ENGL 1500-001: Topics in Words, Images, and Ideas: Monsters and the Supernatural in Film and Folklore
Instructors: Anna Froula and Andrea Kitta
Times offered: Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30-1:45
Film Screenings: streaming titles
What is horror? What draws us to what we fear? How do our fears change over time? How do we process real-life traumas and terrors through film and other media such as memes? How do we face the monsters we create? What happens when the monster is ourselves? This course will focus on these questions and more through a lively examination of monster movies, urban legends, and other media.
Films to be studied include: Birth of a Nation (DW Griffith, 1915), Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017), Skeleton Key (Iain Softley, 2005), Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931), Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968), Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2014), and Under the Shadow (Babak Anvari, 2016)
****ENGL1500 counts as a Film Studies minor elective for the Fall 2020 semester****
ART 2205: Digital Video Production Survey
Instructor: Ken Wyatt
This class is offered at 2 different times, taught by the same instructor:
ART 2205.001 is Monday & Wednesday, 11:00 am – 1:50 pm
ART 2205.002 is Monday & Wednesday, 2:00 pm – 4:50 pm
Film Screenings: In class
An introduction to the three main phases of the production process for non-majors combining theoretical concepts and production techniques. Strong importance is placed on writing, shooting and editing various genres of media production from abstract music videos, fiction (ex: drama and comedy) projects to non-fiction (ex: documentary, web commercials). Classroom time represents a combination of hands-on projects shot on location and in the TV Studio. Lecture segments will represent a synthesis of class readings, as well as supplemental materials from a variety of sources pertaining to building sequences, refining dramatic structure, and incorporating sound in order to produce a clear story and improve sound and image quality. Students learn image composition, audio, lighting, and motion techniques used in non-traditional and traditional media production.
****ART2205 counts as a Film Studies minor elective for the Fall 2020 semester****
FILM2900: Introduction to Film Studies (FC: HU)
Instructor: Amanda Ann Klein
This class is offered at 2 different times, taught by the same instructor:
FILM 2900.001 is Tuesday & Thursday, 11:00-12:15pm
FILM 2900.002 is Tuesday & Thursday, 9:30 am-10:45 am
Film Screenings: streaming titles
The goal of this course, as its title suggests, is to “introduce” you to the broad field of film studies, including formal analysis, genre studies, film history and theory. By the end of the semester you will have the basic critical tools necessary for understanding and analyzing the language of motion pictures. Ideally, this course will enable you to not only gain a richer understanding of the films you watch but also the television shows, You Tube videos, commercials, and other media you encounter on a daily basis.
Films to be studied include: City of God (2002, Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund), Do the Right Thing (1989, Spike Lee), The Virgin Suicides (1999, Sofia Coppola), Bicycle Thieves (1949, Vittorio de Sica), The Queen of Versailles (2012, Lauren Greenfield)
Alternative textbook class
****FILM2900 is a required course for the Film Studies minor****
FORL 2600: Foreign Literature in Translation/The Holocaust (FC:HU)
Instructor: Susanne Lenné Jones
Times offered: Tuesday & Thursday, 11-12:15pm
Film screenings: various times
In this course we will examine the history of the Holocaust and its changing representation in film, literature and theoretical texts, reflecting specifically Jewish, German, and European ways of thinking about the past seventy-odd years of their history. Discussions will focus on the origins of anti-Semitism and other National Socialist justifications for genocide as well as on theories of Sigmund Freud, Primo Levi, and Saul Friedlander treating the psychology of mourning, repression, trauma, and memory, and apply them to the postwar reactions of Holocaust survivors in poetry, literature, and film.
Films to be studied include: Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl, 1935), Jüd Süss (Veit Harlan, 1940), Europa, Europa (Agnieszka Holland, 1990), 13 Minutes (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2015), Valkyrie (Bryan Singer, 2008), The Nasty Girl (Michael Verhoeven, 1991), Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni, 1997), Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004), Under The Domim Tree (Eli Cohen, 1995), and The Reader (Stephen Daldry, 2008).
***FORL2600 counts towards the Multicultural/Transnational/International Film Cognate for the Fall 2020 semester****
FORL 2662: Special Topics in Hispanic Cinema (Latin American Culture Through Cinema) (FC: HU & FC: GD)
Instructor: Jennifer M. Valko
Times offered: Tuesday & Thursday, 2:00-3:15pm
Film Screenings: streaming titles
Instructor will organize screenings for a few films that are difficult to access.
Earn Humanities and Global Diversity credits as you explore a variety of Latin American cultural obsessions like soccer, music, dance, and politics. Learn the basics to analyze films and film genres like drama, comedy, sci-fi, and documentary. Explore the major Latin American Film industries. Become exposed to the concept of Latin America as a geopolitical region as well as the different social, cultural, and political beliefs and values that have shaped its cinematic traditions from the formative years of the 1930s to the present. Consider the tension between creating domestic (Latin American) cinema while competing with Hollywood in the past and in the present. Discuss issues related to history, social class, immigration, gender, and ethnicity in Latin America. Emphasis placed on contemporary films. No knowledge of Spanish necessary!
Films to be studied include: Sleep Dealer (2008, Rivera), The Liberator (2013, Arvelo), Bad Hair (2013, Rondón),The German Doctor (2013, Puenzo), Embrace of the Serpent (2015, Guerra), Pelé: Birth of a Legend (2016, Zimbalist), A Fantastic Woman (2017, Lelio), Residenté (2017, Pérez Joglar), and Roma (2018, Cuarón). All films in Spanish with English subtitles.
Alternative textbook class
***FORL2662 counts towards the Multicultural/Transnational/International Film Cognate for the Fall 2020 semester****
FILM 3900-001: American and International Film History, Part I
Instructor: Anna Froula
Times offered: Tuesday & Thursday, 11:00-12:15
Film Screenings: streaming titles
Before George Clooney charmed, Cary Grant enchanted. Before Jim Carrey’s pratfalls, Buster Keaton coined the art of gag. Before Aunt Becky cheated, Fatty Arbuckle scandalized. How much have our stars, our stories, and our storytelling devices changed since the invention of cinema? Find out as we study the major films, genres, regulatory bodies, economic structures, and pure joy of cinema, both American and International, from the mid-1890s to the onset of World War II.
Films to be studied include: The Playhouse (Buster Keaton, 1921), Within Our Gates (Oscar Micheaux, 1920), The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer, 1928), The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, 1927), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932), The Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933), The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938), His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
***FILM3900 counts toward the Film History Cognate for the Film Studies Minor***
FILM4920: Cinematic Identities (WI, FC: DD)
Instructor: Amanda Ann Klein
Times offered: Tuesday & Thursday, 2:00-3:15pm
Film Screenings: streaming titles
This seminar explores the different ways that American cinema has attempted to present and represent cinematic images of American women. Students will watch films—and read related theoretical and historical texts—that explore the way differences in age, ethnicity, culture, national origin, ability, religion, body type, sexual orientation, and gender identity are constructed in a particular historical moment. We will investigate how American women are constructed, both in front of and behind the camera, and why these onscreen constructions impact the way women are viewed, regulated, and legislated in real life.
Films to be studied include: Tangerine (2015, Sean Baker), Spring Breakers (2012, Harmony Korine), Joy Luck Club (1993, Wayne Wang), Hustlers (2019, Lorene Scafaria), Pretty Woman (1990, Garry Marshall), Waiting to Exhale (1995, Forest Whitaker), Booksmart (2019, Olivia Wilde)
****FILM4920 Counts towards the Film Theory cognate for the Film Studies minor****
Film Studies at ECU 