FMS 300  Introduction to Film Studies

  This course is an introduction to the system of film, and its various forms,

  styles, and genres. We will be studying a wide variety of films (canonic

  Hollywood films, documentaries, shorts, animation, art and experimental

  films) as a way to further an understanding of the visual, aural, and narrative

  conventions by which motion pictures address social and aesthetic experience.

  Through the class lectures, readings, and screenings, we will explore the

  multiple functions of film, conventional and alternative ways of reading a film

  text, and will develop the critical tools necessary for thinking and writing

  about film as both an art form, and as a medium that reflects popular culture.  

  Copies of the current syllabus are available here.