Fall 2019 Undergraduate Course

Josslyn Luckett
Fridays / 12:30PM – 4:30pm / Room 648
4 points
CINE-UT 10 / Class # 14537

This course is designed to introduce the basic methods and concepts of cinema studies to new majors.  The course aims to help students develop a range of analytical skills that will form the basis of their study of film and other moving-image media they will encounter in cinema studies.  By the end of the semester, students will: 1) be fluent in the basic vocabulary of film form; 2) recognize variations of mode and style within the dominant modes of production (narrative, documentary, and experimental); 3) appreciate the relationship between formal analysis and questions of interpretation; and 4) grasp the mechanics of structuring a written argument about a film’s meaning.  Lectures and readings provide a detailed introduction to the basic terms of film scholarship, and to some critical issues associated with particular modes of film production and criticism. Screenings introduce students to the historical and international range of production that cinema studies addresses. Recitations provide students with opportunities to review the content of readings and lectures, and to develop their skills of analysis and interpretation in discussion.

Cinema Studies majors and pre-approved minors only.

Recitations
Tuesdays
Room 646
                                            Class #       
002:  9:30am – 10:45pm         14538
003:  11:00am – 12:15pm       14539
004:  12:30pm – 1:45pm         14540

Lukas Brasiskis
Thursdays / 12:30PM - 4:30pm / Room 648
4 points
CINE-UT 16 / Class # 14541

This course closely examines a variety of theoretical writings concerned with aesthetic, social, and psychological aspects of the medium.  Students study the writing of both classical theorists such as Eisenstein and Bazin and contemporary thinkers such as Metz, Dyer, DeLauretis, Baudrillard, and Foucault.  Questions addressed range from the nature of cinematic representation and its relationship to other forms of cultural expression to the way in which cinema shapes our conception of racial and gender identity.

Cinema Studies majors only. Prerequisite: Intro to Cinema Studies or Expressive Cultures: Film.

Recitations
Mondays 
Room 646
                                           Class #       
002:  9:30am – 10:45pm         14542
003:  11:00am – 12:15pm       14543
004:  12:30pm – 1:45pm         14544

Antonia Lant
Mondays / 12:30-4:30pm / Room 635
4 points
CINE-UT 701 / Class # 15239

The cinema’s peculiar and intricate relation to time has, from the outset, been understood as one of its defining qualities: cinematic time includes rates of shooting and projection; pace of movement on screen; rhythms of editing; camera movement; and narrative time itself.  Film also has an important cultural role in activities of memorialization.  In the late 19th century, cinema arrived into a scientific world obsessed with the nature of time and its relation to consciousness and optical perception.  More recently, we read everywhere of the accelerated pace of both life and of media editing.  In this course we study works that directly explore factors of time (slow cinema, puzzle films) and pay close attention to cinema’s role in practices of remembering. We read texts that examine the nature of cinematic time from a historical point of view, and also from aesthetic and theoretical perspectives (inc. Doane, Cubitt, Amad).  In-class presentation and two short papers required.  

Cinema Studies majors only. Permission code required.

Toby Lee
Wednesdays / 12:30-4:30pm / Room 635
4 points
CINE-UT 702 / Class # 15307

This course centers the figure of woman -- multiply understood as embodied, discursive, performed, strategic, subversive or subverted -- in a revisionist examination of documentary history and theory. How might our understanding of the documentary, its particular epistemology, and its central concepts be recalibrated through a shift of focus onto gender and sexual difference, variably behind or in front of the camera, on or in front of the screen? Multiple generations of feminist, queer, and post-humanist perspectives are brought to bear on the practices and discourses of documentary film & video. Filmmakers whose work we will consider include Chantal Akerman, Agnes Varda, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Jil Godmilow, Carolee Schneemann, Su Friedrich, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Shirley Clarke, Chick Strand, Hito Steyerl.

Cinema Studies majors only. Permission code required.

Ed Guerrero
Wednesdays / 6:00-10:00pm / Room 652
4 points
CINE-UT 710 / Class # 21546

Cinema Studies majors only. Permission code required.

