Film & Media Studies

This course investigates how the cinematic medium represents, inspires, and shapes our understanding of the human condition. As breakthroughs in digital media and computer science reconfigure our physical and mental parameters, the question of what it means and what is involved to be human presses with increasing urgency. 

Students will watch, read about, and discuss select films across sub-topics that address a spectrum of human forms and conditions including robots, artificial intelligence, cyborgs, clones, etc., paired with critical texts that either offer theoretical conceptualizations of the human or explore the medium-specific qualities of cinema.  

Students will collaborate and present on at least one choice topic and conduct in-class research/discussion, building toward a final paper or creative project on a subject of their choice. 

This course intends to study in an interrelated way the development of Latin American Novel and its adaptations into Latin American and international cinema. It comprises, furthermore, perspectives on the reception of publics, the historical conjunctures, the Nation and State discourses, and critical and democratic counter-discourses.

The course focuses on the new media technologies that have emerged and spread from the time of the Second World War and onwards. A clear emphasis is on digital media and network cultures, as well as the broad influence of television. Highlighted themes are the cultural understanding of technological development, convergence culture and intermedial relations. Different aspects of media and communication as moral panic, paper bureaucracy and tourism are also discussed. Finally, the arguments of some of the most influential late 20th century media theorists such as Raymond Williams and Marshall McLuhan are analyzed.

This course aims for students to achieve a general knowledge of cinema produced in Latin America and Chile, also generate a critical and informed discussion about the main characteristics, milestones and audiovisual innovations of the region's cinema, understanding the socio-historical and geographical contexts in which they produce their works. 

This course examines Chinese film history and criticism via an examination of selected films directed by several of Greater China’s most skilled directors. 

This course discusses the cultural, economic, technical, institutional, and political reasons that allowed the emergence of the New Wave. It studies the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers in France at the turn of the 60s, and the changes it brought about in the production, representations, staging, reception of films and in the future history of cinema. The course contextualizes this turning point in the history of French cinema in order to grasp its importance, as the keystone of a process of legitimization of cinema as an art that began in the beginnings of cinema. It then identifies the issues at stake in the authors' policy born within the "Cahiers du cinéma" during the 50s under the pen of the future directors of the New Wave. The course also distinguishes between the careers of filmmakers from the Paris "right bank" and those from the "left bank."

This course examines the "auteur" or "author" theory by focusing on several directors each time the course is offered. Each term the selection of directors will ensure a mix of past and present, as well as American, European and Asian filmmakers. 

This is a special studies course involving an internship with a corporate, public, governmental, or private organization, arranged with the Study Center Director or Liaison Officer. Specific internships vary each term and are described on a special study project form for each student. A substantial paper or series of reports is required. Units vary depending on the contact hours and method of assessment. The internship may be taken during one or more terms but the units cannot exceed a total of 12.0 for the year.

This course seeks to immerse students in a professional work environment. Students have the opportunity to observe and interact with co-workers, and learn how to recognize and respond to cultural differences. Students compare concepts of teamwork and interpersonal interactions in different cultures as experienced on the job. Seminar work helps students apply academic knowledge in a business setting and identify opportunities to create value within the company. Students research a specific topic related to their work placement and present their findings in a final research report.

This course introduces students to the history of German cinema, with a special focus on the crucial role of Berlin as both production site and film set. Students engage with important milestones in the history of German cinema, many of which are set in Berlin, and learn about their historical, political and aesthetic contexts. Special emphasis is placed on the so-called “Berlin School” of filmmaking, a New Wave emerging in the late 1990s, and continuing to be highly relevant today. CIEE offers the course in German and English, and this version of the course is taught in English.