Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: REPRESENTATIONS OF MAGIC AND SPIRITUALITY IN MODERNIST CINEMA

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 4

Description: This course examines representations of magical practices and spiritual phenomena in modernist cinema. Focusing primarily on classic films. We will explore the technical symbolic systems through which the cinematic medium represents such phenomena as miracles, angelic intervention, the afterlife, witchcraft, time travel, and spirit possession rituals.

Long Title: HISTORY AND CINEMA IN NORTH ASIA

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Can we learn history by analyzing movies? Using documentary and feature films from Asian film culture's beginnings, we view 19-20th century Chinese, Japanese, and Korean history. Collective in-class film viewing, discussion and reading required. Cross-list: ASIA 218, HIST 218.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO FILMMAKING AND EDITING

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course introduces the student to filmmaking in general through specific techniques of digital video production. The emphasis in this class will be the medium as a means of effective storytelling through the craft of filmmaking. All aspects of production will be discussed, including preproduction and postproduction. Core topics will include the basic principles and operation of digital video cameras, lighting instruments, and audio recording gear; concepts and practical use of nonlinear digital editing gear, planning and scripting using applications of various filmmaking techniques; and delivery of a finished project.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO FILM: FILM CRITICISM

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 4

Description: A writing-intensive course that teaches students to view films analytically and to write film criticism. Each week, students will view a film, read criticism of that film, and write their own review of the film. Screenings will be taken from important movements in world cinema history. Cross-list: ENGL 275, HART 285.

Long Title: HISTORY & AESTHETICS OF FILM

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 4

Description: Introduction to the art and aesthetics of film as an artifact produced within certain social contexts. Includes style, narrative, mise-en-scene, editing, sound, and ideology in classical Hollywood cinema, as well as in independent, alternative, nonfiction, and Third World cinemas. Cross-list: ARTS 280, HART 280.

Long Title: THE BEGINNINGS OF CINEMA

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This class studies the emergence of cinema in the context of cultural developments at the turn of the 20th century. Early films will be examined together with such contemporaneous issues as technologies of vision, modern mass culture, urban expansion and consumerism. Cross-list: HART 281.

Long Title: NONFICTION FILM

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 4

Description: Introduction to the history and aesthetics of nonfiction film as both a social artifact and as a work of art. Includes discussions of actualities, the city film, the social documentary, surrealist cinema, propaganda, ethnography, the essay film, and the contemporary nonfiction film from around the world. Cross-list: HART 284.

Long Title: SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN FILM &VIDEOTAPE MAKING

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hours: 1 TO 3

Description: Study of problems in film and film production. Topics may vary. Please consult with the department for additional information. May be used in awarding transfer credit. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Study of the expressive possibilities of documentary production using digital systems. Space in studio classes is limited. Registration does not guarantee a place in class. The class roster is formulated on the first day of class by the individual instructor. Cross-list: ARTS 327.

Long Title: FILMMAKING I

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Dramatic film production class that requires the making of one digital video and one 16mm film. Space in studio classes is limited. Registration does not guarantee a place in class. The class roster is formulated on the first day of class by the individual instructor. Cross-list: ARTS 328.

Long Title: FILM FORM

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Viewing, analysis, and discussion of modern and classic films. Space in studio classes is limited. Registration does not guarantee a place in class. The class roster is formulated on the first day of class by the individual instructor. Cross-list: ARTS 329.

Long Title: CINEMA AND THE CITY

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 4

Description: This class explores representations of the city in 20th century European and American cinema, considering such diverse films as Dziga Vertov's "Man with the Movie Camera," Jules Dassin's "The Naked City," Fritz Lang's "M," and Tom Tykwer's "Run Lola Run." Central concerns will include the city as cinematic protagonist, parallels between urban and cinematic space, and the intertwined histories of both film and urban design over the last century. Cross-list: HART 336.

Long Title: HISTORY OF RUSSINA CINEMA

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This class surveys the history of Russian/Soviet cinema from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. We will examine films as part of the broader political and social history of this period, paying particular attention to such issues as aesthetics and politics, entertainment and propaganda, history and memory, and gender and sexuality. Cross-list: HART 337.

Long Title: SURVEY OF AMERICAN FILM AND CULTURE

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 4

Description: A course that explores the history of cinema in the U.S. from its origins to the present day. Cross-list: ENGL 373, HART 380.

Long Title: RIPPED, RECYCLED AND REMADE CINEMA

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This hybrid seminar/production class investigates the practice cinematic quoting in media works. We will look at how the appropriation process critiques political and cultural concerns between the source and reworked material, new conversations it introduces, and these works in relation to fair-using, hijacking, open sourcing, and stealing.

Long Title: MODALITIES OF CINEMA

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: In this course we will survey the range of organizing principles of cinema- the differing and combative ways cinema arranges its images and sounds. We will look at classicism, modernism, postmodernism and many other modes. The films will range from early silent pictures, to experimental shorts, to commercial blockbusters. Cross-list: HART 382.

