FI: Film and Media Studies (See also FX)
FI 111 — Introduction to Film
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course provides students with the tools to analyze moving image presentations in an academic setting or as a filmmaker. Students examine the uses of camera, editing, sound and elements of the production design as they create meaning in film images and narratives. Examples are drawn from a full range of feature films, documentaries, other forms of entertainment and advertising, whether delivered theatrically, through television or over the Internet. (Formerly LA 141) (G7: Humanities).
FI 200 — Bollywood and the Making of India
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Bollywood cinema has played a significant role in managing euphoria, as well as political, social and religious crises confronting postcolonial India following partition, independence, globalization, and the rise of populism. In so doing, it captures and reflects anxieties and aspirations about an idea—a unique experiment called India. This class studies Bollywood movies, their history, and their connections with the world.
FI 201 — Principles of Costume for Filmmakers
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Costumes support a director’s vision and an actor’s performance by revealing idiosyncrasies of character, mood and social status. Topics range from analyzing scripts, to researching modern dress and period wardrobe, to imagining the style of inhabitants of an imagined world. (G6: The Arts).
FI 202 — Mafia Movies: Crime and Corruption in Italian Popular Culture
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course looks at Italian film and television representations of the Mafia. Students view selected films and analyze them within the context of the historical and social development of organized crime in Italy. Texts discussed also include novels, historical studies, film criticism, photography, documentaries, and popular songs.
FI 203 — African-American Film Culture
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
A broad survey of the complex intersections between film culture and African-American society from the late 19th century to present. This course examines the various ways African Americans have both contributed to and been imaged by cinema – both within and outside of Hollywood filmmaking – while also exploring larger issues of aesthetics and identity. (G7: Humanities).
FI 204 — Martial Arts Cinema and its Global Impact
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course introduces representational martial arts films, directors and stars from around the world to investigate the transformation, diversification, ongoing appeal and globalization of this evolving genre. Close attention will be paid to formal and stylistic aspects of films in terms of their historical, transnational, and socio-cultural contexts.
Prerequisite(s): EN 121 or ES 129 or equivalent.
FI 206 — Mexican Cinema: Between The National and The Global
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is cross-listed with MC 205. Students analyze films produced in Mexico from the 1930’s to the present; from the nationalistic underpinnings of earlier productions to contemporary transnational ventures intended to for globalized market. This course considers how Mexico’s history and socioeconomic features inform the aesthetics of Mexican cinema.
FI 207 — Devouring the Screen: Food in Film
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
An exploration of world cinema through the theme of gastronomy. Students learn how food is depicted across various cinematic genres and cultural contexts. Analysis focuses on the development of the “food film” and how cinematic and televisual representations of food communicate issues of gender, economics, politics, sexuality, and ethnic identity.
FI 208 — Film Genres: Zombies, Viruses, and the End of the World
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Since the 1990s, American movies, TV shows, and books have been filled with zombie viruses, bioengineered plagues, and disease-ravaged bands of survivors. Students analyze why outbreak narratives have infected our public discourse and how they have affected the way Americans view the world.
FI 209 — History of American Television
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is a critical survey of the history of American television, from its birth out of radio during 1940s to the present, with its seemingly infinite options for platforms and content. While television programs will be surveyed in terms of chronology, this course also examines them as cultural artifacts and industrial products that reflect such issues as class, consumerism, gender, desire, race, and national identity. (G7: Humanities).
FI 210 — Film Genres: Cult Cinema
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Cult films are difficult to define or categorize. Whether certain cult films are intentionally self-designated, or whether alternative audiences see worth in what mainstream cinemagoers have found unpalatable or distasteful, the “culture of cult” requires a more attentive approach.
FI 211 — Brazilian Cinema: Inventing Places and Spatial Myths
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Students analyze films from diverse periods in Brazilian cinema through a series of places that explore geographic and symbolic spaces in the nation’s cultural imaginary. The City, The Backlands, The Amazons, and the topic of Nomadism are studied considering aspects of Brazilian culture related to race, gender and social class.
FI 212 — Drag and Cross-Dressing in Cinema
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This lecture/screening class examines the idea of clothing as a cultural performance, as it intersects with gender as masquerade. It will explore the relationships between cross-dressing and theatricality, the way in which clothing constructs (and deconstructs) gender and gender differences, and the performativity of gender.
