Spring 2021 Undergraduate Courses

Dan Streible
Wednesdays
12:30 – 4:30pm

CINE-UT 15
Class # 15103
4 points

Cinema Studies majors only.

This course examines the history of film from the medium’s beginnings through the early 1930s, a period often said to be synonymous with “silent cinema.” In roughly chronological order, we will consider particular aspects of that history -- aesthetic, technological, economic, industrial, social, and cultural. Not a comprehensive survey, we will examine several national cinemas and the international traffic in films (or what were more often then called "pictures"). Among the phenomenon we will study are: precursors of cinematic technology and moving image culture, earliest forms of cinema, development of narrative film, battles to control screen content, emergence of classical film style and genres, studio and star systems, movie exhibition, theatrical film business and nontheatrical practices, as well as categories of film content (nonfiction, experimental, amateur, et al.). We will also consider ways in which works of silent-era cinema have been continually reused and revisited.

Recitations
Tuesdays
                                             Class #      
002:  8:00 – 9:15am                15104
003:  9:30 – 10:45am              15105
004:  11:00am – 12:15pm        15106

Anna McCarthy
Mondays
6:00–10:00pm

CINE-UT 21
Class # 15107
4 points

Cinema Studies majors only.

This core course examines the background, context, and history of television with an initial emphasis on broadcast and digital eras in the U.S., then expansion into case studies of international television. The approach is comparative, with a focus on television as cultural, social, and aesthetic formation. Topics include histories of technology, economics of media institutions, local and networked intersectional politics, audiences and reception, and questions of representation. We will also pay particular attention to methods and modes of historiography, especially in light of emerging opportunities for online access and digital research tools. Recitation sessions explore readings and screenings through discussion and close analysis.

Recitations
Wednesdays
                                             Class #      
002:  8:00 – 9:15am                15108
003:  9:30 – 10:45am              15109
004:  11:00am – 12:15pm        15110

Chris Straayer
Tuesdays
12:30-4:30pm

CINE-UT 700
Class # 15174
4 points

Cinema Studies majors only. Permission code required.

Each week, this seminar will consider a different site of passing, e.g., race, sex, sexual orientation, class, ethnicity, age, health, and crime. Enabled by conventional semiotics, passing exploits a dominant gaze that can be unseeing in its assumed omnipresence. At the same time, passing requires convoluted engagements with identity and presence, trespass and ambiguity. The passer’s passage is not simply a camouflaged identity, but a counter existence. Does it disguise or alter the passer’s identity? Filmic address can pose passing as serious, comical, brutal, victorious, pitiful, seductive, justified, fated, and ironic. Across this spectrum, what do narratives of passing provide or fulfill for viewers? Indeed, we will consider not only the fictional passer and dupe, but also we spectating judges. Is a genre approach productive to this study? If so, what particular historical and theoretical arguments are most relevant? We might ask if the successful act of passing--successful in terms of the film viewing experience—requires a special negotiation between repetition and variation. Filmic narratives of passing always involve more than one vector. This seminar will encourage student projects on contemporary instances of passing that entail unusual complexity and/or creativity.

Zhen Zhang
Tuesdays
6:00-10:00pm

CINE-UT 707
Class # 15693
4 points

Cinema Studies majors only. Permission code required.

Is melodrama a genre?  How can it be studied across different film cultures?  This seminar takes as its premise that melodrama is at once a prevalent mode throughout film history and a powerful expressive form addressing significant social changes and historical experiences. We examine the proliferation and transformation of melodrama film within various national, subnational, postcolonial and global contexts. We study melodrama's various manifestations--as colonial fantasy, war trauma rehabilitation, and decolonization and national-building narratives--in relation to questions of genre, gender, race, affect and style. But most importantly, the course builds its investigation of melodrama trans-nationally and cross-culturally in order to search for new understandings of melodrama's role in making a world cinema as an integral part of global modernity.  Screenings include films from Asia, Europe as well as the US. Students will engage in active discussion in class and online, conduct team presentations, and develop an imaginative research project (that can also extend to Latin America, Africa and elsewhere).

Marina Hassapopoulou
Tuesdays
12:30-4:30pm

CINE-UT 710
Class # 15516
4 points

Cinema Studies majors only. Permission code required.

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 not only engage with theories on national/transnational cinema and cultural studies, but also with other critical frameworks including industry/festival studies, posthumanism, animal studies, queer theory, 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 material, it is recommended for students who have already taken other intensive Cinema Studies core courses such as Film Theory.

Trigger warning: Many of the assigned films for this course contain potentially triggering and/or offensive material of graphic nature (such as depictions of violence, sex, nudity, rape and incest). Students are asked to take this into consideration and enroll in the course at their discretion.

Anila Gill
Mondays
12:30-4:30pm

CINE-UT 105
Section 001 Class # 24020
Section 002 Class # 24021
4 points

Writing in 1948, Satyajit Ray diagnosed what he observed to be an artistically impoverished national film industry too readily capitulating to Western influence: “What our cinema needs above everything else is a style, an idiom, ​a sort of iconography of cinema, which would be uniquely and recognizably Indian.” While many manifestos following Ray’s were quick to dismiss the possibility of singular aesthetic emerging from a nation hosting as many divergent ethnic, religious and linguistic populations as India, the discussion had already given life to film societies, artistic movements, and literary and theatrical institutions unwilling to involve themselves in popular Hindi cinema’s cultural and linguistic regime.

