writing on a changing topic chosen to demonstrate critical mastery in a specific area of film and/or digital media studies. Prerequisite(s): course 120. Enrollment restricted to senior film and digital media majors accepted into the critical studies concentration.

Intensive seminar prepares students for writing a critical studies thesis. Designed to be taken prior to enrolling in course 195, seminar guides students through the process of choosing a thesis topic, preparing a bibliography, and drafting a detailed outline. Prerequisite(s): course 190. Enrollment restricted to senior film and digital media majors accepted into the critical studies concentration.