Film & Media Studies

This course explores queer and trans screen cultures from film to television and digital media. Decentering white, cisgendered and male narratives that are often at the heart of studies of queer culture, the module introduces students to queer and trans stories that have been shaped – and often sidelined – by inequalities of race, class, (dis)ability, nationality, sexuality and gender identity. Drawing on debates about gendered and sexual fluidities and LGBTQ+ identity politics that have emerged from queer and trans studies, the course troubles the assumed relationship between visibility and progressive politics whilst considering questions of desire, authenticity, orientation, privilege, shame and pleasure. We ask: How do marginalised communities encounter and challenge the paradigms of dominant culture? (How) has digital production, distribution and exhibition transformed contemporary queer and trans representation? What are the conventions that shape understandings of queer and trans culture and the ongoing exclusions of multiply marginalised groups? Engaging with screen media alongside theoretical texts (and others that blur the lines between the two), students will consider radical approaches to the study of sexuality. Throughout, students will explore how contemporary media makers work through their attachments to and critiques of social movements of the twentieth century, with an attention to intersectionality, identity politics and the personal politics of social justice. 

This course offers an intensive theoretical and practical study of the craft of directing for camera in film and television, independent filmmaking, and audiovisual creation with an emphasis on developing creative camera proficiency. Students complete a final short video project applying the concepts developed during the course.

This interdisciplinary course discusses the identities of nations in European space that have served as a crossroad of ideas and ideologies, as well as wars and totalitarian regimes. The course covers masterpieces of Russian, Hungarian, German, French, Georgian, Polish, and Czech cinematography, focusing on several crucial periods of history, in particular WWII, its aftermath, and the Stalinist years. Students are exposed to often controversial works of film art focusing on the moral dilemmas of individuals under the stressful times of history. Students map the European space through the means of film, analyzing the individual’s approach to historical events, and gain a general picture of Europe in its crucial periods of history. Students participate in open discussion sessions following each screening.