Periodized between Partition and the Emergency, this course begins with regional art cinema emerging from West Bengal, moves through Hindi-Urdu literary traditions, and explores cinematic representations of caste relations from South Indian filmmakers.

Robert Lightning
Thursdays
6:00-10:00pm

CINE-UT 215
Section 001 Class # 24022
Section 002 Class # 24023
4 points

Following the critical and popular success of his independent production She’s Gotta Have It (1986), for his very first studio-financed production director Spike Lee chose to make School Daze (1988), a film following in the uniquely Hollywood tradition of the college musical. Thus from the very onset of his highly prolific career, Lee has found inspiration in the Hollywood genres for his thematic concerns.  In such films as Malcolm X (1992), Clockers (1995), Bamboozled (2000) and Inside Man (2006) the biopic, the policier, the television satire and the caper film are respectively inflected by Lee’s perennial thematic, American racial politics.  In this class we will examine the strengths and limitations of Lee’s strategic use of genre.  Through the screening of both Hollywood genre films and Lee’s own work, the reading of relevant critical and theoretical texts, weekly lectures, class discussions and writing assignments I hope to provide opportunities for a clearer understanding of Lee’s relationship to Hollywood history as well as for fresh perspectives on his films.

Robert K. Lightning is a lecturer in film studies at Manhattanville College. He has served as a reader and reviewer for MEN AND MASCULINITIES, published frequently in FILM INTERNATIONAL and CINEACTION and contributed to the anthology MULTICULTURAL FILM. He has delivered conference papers and responses at NYU, USC, Columbia and Oglethorpe universities. Currently writing a monograph on the film BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, he is also pursuing work on Shakespeare, Twain, Hawthorne and Robin Wood.  Recent accomplishments include presenting the paper “Full Integration” at the annual Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference in 2016, where he also participated in a workshop on contemporary standards in criticism; and presenting the paper “The Critic as Recalcitrant Humanist” as part of The Legacy of Robin Wood panel at SCMS in 2018.

David Forgacs
Tuesdays & Thursdays
9:30-10:45am

CINE-UT 236
Class # 25195
4 points

Cinema Studies majors only.

From the execution of Mussolini in April 1945 to the mafia bombings of the early 1990s, acts of violence against individuals or groups of people have been recurrent in the history of modern Italy. Examines case studies where violence has given rise to intense controversy over historical memory. Through close examination of materials in different media and class discussion students learn to examine sources critically and gain an in-depth understanding of some fundamental themes and controversies in contemporary Italy.

Josslyn Luckett
Fridays
12:30-4:30pm

CINE-UT 314
Section 001 Class # 15697
Section 002 Class # 15698
4 points

Can a visual archive help to change the discourse of a musical form? How does what we see/screen about this music called "jazz" (in narrative feature films, in PBS documentaries, in music videos, on Grammy night) inform our listening, our purchasing and streaming? Could a different set of films, a wider reaching visual archive transform our understanding of this music, or to paraphrase the late great Gang Starr poet, Guru, could what we see restructure the metaphysics of a jazz thing? Much of what Hollywood feature films and mainstream documentaries have scripted or proclaimed about the history of this music is that it was created by some black genius musicians (all tragic), and a few white genius musicians (some tragic), who were all male (except for an occasional junkie female vocalist) and are now all dead. In spite of decades of academic and cinematic signifying about jazz as democracy and jazz as freedom, this visual archive tells a very limited tale of this music, who played it, and what it meant to communities from the Treme to Sugar Hill to Central Avenue, to the world, and even to the stars ("space is the place"). In this course we will center a different visual archive that tells a wider tale of this music and who made and still makes it and who is energized and challenged by it. We will evaluate this counter-archive of narrative, documentary and experimental film and video keeping in mind Sherrie Tucker and Nichole Rustin's challenge to "grow bigger ears" to listen for gender in jazz studies. This archive and its international, multiracial, multireligious musician participants invites us to grow bigger ears and eyes for the sound. A combination of film studies and jazz studies readings will support our viewing of a wide range of shorts and features, as well as some close listening of film scores by jazz composers.

Christian Rossipal
Thursdays
12:30-4:30pm

CINE-UT 435
Section 001 Class # 24018
Section 002 Class # 24019
4 points

“War is cinema and cinema is war” the cultural theorist Paul Virilio famously proclaimed in the late ‘80s. While we don’t have to agree with Virilio’s bold  assertation, it is evident that war and cinema have had an intimate and complex relationship throughout the 20th century and into the 21st – from classical war films to anti-war films and from propaganda newsreels to critical documentaries. In this course we survey this history from the 1960s to the present. In addition to major American wars, we will consider historical epics, anti-colonial war films, and the connection between new media and the so-called War on Terror. Crucial questions to be raised address, among other things, violence and mediated suffering, militarism, historical truth claims, and collective memory. Screenings include: War & Peace, Images of the World & the Inscription of War, Ivan’s Childhood, Dr. Strangelove, The Battle of Algiers, and The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On.