Rochelle Miller
Fridays / 12:30-4:30pm / Room 670
4 points
CINE-UT 12 / 001 Class # 15359 / 002 Class # 15360

Over the last few decades the premium cable and satellite network, Home Box Office Inc. has developed American audience tastes and raised expectations for quality television programming. A long-term proponent of the “prestige show,” HBO repeatedly made the case that premium television is worth its monthly subscription fee; in doing so HBO laid the foundations for subscription streaming channels such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, all of which now also produce their own exclusive, original content. Responding recently to the growing competition from these sites, HBO restated its familiar rhetoric announcing it would focus even more on quality and exercise a greater selective content strategy.

What is a HBO show? And, why have HBO’s shows mattered so much in American cultural life? This course asserts that HBO produces a distinctive and recognizable brand. Beyond the boasted high production value evident in their often auteur controlled aesthetic, HBO’s shows share specific thematic concerns, narratives, and philosophy as they build a complex picture of US life, telling in long-form serials, stories from America’s past and present. Screenings will include some of the network’s most popular shows from a variety of genres, such as: The Wire, Girls, Entourage, Westworld, Game of Thrones, and Last Week Tonight. The class will also address the company’s corporate model and operating structure, along with its position in the global media market.

This course fulfills the US cinema requirement.

Marina Hassapopoulou
Mondays / 6:00-10:00pm / Room 670
4 points
CINE-UT 128 / 001 Class # 15357

Greek cinema has always been a “weird” anomaly in overarching discourses on European cinema. But recently, “weird” has been more specifically used as a branding term for the low-budget, independent, and bizarre wave of contemporary Greek films. These films are typically characterized by their minimalist aesthetics, shock value, and idiosyncrasy. They deliberately elude straightforward interpretation, and pose new intellectual and visceral challenges to their audiences. Although the weird wave is often regarded as a direct response to (and/or symptom of) Greece’s government-debt crisis, this course aims to provide students with a much more complex and broader historical and cross-cultural introduction to Greece’s most popular export. We will study the weird wave alongside other European and global crises (including the socioeconomic crises in Italy, Spain, and Portugal), the immigrant crisis, Brexit, the crisis of nationalism, the EU debates, terrorism, Islamophobia, and geopolitics. The course aims to examine the weird wave in relation to other cinemas of crisis, and to understand its “weirdness” as signaling to a broader interpretative chasm between Greece’s self-projections and the world’s perception of Greece (and how this could be applicable to other weird cinemas from around the world). We will explore through different contexts whether “weird” waves can function as what Maria Chalkou calls a “cinema of emancipation” that frees domestic film culture from internationally conceived stereotypes. The Greek “weird” wave challenges audiences to radically reconceptualize national cinema beyond familiar notions of cultural mirroring and representational authenticity. Consequently, the course will engage with theories on national/transnational cinema and cultural studies, as well as with other critical frameworks including industry/festival studies, posthumanism, animal studies, queer theory, gender studies, ethics, and biopolitics.  Assignments for this course include film analysis papers, comparative writing, presentations, online discussion, blogging, and a final research paper.

As this course covers a broad range of challenging theoretical and sociopolitical readings, it is recommended for students who have already taken other intensive Cinema Studies core courses such as Film Theory. Non-Cinema Studies majors must email the professor (mh193@nyu.edu) to ask for approval to enroll. In your email, please mention your academic background (coursework, major, research interests), and why you are interested in taking this course. 

Trigger warning: Many of the assigned films for this course contain potentially triggering and/or offensive material of graphic nature. Students are asked to take this into consideration and enroll in the course at their discretion.

Limited seats available. This course fulfills the international cinema requirement.

Feng-Mei Heberer
Tuesdays / 6:00-10:00pm / Room 674
4 points
CINE-UT 488 / 001 Class # 21647 / 002 Class # 21648

This undergraduate course explores transnational Asian media cultures in the “digital age.” We will examine how digital technologies – from the digital camera to social media to the Internet – have changed habits of media consumption, production, and representation; and how they have enabled new aesthetic, social, and political movements. We will illuminate the connection between these changes and new movements with historical struggles over power, money, land, and the future. Case studies may include orientalist representations in sci-fi films; augmented reality games from Japan; undersea networks in the Pacific; Pandaman memes in China; and media piracy in India.

