Film Studies 1020E - An Introduction to Film

A broad introduction to the study of films that will teach the basic vocabulary of film studies, provide an overview of the types of film and videos being made, and examine various critical approaches. By considering a variety of texts, students will learn to analyze and discuss film and video.

Film Studies 1022 - Introduction to Film Studies

What is a blockbuster? What is a cult film? What is digital cinema? Discover the answers to these questions and others in a broad introduction to the study of cinema. Students will learn the basic vocabulary of film studies and gain an informed understanding of the different critical approaches to film analysis.

Film Studies 2152F/G - Contemporary American Cinema

This course examines contemporary American film, including Hollywood, independent narrative, documentary, and experimental practice. Topics include the rise of entertainment conglomerates, independent festivals, and digital production and distribution.

Film Studies 2153A/B - American Television and Culture

This course examines the history, technology, and forms of television in the U.S. The course analyzes distinctive elements of  televisual form (flow, liveness, seriality, advertising); TV’s key genres (soap, sitcom, drama, news, reality); modes of reception (fandom, distraction, surfing); as well as television’s construction of social difference in America.

Film Studies 2158F/G - Contemporary Canadian Cinema

In this course contemporary documentary, fictional and short Canadian films are studied. Topics include industrial factors; historical influences; the aesthetics of new narratives; the innovations of Canadian documentarians; experimental work in new media; the short film; internationalist, nationalist, regionalist and multicultural debates.

Film Studies 2159A/B - Disney

This course offers students a survey of Disney's animated features, non-theatrical films and propaganda film shorts. Students will study Disney film’s relationship to art, society and politics and examine constructions of race, class, gender, and sexuality in Disney’s filmmaking.

Film Studies 2160F/G - Ministry of Fear: Media and Propaganda in the Third Reich

This course focuses on the history and techniques of German propaganda under National Socialism. We will cover major propaganda campaigns and the restructuring of mass media: film, radio, newsreel, and print. Topics may include: Nazi feature film, newsreel and documentary, and the discourse on jazz and degenerate art.

Film Studies 2162A/B - Cinemas of Disaster

Offering an overview of cinemas of disaster from Hollywood and beyond, this course analyzes representative films from a number of different perspectives in relation to such issues as gender, sexuality, race, the family, and the environment and considers the cinematic technologies that have defined and influenced the genre’s development.

Film Studies 2164A/B - Animation/Anime

This course explores the power of animation in film, with a particular emphasis on Japan. Students will study Japanese anime franchises as artistic expressions, as industrial products with relations to other cultural forms, and as objects through which consumers construct their social lives.

Film Studies 2166A/B - Zombie Film

This course considers how this horror subgenre has developed over the past century and why it continues to resonate with filmmakers and filmgoers. Using various approaches, we’ll examine the cultural anxieties the films raise in relation to such issues as gender, sexuality, race, capitalism, technology, religion, and the environment.

Film Studies 2190E - Special Topics in Film Studies

Please consult Department for current offerings.

Film Studies 2191F/G-2192F/G - Special Topics in Film Studies

Please consult Department for current offerings.

Film Studies 2193 - Special Topics in Film Studies

Please consult Department for current offerings.

Film Studies 2194A/B-2198A/B - Special Topics in Film Studies

Please consult Department for current offerings.

Film Studies 2200F/G - Film Theories, Criticisms, Histories

This course will provide an overview of major trends and methods in the history of film studies across the twentieth century up to the present. In addition to tracing these trends and methods, the course will be a writing-intensive one that explores the process and aims of writing on film.

Film Studies 2220F/G-2229F/G - Special Topics in Film

Please consult the Department for current offerings.

Film Studies 2230F/G - Critical Reading and Writing in Film Studies

This course will build on skills and knowledge acquired in Film 1022 to engage students in the critical practices involved in reading various genres of writing in Film Studies. In addition to writing their own film reviews, students will learn research skills that prepare them for writing critical essays on cinema.

Film Studies 2235F/G - Contemporary German Cinema

This course introduces students to Contemporary German Cinema after unification. Topics include the "Berlin School" and transnational film production, Ostalgie, European identity, migration, and historical memory. The relationship to the auteurism of post-war New German Cinema will also be examined.

Film Studies 2240F/G - Japanese National Cinema

A survey of Japanese cinema from its prehistory to the work of contemporary transnational auteurs. Students will study films in their historical and aesthetic contexts, and in relation to specific topics in film studies. For example: traditional aesthetics; the war film and propaganda; postwar melodrama; J-Horror; and anime.

Film Studies 2242F/G - National Cinemas: Special Topics

This course offers an in-depth examination of a specific national film culture or related group of cultures. The course may address the entire cinematic history of a specific nation-state, be narrowed by a historical period, mode or region within a national cinema, or extended across national borders.

Film Studies 2243F/G - National Cinemas: Special Topics

This course offers an in-depth examination of a specific national film culture or related group of cultures. The course may address the entire cinematic history of a specific nation-state, be narrowed by a historical period, mode or region within a national cinema, or extended across national borders.

Film Studies 2244E - National Cinemas: Special Topics

This course offers an in-depth examination of a specific national film culture or related group of cultures. The course may address the entire cinematic history of a specific nation-state, be narrowed by a historical period, mode or region within a national cinema, or extended across national borders.

