Undergrad Students across TTU! Enroll today in an online Fall '24 "Intro. to Film Studies" class featuring filmmakers, critics, scholars and movies from around the world!
ENGL 2388, Introduction to Film Studies: Don't Believe Your Eyes
Dr. Fareed Ben-Youssef
Thursdays, 6:00 - 8:50 PM (Online CRN: 46300)
“Suddenly something somewhere scrapes loudly, the picture lurches and you don't believe your eyes.”
So wrote Maksim Gorky upon first experiencing the wonders of the Lumiere Brothers' Cinematograph in 1896. His stunned response to the motion picture grounds our investigation into the medium as we ask: how do movies draw us in, hypnotize us, and even deceive us? This interdisciplinary Introduction to Film Studies offers a salient overview of film history and film theory. It considers television and video games to underline that Film Studies encompasses far more than just cinema. Guest filmmakers will reveal, step by step, how an idea is brought to the screen. Guest scholars will share insights into how they understand and interpret a film.
Our attentions will move from silent film to sound, from avant-garde cinema to Hollywood blockbusters. We will study influential film directors (like Alfred Hitchcock), foundational cinematic genres (like film noir, the Western, and the Superhero film) as well as different national cinemas. To sense how even the brightest films can touch on troubling histories, we will analyze Disney cartoons and the anime of Japan's Studio Ghibli. Finally, we will explore documentary and mockumentary to perceive the contradictions of a form that promises a glimpse of “real life” through highly conventionalized, artificial tropes.
Spirited dialogue and collaboration lie at the center of this asynchronous class. Students converse with each other on Blackboard discussion boards, and the course lectures are built upon student questions. Assignments include short creative and analytical work around the featured films and media. A final group assignment—an adaptation of a scene using Zoom—will demonstrate students' understanding of the different genres we have studied. Moreover, they will experience what it is like to be in front of and behind the camera.
Following this class, students will be ready to pursue more advanced film and media courses, and, ultimately, they will see film with sharper, more critical eyes.
Note: This literature course fulfills the university's Language, Philosophy and Culture requirement and the College of Arts and Sciences' English Literature requirement.