Long Title: GLOBAL CINEMA

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 4

Description: This course introduces students to cinema as a global enterprise. It explores the relationship between nations, identities, races, concepts, and genres. It inquires into the question of globalization as it relates to the motion picture audience, corporations, and the commerce of ideas. Cross-list: HART 383.

Long Title: AMERICAN INDEPENDENT CINEMA

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 4

Description: Explores the history of filmmaking outside of Hollywood in the United States throughout the 20th century, emphasizing the period from 1959 to the present. Special attention to the contributions of marginalized communities and the art world, innovative film styles, and the interdependence of alternative and mainstream media cultures. Cross-list: ENGL 384.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO EXPERIMENTAL VIDEO AND INSTALLATION ART

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Learn to create unique experiences by sculpting time and space. With an emphasis on production and practice, this course introduces students to installation art and non-traditional, experimental uses of video, including non-linear narrative, experimental documentary, and video art. Students will learn the basic tools and techniques of digital video production and work with a wide range of materials and media to create installation works on the Rice campus. Students will also be asked to engage and experiment with the visual language of video by working to complete a number of short projects that will be critiqued in class. In addition to short reading and writing assignments, we will look at a variety of video art and installation works from the 1960s to the present. Cross-list: ARTS 387.

Long Title: POST WAR EUROPEAN CINEMA

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 4

Description: This class surveys major developments in European cinema from the late 1940s to the late 1960s. Our study will include such movements as Italian Neorealism, German Rubble Films, French New Wave, and Soviet cinema in the Thaw. Particular attention will be paid to such issues as cinema and post-war reconstruction, memory and nation, and body and space. Cross-list: HART 388.

Long Title: FILM MELODRAMA

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 4

Description: Melodrama - the genre of tears, sensationalism and excess - has long been the focus of critical debates. Initially dismissed as mere escapism, melodrama films have begun to generate nuanced studies about their engagement with issues of gender, sexuality, class, and race. This seminar examines aesthetic, socio-political, and psychological dimensions of film melodrama, including historical works by Vidor, Sirk, Godard, and Fassbinder, as well as more recent projects by Haynes and Almodovar. Cross-list: HART 389.

Long Title: SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN FILM & VIDEOTAPE MAKING

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hours: 1 TO 6

Description: Study of problems in film and film production. Topics may vary. Please consult with the department for additional information. May be used in awarding transfer credit. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 4

Description: The course will introduce students to the complex history of and theoretical issues related to cinemas in India, outside the cinematic practices known as Bollywood. It will attempt to demonstrate that cinema is symptomatic of the profoundly transnational nature of modernity itself and that it will help us revisit the South Asian cultural politics outside the dichotomies of national/transnational, post-national. Cross-list: ASIA 412.

Long Title: ADVANCED FILMMAKING

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Advanced documentary production using digital camera and editing systems. Continuation of FILM 327. Space in studio classes is limited. Registration does not guarantee a place in class. The class roster is formulated on the first day of class by the individual instructor. Cross-list: ARTS 427.

Long Title: FILMMAKING II

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Completion of one major film project by each student, using either video or 16mm film. Space in studio classes is limited. Registration does not guarantee a place in class. The class roster is formulated on the first day of class by the individual instructor. Cross-list: ARTS 428.

Long Title: FILM GENRE: THE WESTERN

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Survey of the essential American film experience spanning all the years of U.S. cinema, with emphasis on the western and its mythic function in society. Space in studio classes is limited. Registration does not guarantee a place in class. The class roster is formulated on the first day of class by the individual instructor. Cross-list: ARTS 432.

Long Title: SEMINAR ON FILM AUTHORSHIP: THE NEW HOLLYWOOD

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 4

Description: This seminar covers the concept of authorship in Hollywood cinema since 1968. Filmmakers include Francis Ford Coppola, David Lynch, The Coen Brothers, and Charlie Kauffman. Cross-list: ARTS 435, HART 480.

Long Title: VIDEO AND EXPLANDED CINEMA

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This seminar explores the emergence of video and "expanded cinema" as a primary field of artistic practice over the course of the 1960s and 1970s. We will examine seminal works by artists including Andy Warhol, Dan Graham, and Robert Whitman as well as the shifting aesthetic, political, and media landscapes in which this work emerged. Cross-list: HART 457.

Long Title: SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN FILMMAKING

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hours: 1 TO 6

Description: Study of advanced problems in film and film production. Topics may vary. Please consult with the department for additional information. May be used in awarding transfer credit. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: DOCUMENTARY AND ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM

Department: *Visual and Dramatic Arts*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 4

Description: Overview of the history of documentary and ethnographic cinema from a worldwide perspective. Includes both canonical and alternative films and film movements with emphasis on the shifting and overlapping boundaries of fiction and nonfiction genres.