Howard Besser
Wednesdays / 12:30-4:30pm / Room 648
4 points
CINE-UT 611 / 001 Class # 21603 / 002 Class # 21604

At the root of "Free Culture" and "Open Access" lies the idea that aesthetic and informational works, once shared with the public, become public resources that should be further shared, built upon, and incorporated into new creative works. This interdisciplinary class examines both ideas from a variety of perspectives: aesthetics, politics, law, and social movements. It pays particular attention to the relationship between these ideas and the rise of new forms of media that allow age-old concepts like "The Commons" to flourish. It also situates these ideas within longstanding practices of scholarship, librarianship, and artistic practice. The course places a focus on contemporary and very recent activities, and will also examine closely related ideas and movements such as "Information Wants to be Free", Illegal Art, Culture Jamming, Appropriation, Remix, Fair Use, Free Software/Open-Source, CopyLeft, and "Access to Knowledge". Prominent public figures will make presentations to the class. Guests (either in person or online) include: authors Siva Vaidhyanathan and David Bollier, Media Artists Craig Baldwin and Marshall Reese, Copyright attorney (and librarian and policy activist) Laura Quilter, and Renaissance man Rick Prelinger.

Dana Polan
Tuesdays / 6:00-10:00pm / 19 University Place 102
4 points
CINE-UT 50 / Class # 14545

This course offers a broad survey of American cinema from its beginnings (and even its pre-history) up to 1960.  While the emphasis will be on the dominant, narrative fiction film, there will be attention to other modes of American cinema such as experimental film, animation, shorts, and non-fiction film.  The course will look closely at films themselves -- how do their styles and narrative structures change over time? -- but also at contexts:  how do films reflect their times?  how does the film industry develop? what are the key institutions that had impact on American film over its history?  We will also attend to the role of key figures in film's history:  from creative personnel (for example, the director or the screenwriter) to industrialists and administrators, to censors to critics and to audiences themselves.  The goal will be to provide an overall understanding of one of the most consequential of modern popular art forms and of its particular contributions to the art and culture of our modernity.

Recitations
Thursdays
Room 646
                                           Class #
003: 11:00 am – 12:15 pm      14546
004: 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm       14547
005: 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm         14548   

Tanya Goldman
Thursdays / 6:00-9:30pm / Room 648
4 points
CINE-UT 55 / Class # 14549

This course surveys major aesthetic, cultural, technological, and transnational developments in global cinema from its origins in the late nineteenth century to 1960. The course will explore a selection of works from France, Germany, the Soviet Union, Italy, Japan, China, India, Egypt, and Mexico through a variety of frameworks—as a technology, industrial development, mode of political and cultural expression, colonial encounter, and as participants in debates about the nature of the moving image as an artistic and narrative form. The course will discuss the development of cinematic language and engage with theoretical texts related to influential movements including German Expressionism, Soviet montage, the early avant-garde, documentary, Italian Neorealism, and the French Left Bank, among others. In-class excerpts, features, and independent assignments will feature works by Georges Méliès, Alice Guy, Victor Sjöström, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Robert Wiene, Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Luis Buñuel, Germaine Dulac, Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir, Leni Riefenstahl, Emilio Fernandez, Roberto Rossellini, Satyajit Ray, Youssef Chahine, Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirō Ozu, Alain Resnais, Chris Marker, Jean Rouch, and more.

Recitations
Wednesdays
Room 646                                           
                                             Class #
003: 11:00 am – 12:15 pm        14550
004: 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm         14551
005: 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm           14552

Eric Kohn
Tuesdays / 6:00-10:00pm / Room 670
4 points
CINE-UT 600 / Class # 14954

This course demystifies the professional and intellectual possibilities of film criticism in the contemporary media landscape through a historical foundation. Students will write reviews & critical essays as well as produce analyses of existing work, all of which should aid those interested in pursuing further opportunities in criticism and/or developing a deeper understanding of the craft. Through a combination of readings, discussions, and screenings, we will explore the expansive possibilities of criticism with relation to global film culture, the role of the Internet, distinctions between academic and popular criticism, and the impact of the practice on the film and television industries themselves. We will cover the influence of major figures in the profession with course readings and discussions based around work by major figures including Ebert, Haskell, Farber, Kael, Sarris, Sontag, and many others. Major critics will visit the course to provide additional context. Emerging forms of critical practices, including podcasts & video essays, will also figure prominently, as will discussions surrounding the value of entertainment reporting and other related forms of journalism. In addition to engaging in classroom discussions, students will be expected to write weekly reviews, pitch essay ideas, file on deadline during certain courses, and complete a final essay.  

