Summer Session I
Film 2900-601: Introduction to Film Studies
Instructor: Anna Froula
Times offered: online
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: Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright, 2007), Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942), BlackKklansman (Spike Lee, 2018), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962), 13th (Ava DuVernay, 2016), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, 2007), Dope (Rick Famuyiwa, 2015)
****FILM2900 is a required course for the Film Studies minor****
SOCI 3035-601: Sociology Through Film
Instructor: Sitawa R. Kimuna
Class times: Online
Film Screenings: on your own
Course description: The course will examine the importance of film in shaping and creating cultural perceptions. The goal of the course is to provide students with the knowledge and skills to critically analyze film as it is organized and presented for public consumption. The course is designed to introduce students to issues of diversity. For example, what films teach us about social class, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and the different forms of disability, etc. We will go beyond overly simplified discussions of stereotypes to address cultural products subject to a variety of interpretations. Films can be viewed using Joyner Library’s streaming sites such as Films on Demand, Swank or Kanopy.
Films to be studied include: Puss Boots (2011, Chris Miller); Happy Feet (2006, George Miller); Knocked Up (2007, Judd Apatow); The Blind Side (2009, John Lee Hancock); She Hate Me (2004, Spike Lee); The Devil Wears Prada (2006, David Frankel); The Informant (2009, Steven Soderbergh); Dirty Pretty Things (2002, Stephen Frears); It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck); American Violet (2008, Tim Disney); Doubt (2009, John Patrick Shanley); Boys Don’t Cry (1999, Kimberly Peirce); Brokeback Mountain (2005, Ang Lee); Crash (2004, Paul Haggis); Gran Torino (2009, Clint Eastwood); A Serious Man (2009, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen), Slumdog Millionaire (2008, Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan); Thelma & Louise (1991, Ridley Scott), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008, David Fincher).
****SOCI 3035-601counts towards the Multicultural/Transnational/International Film Cognate for the Summer 2020 semester****
Summer Session II
FILM 2900.601 Introduction to Film Studies
Instructor: Randall Martoccia
Times offered: online
Film Screenings: streaming titles
A former Introduction to Film Studies student, who is now a film producer and director, said that this course taught him how to watch movies as a film director does. While not every student will have this reaction, FILM 2900 students will develop analytical skills that will help them make better sense of this world that is becoming more and more and dominated by visual media. FILM 2900 will introduce students to the basic elements of film. Students will also learn a few of the major critical approaches for studying film. Also, you should gain more understanding of how filmmakers use various techniques to make meaning and manipulate emotion.
Films to be studied include: Rear Window (1954), Jaws (1975), Get Out (2017), Parasite (2019), and Zero Dark Thirty (2012).
****FILM2900 is a required course for the Film Studies minor****
Film Studies at ECU 