Dana Polan
Tuesdays
6:00-10:00pm

CINE-UT 51
Class # 15111
4 points

This course offers a broad survey of American cinema from 1960 up to the present.  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    
                                             Class #      
002:  8:00 – 9:15am                15112
003:  9:30 – 10:45am              15113
004:  11:00am – 12:15pm        15114

Raymond Tsang
Wednesdays
6:00-10:00pm

CINE-UT 56
Class # 15115
4 points

This course surveys the major international films since 1960, with emphasis on film styles, auteur, and movement in relation to themes like “revolution” “independence,” “crisis” and “resistance.” We will consider films from a formal and political perspective in order to understand films within the framework of the Cold War. This course aims not only to introduce classic films in the past fifty years, but also to learn from the worldwide film experiences and encourage students to think critically about the role played by films in social resistance during the Cold War. In-class screenings will include films by: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Agnès Varda, Glauber Rocha, Fernando Solanas, Octavio Getino, Godard, Nagisa Oshima, Ousmane Sembenè,Tsai Ming-liang, Chen Kai-ge, Wong Kar Wai, Bruce Lee, Chang Cheh, Shinsuke Ogawa, Masao Adachi and many more.

Recitations
Fridays
                                             Class #      
002:  8:00 – 9:15am                15116
003:  9:30 – 10:45am              15117
004:  11:00am – 12:15pm        15118

CINE-UT 901 / Class # 15119
1-4 points variable

CINE-UT 903 / Class # 15120
1-4 points variable

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 950 / Class # 15358
1-4 points variable

CINE-UT 952 / Class # 15359
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.

Dan Streible
Mondays
12:30-4:30pm

CINE-GT 1806
Class # 7096
4 points

This course embraces a broad conception of curating as the treatment of materials from their discovery, acquisition, archiving, preservation, restoration, and reformatting, through their screening, programming, use, re-use, distribution, exploitation, translation, and interpretation. It  focuses on the practices of film and video exhibition in cinematheques, festivals, museums, archives, web platforms, and other venues. The course examines the goals of public programming, its constituencies, and the curatorial and archival challenges of presenting film, video, and digital media. We study how archives and sister institutions present their work through exhibitions, events, publications, and media productions. We also examine how these presentations activate uses of moving image collections. Specific curatorial practices of festivals, seminars, symposia, and projects will be examined.  

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

Michael Gillespie
Tuesdays
6:00-10:00pm

CINE-GT 2057
Section 002 class # 25190
4 points

Undergraduate students interested in enrolling should email the instructor at mbg2091@nyu.edu.

This class focuses on the theories, strategies, and consequence of adapting novels, comics, histories, and memoirs to film and television. Rather than measuring adaptations in terms of successful fidelity to their source work, the course will emphasize adaptation with attention to narrative, genre, historiography, and affect. Pairing an interdisciplinary framing of film theory with historical and cultural contexts, the course centers the formal and textual properties that shape the art of film adaptation.  

Michael Boyce Gillespie is associate professor of film at The City College of New York and the Graduate Center, CUNY. His work focuses on the idea of black film, black visual and expressive culture, film theory, visual historiography, music, and contemporary art. He is author of Film Blackness: American Cinema and the Idea of Black Film (Duke University Press, 2016); and co-editor with Lisa Uddin of Black One Shot, an art criticism series on ASAP/J. His recent work has appeared in ASAP/J, Black Light: A Retrospective of International Black Cinema, Flash Art, Unwatchable, and Film Quarterly.

Dana Polan
Wednesdays
12:30-4:30pm

CORE-UA 750
Class # 8209
4 points

Best known as a singer, Frank Sinatra also had an important and extensive career in Hollywood cinema. Many of his stand-out films use his ethnic and working-class background to investigate—and sometimes interrogate—postwar class structures and strictures, especially around projections of masculinity. We approach the culture and politics of post-World War II America through a study of key films starring Frank Sinatra, including On the Town, Suddenly, From Here to Eternity, The Man with the Golden Arm, Young at Heart, Guys and Dolls, Some Came Running, High Society, and The Manchurian Candidate. While focusing on cinema and the meanings of performance within that medium, we also attend to Sinatra’s efforts in other media, such as radio and recording, and analyze pop music as American expressive art. The overall aim is to use Sinatra as a case study for means by which, contrary to stereotypes of postwar conformity and suburban middle-classness, popular American culture in the period could serve in the expression of non-conformity, new projections of masculinity, and liberal examination of ethnic identity. 

Recitations
Fridays                                 
                                         Class #:
002:  8:00–9:15 am             8210
003:  9:30–10:45 am           8211
004:  11:00am–12:15 pm     8212
005:  12:30–1:45 pm           8213
006:  2:00–3:15 pm             8214
007:  3:30–4:45 pm             8215
008:  12:30–1:45 pm           9745