Global Arc

The history of sound and color film produced since World War II. Emphasis on Italian neorealism, French New Wave, American avant-garde, and the accomplishments of such major filmmakers as Bergman, Hitchcock, Bresson, and Antonioni. Modernism in film will be a central consideration. One three-hour class, weekly film screenings.

This seminar will treat in depth the work of two or three filmmakers of major importance. Specific subjects will vary.

This seminar will deal in some detail with an aspect of film history, focusing on an important movement or exploring a significant issue. Specific topics and prerequisities will vary.

One of the most celebrated avant-garde filmmakers, as well as a famous "film doctor" for rescuing films in need of radical revision, will give a workshop-seminar in filmmaking and editing in which the class will collectively produce a Ranga film. Ranga is a form of Japanese linked poetry, the rules of which allow for a collaborative poem to be written amongst four poets. Poet Basho created a guideline for the 36 stanzas of a Ranga Poem, and more importantly for this class, discussed the nature of effective or ineffective poetic linkages between Ranga participants. Students will each shoot their own images and together build a cinematic Ranga

When a filmmaker is fully accomplished, the content and form of a film function in complete union. This full-bodied, heartfelt expression represents a total view or world view. Students will watch a variety of feature-length fiction films and more personal, avant garde films. What is actually brought forth by the architecture of these visions? How do the films view the world? How do these films actually see? Films include those by Rossellini, Dreyer, Becker, Bresson, Hitchcock, etc., along with shorter works by Jack Chambers, Stan Brakhage, Nathanial Dorsky, etc. One three-hour seminar, one three-hour film showing.

This studio class will explore a broad range of approaches to art-based performance: from instruction pieces and happenings/events, the body as language and gestures, to various forms of lecture performance. Through this lens, students will investigate techniques of narrative, site, the role of the audience, duration, voice, choreography and movement, props/installation, and documentation. Through readings and critiques, students will engage a new vocabulary in assessing the area of performance art. The class aims at giving the student a foundation of techniques, language, and range of positions for developing art-based performance work.

A second-level film/video workshop focusing on digital media production. Short works of film/video art will be analyzed in class as a guide to the issues of aesthetic choice, editing structure, and challenging one's audience. Students complete two short videos and a longer final project, and view one film each week outside of class time. Prerequisites: 261 or 262 and instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar.

A second-level film/video workshop focusing on digital media production. Short works of film/video art will be analyzed in class as a guide to the issues of aesthetic choice, editing structure, and challenging one's audience. Students complete two short videos and a longer final project, and view one film each week outside of class time. Prerequisites: 261 or 262 and instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar.

There are unlimited ways in which to record and portray the world around us. In this class, we will analyze classic and contemporary strategies for making a documentary film, and see if we can invent some new ones of our own. The emphasis is on making. A wide range of films will be screened, but the course is mainly dedicated to having each student shoot and edit a medium length (20-30 minute) documentary. It's important to know what came before, and as important to learn about the present by being a part of creating it.

An intermediate exploration of narrative and avant-garde narrative film production through the creation of hands-on digital video exercises, short film screenings, critical readings, and group critiques.