Cinema Studies majors only. Limited seats available.

A student wishing to conduct independent research for credit must obtain approval from a faculty member who will supervise an independent study for up to 4 credits. This semester-long study is a project of special interest to the student who, with the supervising faculty member, agrees on a course of study and requirements. The proposed topic for an Independent Study project should not duplicate topics taught in departmental courses. This is an opportunity to develop or work on a thesis project. To register, you must present a signed “Independent Study Form” at the department office when you register. This form must be completely filled out, detailing your independent study project. It must have your faculty sponsor’s signature (whomever you have chosen to work with - this is not necessarily your advisor) indicating their approval.

CINE-UT 900 / Class # 14553      1-4 points variable
CINE-UT 902 / Class # 14554      1-4 points variable

A student wishing to pursue an internship must obtain the internship and submit the Learning Contract before receiving a permission code.  All internship grades will be pass/fail.  

CINE-UT 950 / Class # 15098        1-4 points variable
CINE-UT 952 / Class # 15099        1-4 points variable

Kenneth Dancyger
Thursdays / 3:30-6:10pm / Room 109
4 points
CINE-UT 146 / Class # 15144

This class is designed to help the students analyze a film script. Premise, character population, plot and genre, dialogue, foreground, background, and story will all be examined. Using feature films, we will highlight these script elements rather than the integrated experience of the script, performance, directing, and editing elements of the film. Assignments will include three script analyses.

Limited seats available.

Ludovic Cortade
Thursdays / 12:30-3:15pm / Room 674
4 points
CINE-UT 239 / Class # 15284

The course is an introduction to the history of French cinema from the origins to the present day through the lens of varied aspects of French civilization (history, literature, class, gender, ethnicity). The movements we will be studying include: Early cinema, Surrealism and the Avant-Garde, Poetic Realism, The “New Wave”, Political Modernism, “Heritage Cinema” and Globalization. Conducted in English. No background in French or Cinema Studies required.  

This course fulfills the international cinema requirement.

Nilita Vachani
Mondays / 6:20-9:00pm / Room 003
3 points
CINE-UT 454 / Class # 15238

This course explores the blurred boundaries that have always existed between documentary and fiction filmmaking.  Intended to widen the horizons of the creative filmmaker and film student we will analyze major documentary traditions with a specific focus on narrative techniques used in the telling of powerful stories. Alongside, we will examine contemporary fiction filmmaking that has broken new grounds by a creative absorption and exploitation of the documentary method. The course consists of film analysis of a variety of documentary tropes, interviews with filmmakers, readings in documentary theory and case studies of seminal films. Students write theoretical papers and have the opportunity to work in groups to propose a ‘docfiction’ idea of their own. This course will provide a firm grounding in documentary history and theory, through the lens of the complicated nature of ‘truth’ in documentary practice.

Cinema Studies majors only. Limited seats available.

Marta Peixoto
Tuesdays / 2:00-4:30pm / TISC LC2
4 points
CINE-UT 456 / Class # 21503

How does documentary film represent reality? Not, certainly, as a transparent window, but as a complex form that may include elements of staging and fiction. In Brazil (as elsewhere) the last twenty years have seen a surge in documentary filmmaking and critical thinking about this kind of film, which have reached a larger and more enthusiastic audience than ever before. The increased production of documentary film is part of the Retomada or Renewal of Brazilian cinema of all kinds since the 1990s, made possible by favorable government policies. This course, conducted in English, will examine a selection of these Brazilian films from the 1990s to the present (with brief retrospectives to earlier films) and explore issues such as: the uses of fact and fiction and the multiple ways in which documentary film may go beyond offering realistic versions of preexistent realities; the scope and limits of its political impact; ethical concerns about the respectful use of other people's images and words; the construction of layered and complex images of Brazil. Readings concern these and other aspects of documentary films.

