Film & Media Studies

This course focuses on the aesthetic theoretical foundations of image composition. It discusses the parameters for camera use that determine image capture and the principles of scene lighting to achieve a desired aesthetic and narrative result.

This course introduces students to a selection of independent American films which are frequently overlooked by the dominant histories of American cinema. The films selected are chosen from a diverse range of American filmmakers from the 1960s to the present, and the course therefore hopes to provide an account of American film which reaches beyond the dominant Hollywood model. This leads to consideration of the divisions in American society and how these can be perceived through the work of independent filmmakers. 

The course outlines media history with an accent on the 17th, 18th, and the first half of the 19th century. The broad themes are the formation of a mediated public sphere and the emergence of media markets in relation to the growing industrial capitalism. The course takes a closer look at oral and written news media, the freedom of speech and censorship, the postal system, and the popular culture of chapbooks.

The Swiss author Johanna Spyri created one of the world's most famous children's book characters with Heidi's Years of Apprenticeship and Traveling (1880) and Heidi Can Use What She Has Learned (1881). To date, the Heidi novels have been translated into around 50 languages and repeated, among other things. Adapted as a film, (animated) series, comic, musical and radio play. Most recently, in May 2023, the Johanna Spyri Archive and the Heidi Archive were added to the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage, which lists cultural-historical artifacts of global importance. Using the example of auditory adaptations of the first Heidi volume, the seminar provides an insight into the analysis of children's audio media. Audio books and radio plays are available that deal with the story of the cheerful orphan girl and span from the 1950s to the present. The audio media are discussed from aesthetic and narrative points of view as well as with regard to content transformations. The starting point of the seminar is the reading of Spyr'is Heidi's years of teaching and traveling.

This course uses film to examine the cultural translation of famous stories in different times and cultural settings by looking at how shifts in the narrative, images, dialogue, and translation foreground different ideas. The course looks at the expression of cultural translation in movies and the flow of translation; particularly, how a single story changes as times and cultures change. 
 
Why do some stories travel internationally, while others seem less inclined to relocate? What cultural differences are revealed--and what challenges arise--in the process of translating culturally specific texts for new audiences? How does this traffic of ideas, images, narratives and media affect the ways we understand and relate to each other across cultures? 
 
Through the medium of film, this course introduces students to two important aspects of cultural translation: 1) cultural translation as “a way for minority subjects to claim a degree of agency within a majority culture” (Hodgson, 2018), and 2) cultural translation as a process of “negotiating cultural differences” (Bachmann-Medick, 2006) that involves adapting or rewriting texts to foreground issues relevant to their new audiences (see Bahrawi 2016). 
 
Through a series of case studies ranging from Italian adaptations of Japanese Westerns to Disney fairy tales and the gothic excesses of Toho Studios' vampire films, students will discover the extent to which cultural contexts and formal demands affect the translation of a variety of film elements: from images and dialogue to tropes and narratives.

The course considers how gaming emerged from post-War and Cold War cultures and traces its development alongside a history of contemporary capitalism up to the present. It considers games and their relation to nationalism, gender and sexuality, class and intersectionality, among other things. The course asks students to analyze the complex relationships between political context and games. To do so they develop both deep historical knowledge of the industry and solid theoretical tools through which to understand it. Students consider fan cultures, online activism, and community building around the gaming industry.

This course highlights the dynamic intersection of art and commerce in the world of cinema and audiovisual production.  It examines the economic forces that shape the global film and audiovisual industries through studies of history, film markets, and examples of the film economy. The course also examines the roles of the studio and producers to learn how money is obtained, in the past and today.

This course presents the different theories of cinema that have emerged since 1945. It involves tracing the history of a field where theories, critiques, and practices have constantly influenced each other. Doing film studies does not only mean choosing cinema as an object, but also knowing the history of thought on cinema, in order to be able to grasp contemporary debates on the practice of moving images. This course explores the history of cinema theories of André Bazin, Siegfried Kracauer, Pier Paolo Passolini, Gilles Deleuze, Christian Metz, and Raymond Bellour as well as more recent cinema theories such as feminist perspectives applied to cinema (Laura Mulvey), figural studies (Nicole Brenez),  perspectives interested in the transition to digital (Àngel Quintana), and new practices of images (Jean-Louis Comolli). The course presents film theories through a study of founding texts and a comparison with film extracts. It discusses these theoretical texts with regard to extracts, in order to exercise and refine their analytical skills with the specific notions and concepts of cinema theory.

This course examines Japanese culture, language, and way of thinking through current Japanese pop culture (movies, manga, and music) to gain a deeper understanding of “Modern Japan.”  Each class will divide international students and local students in pairs so they can discuss topics in Japanese and English effectively.

Prerequisite: International students must have completed at least one semester of college-level Japanese to enroll in this course. Japanese students should be able to express themselves in clear Japanese or English, ideally those interested in Japanese language teaching.