FI 215 — Dynamic Perspectives: Contemporary Iranian Cinema and Beyond
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Explore Iranian film, culture, and society, delving into unique narratives that persist despite challenges such as censorship and social upheaval. Gain a deeper understanding of Iranian films, with occasional insights from Turkish and Russian cinemas, reflecting and reshaping their societies.
FI 220 — The Writers' Room: What Makes Great Television?
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Writing for television is a collaborative process. Students produce spec television scripts and a polished original pitch, developing the ability to give and receive appropriate feedback early in the creative process.
Prerequisite(s): FI 256 or EN 266.
FI 221 — History of Film, Beginnings to 1959
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course presents an overview of cinema history from its beginning to 1959 and provides students with the basic tools for analyzing the art of film. Students view representative films from major movements and study the uses of camera, editing, lighting, and sound. (Formerly EN 255)(G7: Humanities) Pre-requisite(s): EN121 or equivalent.
FI 222 — History of Film, 1960-2000
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
An overview of global cinema history from 1960-2000, with attention to cultural, political, economic, and technological forces. Trends within the U.S. are studied—changing genres, independent filmmakers, and the dominance of Hollywood blockbusters—along with influential European art cinema and the important cinema waves of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Prerequisite(s): FI 111.
FI 223 — Women Make Movies: A History of Women’s Filmmaking
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Students analyze the work of women filmmakers from the earliest days of the silent cinema to the late 1970s. Emphasis is placed upon recuperating women’s historical contributions to the motion picture arts as well as exploring the creative processes of individual artists.
(G7: Humanities).
FI 224 — Avant-Garde Film
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is cross-listed with HA 217 This course is a survey of major moments in avant-garde film from 1895 to the present. Through readings and discussions, students explore theories of avant-gardism, and study how such films are expressions of the historical, cultural, and philosophical contexts of their production. (G7: Humanities)
Prerequisite(s): FI 111 or HA 112.
FI 225 — Latin American Cinema and Resistance
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Students are introduced to Latin American cinema, considering the pivotal role of diverse forms of resistance, focusing on issues crucial to understanding the continent's cinematic creation, including cultural identity, race, ethnicity and gender. They develop a critical understanding of the evolution of Latin American film practices since the 1960s to current trends.
FI 231 — History of Documentary Film
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Provides a historical overview of the documentary form as its evolved through history. Ethnographic and propaganda films, social documentaries, cinema verite, and first person biographies will be examined. Students investigate the issues of truth and representation, and critique films from the perspective of feminist theory, cultural anthropology, and general film history and theory. (Formerly LA 244)
Prerequisite(s): FI 111.
FI 234 — Film Genres: Horror
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is cross-listed with HA 251. This course provides an international historical survey of the horror film from the early 20th century to the present. Through screenings and readings from a range of authors, students analyze formal and thematic elements of the horror genre in relation to historical, social, and aesthetic contexts.
FI 241 — History of Russian and Soviet Cinema
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is cross-listed with HA 252. This course is a survey of films produced in pre-revolutionary Russia, the Soviet Union, and post-Soviet Russia, from the earliest silent films to the present. Students view selected films and analyze them within historical, social, and aesthetic contexts. (G6: Arts; G7: Humanities).
FI 243 — Television Genres
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course is an introduction to the concept of genre in television. Students analyze ways in which individual genres have been used by media producers and consumers, as well as exploring the processes through which television genres evolve as they respond to developments in the television industry and shifts in culture.
Gen Ed: Humanities (G7).
FI 244 — Major Movements in Chinese, Japanese and Korean Film
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is cross-listed with EN 257. This course is an introduction to major film directors, movements, and genres from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea. Formal and stylistic aspects of films as well as their historical, transnational, and sociocultural contexts are addressed. Students discuss and write critically about East Asian film.
Prerequisite(s): EN 121 or ES 129 or equivalent.
FI 245 — Chinese Cinema
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is cross-listed with EN 281. Students are introduced to major film directors, movements, and genres from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. They discuss and write critically about Chinese film, with close attention paid to the formal and stylistic aspects of film, and their historical, transnational, and sociocultural contexts.
Prerequisite(s): EN 131 or equivalent.
FI 246 — Italian Cinema
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is cross-listed with MC 251. Students survey the defining elements of Italian cinema from inception to contemporary Italian cinematic practices. Screenings include Neorealist masterpieces, cinema d'autore, commedia all'italiana, spaghetti Westerns, and contemporary Italian films.