David Bagnall
Tuesdays / 6:20-9:00pm / Room 017
4 points
CINE-GT 1400 / Class # 7359

This course examines documentary principles, methods, and styles.  Both the function and the significance of the documentary in the social setting, and the ethics of the documentary are considered.

Stefano Albertini
Tuesdays / 12:30-1:45pm & Thursdays / 12:30-3:15pm / CASA Auditorium
4 points
ITAL-UA 174 / Class # 21242

Studies representation of Italian history through the medium of film from ancient Rome through the Risorgimento. Issues to be covered throughout include the use of filmic history as a means of forging national identity. This class will be taught in English.

Dana Polan
Wednesdays / 12:30-4:30pm / Cantor 102
4 points
CORE-UA 750 / Class # 8662

Recitations
Fridays
                                         Class #
002:  8:00 am – 9:15 am       8663
003:  9:30 am – 10:45 am     8664
004:  9:30 am – 10:45 am     8665
005:  11:00 am – 12:15 pm   8666
006:  12:30 pm – 1:45 pm     8667
007:  2:00 pm – 3:15 pm       8668
008:  3:30 pm – 4:45 pm       10763  

Ed Guerrero
Thursdays / 6:00-10:00pm / Room 674
4 points
CINE-GT 1317 / Section 002 Class # 22929

This course explores the rise and fall of Hollywood's "Blaxploitation" period and genre. As well we will look at the genre's continuing influence on American commercial cinema and popular culture. We will locate the fifty-odd films of the period in the cultural, political, ‘black identity and liberation' contexts at the end of the Civil Rights Movement, and at the rise of the Black Power and Black Aesthetics movements of the mid-‘70s. Also, we will explore what Blaxploitation was ‘saying' to (and about) its audience; how Blaxploitation draws upon black literary convention; the black crime novel; and black music and film noir. We will also examine Blaxploitation's niche in, and contribution to, Hollywood's political economy, and how Blaxploitation's aesthetic and cultural conventions, and formula have crossed over to address a broad popular audience in a number of popular contemporary films and popular cultural expressions.

Interested students should email Prof. Guerrero at ed.guerrero@nyu.edu for permission to enroll.

Juana Suarez
Mondays / 12:30-4:30pm / Room 674
4 points
CINE-GT 1800 / Class # 7361

This course introduces all aspects of the field, contextualizes them, and shows how they fit together. It will discuss the media themselves (including the technology, history, and contextualization within culture, politics, and economics) Topics include: conservation and preservation principles, organization and access, daily practice with physical artifacts, restoration, curatorship and programming, legal issues and copyright, and new media issues. Students will learn the importance of other types of materials (manuscripts, correspondence, stills, posters, scripts, etc.). Theories of collecting and organizing (as well as their social meanings) will be introduced.

Interested students should email tisch.preservation@nyu.edu for permission to enroll.

Gregory Cram
Thursdays / 6:30-9:30pm / Room 670
4 points
CINE-GT 1804 / Class # 7363

With the advent of new technologies, film producers and distributors and managers of film and video collections are faced with a myriad of legal and ethical issues concerning the use of their works or the works found in various collections. The answers to legal questions are not always apparent and can be complex, particularly where different types of media are encompassed in one production. When the law remains unclear, a risk assessment, often fraught with ethical considerations, is required to determine whether a production can be reproduced, distributed, or exhibited without infringing the rights of others. What are the various legal rights that may encumber moving image material? What are the complex layers of rights and who holds them? Does one have to clear before attempting to preserve or restore a work? How do these rights affect downstream exhibition and distribution of a preserved work? And finally, what steps can be taken in managing moving image collections so that decisions affecting copyrights can be taken consistently? This course will help students make intelligent decisions and develop appropriate policies for their institution.

Interested students should email tisch.preservation@nyu.edu for permission to enroll.