Summer 2020 Undergraduate Courses

Bill Simon
May 26-June 14 / Mondays-Thursdays / 12:30-4:30pm
CINE-UT 230 / class # 5133 / 4 points
NCRD-UT 230 / class # 5498

This course will focus on the New York City films of Martin Scorsese.  We shall approach several of the films (e.g. Gangs of New York, The Age of Innocence) as filmic examples of historical fiction and most of the other films in terms of their socio-cultural representation of New York City phenomena (e.g. immigration, crime, the art and entertainment industries).  As well, we will be concerned with exploring Scorsese’s “narrative method” – his usages of film form and style – in relation to the above issues.

Claudia Calhoun
May 26-June 14 / Mondays-Thursdays / 6:00-10:00pm
CINE-UT 12 / Class # 5217 / 4 points

The term "showrunner" has recently come into usage to describe the individual who is most responsible for the style and content of a television show, such as The Sopranos; David Chase, or Girls; Lena Dunham. This course will analyze and interrogate this new category of "showrunner" on U.S. television, looking at the stories that showrunners tell on-screen and the ideas of authorship that showrunners mobilize and challenge.  We will look at series from the 1950s to the present day, considering how individuals become authors in a collaborative medium and how conceptions of television authorship have changed over time. The writers and producers covered will include early television creators like Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy) and Jack Webb (Dragnet); network-era figures like Aaron Spelling (Charlie's Angels) and David Lynch (Twin Peaks); and contemporary writer-producers like Damon Lindelof (Lost, Watchmen) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag).

Julian Cornell
June 15-July 5 / Mondays-Thursdays / 6:00-10:00pm
CINE-UT 30 / Class # 3640 / 4 points

Walt Disney and Hayao Miyazaki are, arguably, the two best-known and widely acclaimed artists in the history of animated cinema. Despite obvious differences in style, themes, politics and approach to the animated form, what unites the oueveres of Disney and Miyazaki is their indelible influence on the aesthetics, narratives and cultural significance of animated film and films for children. Founders of two of the most successful independent production houses in cinematic history – the Walt Disney entertainment conglomerate and Studio Ghibli, their films provide insight into the role of autonomous studios in both domestic and global contexts. While Disney’s company has produced innovative films of high aesthetic quality, stunning animation and hegemonic values, Studio Ghibli has managed to equal those lofty artistic standards while crafting complex tales which question the very foundations of the culture from which they emerge. This course will examine the works of these two artists, producers and production houses in the light of auteur and animation scholarship to interrogate how their respective filmic productions both exemplify and problematize the issue of cinematic authorship and illustrate the cultural function of animation. Films to be screened will include Snow White, Fantasia, Pinnochio, Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, Frozen, Grave of the Fireflies, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and The Wind Rises.

Gianni Barchiesi
June 15-July 5 / Mondays-Thursdays / 12:30-4:30pm
CINE-UT 215 / Class # 5126 / 4 points

This course explores David Cronenberg’s filmography through the notion of adaptation. Adaptation – both the process and the result of an object’s change of form/status – is in fact a central concern within Cronenberg's work. Since rising to fame riding the body horror genre, Cronenberg regularly, maniacally, and surgically explored a multitude of bodily adaptations prompted by pharmacology and medical advancements, parasites, and media (Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly, eXistenZ). He then transcended the boundaries of genre, and ventured through the psychological implications related to adaptation with films as intense as Dead Ringers, M. Butterfly, A History of Violence. Finally, Cronenberg has been affirming himself as an auteur thanks to his ambitious and critically successful adaptations of literary works of post-modern US novelist such as Ballard (Crash), Burroughs (Naked Lunch), and DeLillo (Cosmopolis). Beyond using adaptation to enter Cronenberg’s work, we will also rely on it to critically handle his production, in light of the fluidity and perennial adaptivity of contemporary culture.

Rochelle Miller
July 6-August 16 / Mondays & Wednesdays / 12:30-4:30pm
CINE-UT 218 / Class # 5474 / 4 points

The identified popularity of Netflix’s “strong female lead” category breathed new life into previously under-celebrated movies, while simultaneously inaugurating a growing list of commercially successful and critically acclaimed Hollywood films and television shows. 

This course looks at the industrial, social, and political conditions that have given rise to the interest and growth of movies and shows featuring strong female leads. Organized around common female archetypes (such as ‘the mother,’ ‘the leader,’ ‘the avenger’ ‘the warrior,’ ‘the princess’ and more) this course will analyze media content through various lenses, including star studies, feminist film studies, fan and reception studies, and media industry studies.  

Despite the category being widely regarded as progressive in our #metoo #timesup moment, Hollywood movies remain arguably conservative, featuring few women of color, women of non-normative sexualities, or women who do not conform to traditional ideals of feminine beauty. Among the numerous questions this course will explore then is: Does the “strong female lead” trope simply recapitulate hegemonic masculinity alongside the patriarchal power tied to the political economy of media flows? And by comparison, do streaming platforms offer women a broader range of female representation and greater creative opportunities? Screenings and clips will include films and television shows: Gravity, Mad Max: Fury Road, Zero Dark Thirty, Annihilation, Moana, Big Little Lies, Unbelievable, Shrill…etc. 

Fabio Andrade
July 6-August 16 / Tuesdays & Thursdays / 12:30-4:30pm
CINE-UT 421 / Class # 5503 / 4 points

In the late 1960s, a group of young filmmakers took Hollywood by storm during a moment of crisis in the then-hegemonic studio system. Directors such as Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Steven Spielberg, Brian de Palma, among others, established new ways to make and market films that earned the rubric of a 'New Hollywood.' These films were directed by the first generation of filmmakers to come out of film schools (NYU, USC, AFI, etc) and thrive in the industry, and they allied a broad knowledge of the history of cinema with a direct connection to the pulse of their time, and an acute awareness of the discoveries of New Cinema movements worldwide (the French, Czech, and Japanese New Waves, the Brazilian Cinema Novo, Third Cinema, etc). However, this capitalization of the "new" is only one episode in a history of shifts, strategies, and waves of renewal in American cinema advertised by the industry or perceived by filmmakers and film scholars. This course will investigate some of these many different "new" Hollywoods - New Hollywood, New American Cinema, New Queer Cinema, Black Hollywood, Indiewood, etc - and track the ways the industry has both encouraged and regulated change, prolonging its relevance in an ever-shifting social, economic, and cultural landscape.