FI 253 — Afrofuturist Art and Visual Culture
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Study of Afrofuturism through selected historical and contemporary works of art and visual culture. Students will think critically about different definitions and key themes and tropes of Afrofuturism, and explore Afrofuturist works coming from Africa and the African Diaspora.
FI 256 — Screenwriting I
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course is cross-listed with EN 266. This course introduces the practice of writing fiction for the screen, focusing on the short film. In a workshop setting, students explore a range of approaches to the short screenplay, from traditional to innovative, and use examples from a variety of genres and geographical origins.
Prerequisite(s): EN 131 or equivalent.
FI 262 — Costume and Fashion in Film
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
A survey of costume design for films from 1895 to the present, including “period” films set in the past, contemporary films, and films in the fantasy and science fiction genres, conducted through lectures, screenings and visits to museums with film costume collections.
FI 271 — Fans and Fandom in the Internet Age
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course examines fans and fandom within the context of the history and evolution of mass media and participatory culture. Students explore fan communities as subcultures with their own social structures and cultural practices and engage their origins in cults, celebrity culture, and technological change and innovation.
FI 272 — Introduction to Television Studies
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course analyzes the medium of television in terms of its history, narrative, style, technique, editing, sound, and representation. Students view programs from the 1950s to the present, marking and investigating TV’s transformations as it moves with and creates cultural history. Students acquire and use skills for reading television in terms of its production and signification.
Prerequisite(s): EN 121 or ES 129 or equivalent.
FI 273 — The Other Hollywood: Film in New York
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course examines New York’s significance in the history of American film. As the birthplace of the industry, the city has been a seedbed for innovation in documentary, avant-garde and independent film, as well as an icon in Hollywood cinema. (Formerly LA 247)
Gen Ed: Humanities (G7).
FI 274 — American Independent Cinema
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course analyzes the history, aesthetics, business, and production techniques of American independent cinema through the early 2000s. Students will examine how independent filmmakers worked in opposition to the Hollywood studio system and how those mavericks generated a new cinema and culture inside and outside the studio system.
FI 299 — Independent Study - Film & Media
1-3 credit
FI 300 — Digital Storytelling: Creating A Web Series
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Focuses on serialized storytelling using video, images, audio and text, to post engaging and compelling online stories. Students research current trends in online storytelling, develop a vocabulary for critical analysis of current practices, and build on their existing knowledge of production tools to create their own Web series. (G6: Arts).
FI 301 — The Film Auteur
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Films of directors are studied through the lens of “authorship,” a critical approach emphasizing the cinematic language and vision of a filmmaker in the body of their work. Each semester the films of one or two different directors will be examined.
Prerequisite(s): FI 111.
FI 320 — Major Directors: Federico Fellini
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Federico Fellini’s highly personal films consistently expand the boundaries of cinematic narratives and visual imagination. This course traces the development of Fellini's work from the 1940s to the 1990s, and examines his many contributions to the craft, art, and to the language of cinema.
Prerequisite(s): FI 111.
FI 321 — Film Theory and Criticism, An Introduction
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Students are introduced to the major issues and movements in film theory and criticism. Examining key issues such as the relationship between film representation and reality and the roles of image, narrative, and the industrial infrastructure, students learn to place critical statements about film into a theoretical discussion that has flourished since the early days of silent film. (G7: Humanities)
Prerequisite(s): FI 111.
FI 322 — Major Directors: Alfred Hitchcock
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course provides an in-depth study of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, which are examined within the context of his life and the Hollywood system. Students learn the concepts of auteur theory by focusing on Hitchcock’s storyboarding method, his stylistic and cinematic technique, and his innovative use of editing and sound. (Formerly LA 443) Gen Ed: Humanities (G7).
FI 323 — Sexuality in Cinema
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This lecture/screening course examines the representation of sexuality in cinema as it’s been constructed by Hollywood, independent filmmakers and contemporary media artists. Starting with early cinema and moving through the Hays Code era, the radical ‘60s, and into contemporary times, students view works that portray multiple forms of sexuality and gender identity, while contextualizing it with the politics of its time.
FI 324 — The Romantic Comedy
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course surveys romantic comedy from the early sound era to the present, considering how cultural anxieties about gender, class, and marriage influenced the representation of sex, love and courtship rituals; interrelations between stardom and authorship; and the changing nature of cinematic sexuality after World War II. (G7: Humanities).
FI 325 — Major Directors: Akira Kurosawa
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course examines selected works by the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, tracing the evolution of his personal cinematic style from the end of World War II to the 1970's. Through study of Kurosawa's choices of subject, talent, camera work, music, production design and editing, students learn what made Kurosawa so innovative and significant.
Prerequisite(s): FI 111.
FI 326 — Major Directors: Charlie Chaplin and Frank Capra
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course examines the work of two seminal directors of classic Hollywood who profoundly influenced American culture: Chaplin's "tramp" persona became an instrument of acute social criticism and broader humanist reflection; Capra's beleaguered "common-man" protagonists brought issues of new deal politics to the pinnacle of box-office popularity. (G7: Humanities)
Prerequisite(s): FI 111.
FI 331 — Film Genres: Crime Stories
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course examines interrelationships in film and literature, focusing on “Crime Stories” – novels and cinematic adaptations that tell stories of crimes from differing points of view, starting with the detective, moving toward the criminal, and ending with the victims. Students study a variety of crime genres: the whodunit, the film noir, the docudrama, the neo-noir and the metafiction. (Formerly LA 342) (G7: Humanities).
FI 332 — The Science Fiction Film
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course examines the science fiction film from its beginnings. Students analyze the genre’s merits and flaws, conventional narrative themes and iconography, relevance, and fundamental departures from science fiction literature. They explore how science fiction films mirror the social and political environment of their time. (G7: Humanities).
FI 333 — Film Genres: Animation
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
In this history of animation course, students gain an understanding of animation as an art form and as a series of ideological texts to be read and interpreted within the context of the cultures that produced them. (G6: The Arts; G7: Humanities).
FI 334 — Film Genres: Films of the Supernatural
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course examines films that involve the supernatural, frequently a subgenre of the horror film. Students explore story conventions, iconography, and the relationship to cultural and literary foundations from which these films derive. (G7: Humanities).
FI 335 — Emotion Pictures: Film and Television Melodrama
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Students are introduced to the genre of melodrama and its development from the silent era through the present day. Students analyze formal and thematic elements, with a focus on political and social-cultural contexts: Screenings include classical Hollywood pictures, soap operas, telenovelas, and films from Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
Prerequisite(s): any FI, HA or MC course.
FI 341 — French Cinema
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Students are introduced to the rich legacy of French Cinema, from its early days in silent film to Surrealism and Poetic Realism between World War I and World War II to its position of influence with the New Wave in the 1960s. The political cinema of the 1970s is examined, as well as today's new French filmmakers. (G7: Humanities).
FI 342 — Contemporary Korean Cinema
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is an introduction to South Korean cinema from the late 1980s to the present. Students study the concept of New Korean Cinema, the rise of the domestic film industry and auteurs, and the emergence of blockbusters and their growing regional and international recognition. (Formerly LA 251) (G7: Humanities; G9: Other World Cultures).
FI 343 — Contemporary Chinese Cinema (Honors)
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is cross-listed with EN 382. An introduction to the contemporary cinemas of Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese Diaspora, this course focuses on selected major directors, movements, and genres from the 1990s to the present. Students study the formal and stylistic aspects of films as well as their historical, transnational, and sociocultural contexts.
Prerequisite(s): qualification for Presidential Scholars Program, or 3.5 GPA with approval of dean for Liberal Arts.
FI 356 — Screenwriting II
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course is cross-listed with EN 366. This course focuses on elements of screenwriting for feature-length films, including story concept, three-act structure, the world of the story, protagonist and antagonist, conflict, characterization, scene development, and dialogue. Students formulate individual projects, from pitching a story to presenting a synopsis, preparing an outline, and writing a screenplay. The business end of screenwriting is discussed and students meet film industry professionals.
Prerequisite(s): EN 266 or FI 256.
FI 400 — Screenwriting III
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Building on skills and projects developed in previous screenwriting courses, students successfully complete feature-length scripts. They refine their understanding of story concept, structure, protagonists and antagonists, conflict, characterization, scene development, and dialogue.
Prerequisite(s): FI 356 or EN 366.
FI 499 — INDEP STUDY - FILM & MEDIA
1-3 credit