Film Studies 2245F/G -2247F/G - National Cinemas: Special Topics

This course offers an in-depth examination of a specific national film culture or related group of cultures. The course may address the entire cinematic history of a specific nation-state, be narrowed by a historical period, mode or region within a national cinema, or extended across national borders.

Film Studies 2250F/G - Movements in European Film

This course offers an introduction to issues of aesthetics, culture, and history relevant to important movements in European film such as German Expressionism, Soviet Montage, Poetic Realism, Italian Neorealism, the French New Wave, New German Cinema and the Dogma movement.

Film Studies 2252F/G - World Cinema

A survey of the history of world cinema, with a focus on postwar film cultures in areas such as Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. Students will study films as expressive audio-visual texts and examine larger social, economic, and cultural patterns of influence in the global cultural economy.

Film Studies 2254F/G - American Cinema

This course traces a history of American film from the silent period to the end of the studio era. Topics include the establishment of the Hollywood style, major directors/genres, as well as key industrial, technological, and cultural factors in the development of Hollywood cinema.

Film Studies 2255E - Representation of Gender and Sexuality

This course explores the representation of gender and sexuality in mainstream Hollywood and European art cinema. The course introduces a number of theoretical frameworks which are used to probe issues such as gender stereotypes, the relationship between gender and genre, feminist counter cinema, queer studies, identification, pleasure and spectatorship.

Film Studies 2256F/G - Avant-Garde Cinema

An exploration of a variety of marginal film practices and modes of production through an historical consideration of the major trends and developments in European, American, and Canadian avant-garde. Films will be analyzed in relation to the theoretical issues they raise, specifically, feminist theory and practice, film formalism, and spectatorship.

Film Studies 2257F/G - Science Fiction Cinema

This course explores the history and development of Science Fiction cinema from the silent period to today’s CGI-saturated spectacles. Major themes include: the aesthetics of science fiction, modernity and social change, utopias/dystopias, technophobia/technophilia, identity/otherness, biopolitics, afrofuturism, set design, special effects and the “cinema of attractions”.

Film Studies 2258F/G - Canadian Cinema: Documents, Storytelling, Experiments

This course looks at Canadian cinema in relation to the category label, national cinema. What is the value of a national cinema? What is the popular imagination? How do the films speak to us about Canada, its history, its people and its politics?

Film Studies 2259F/G - Queer Film

This course will explore the history, politics, and aesthetics of queer film, particularly the representation of queer culture and identity as well as the policing of non-normative sexualities. Course topics may include: Hollywood and the Celluloid Closet, queer independent cinema, and transgender film.

Film Studies 2260F/G - Film Genres

This course examines a specific film genre or cycle, focusing on its historical contexts and development and its aesthetic, cultural and political significance.

Film Studies 2261F/G - Stardom

This course examines stardom in its cultural, historical, industrial, and national contexts. The course may examine the development of the star system in a specific national context, focus on a particular star or stars, a historical period or movement, or a specific theoretical aspect of the star phenomenon.

Film Studies 2263F/G - Screening Race

This course examines how race is inscribed in cinema and intersects with local and global networks of power and resistance. Topics might include: race and representation, the colonial stereotype and Orientalism, racial passing and masquerade, Black independent cinema, Afrofuturism, Blaxploitation, racial hybridity and post-race discourses.

Film Studies 2270F/G - Film Aesthetics

This course will explore the stylistic functions of basic film elements, e.g., camera movement, editing, sound, and colour, through analysis of films.

Film Studies 2275F/G - Documentary Film

This course will examine the development of film documentary, from Lumičre in the 1890's to the modern docudrama.

Film Studies 2295F/G - Film Directors/Auteurs: Special Topics

This course is rooted in an auteurist approach to the works of a few major directors, and will consider both the manner in which these directors' personalities are thematically and stylistically expressed in their films, and how their films represent major developments or movements in film aesthetics and history.

Film Studies 2297F/G - Berlin to Hollywood: German Exile Cinema

This course focuses on German directors and actors who emigrated to the U.S. before and after the Nazi seizure of power, including Fritz Lang, Marlene Dietrich and Ernst Lubitsch. Topics include: expressionism, film noir, diaspora/exile, historical trauma, the anti-Nazi film/anti-fascist aesthetics, the Hollywood studio system, importing/exporting entertainment.

Film Studies 3309F/G - Film and Popular Culture

In this course students are encouraged to develop a critical understanding of the role film plays in shaping popular culture. Topics may include: children’s film, dystopian film, and fantasy film.

Film Studies 3310E - Special Topics in Film Studies

Please consult the Department for current offerings.

Film Studies 3311F/G-3312F/G - Special Topics in Film Studies

Please consult the Department for current offerings.

Film Studies 3315F/G-3316F/G - Special Topics in Film Studies

Please consult the Department for current offerings.

Film Studies 3317 - Special Topics in Film Studies

Please consult the Department for current offerings.

Film Studies 3318A/B-3319A/B - Special Topics in Film Studies

Please consult the Department for current offerings.

Film Studies 3330F/G - National Cinemas: Special Topics

This course offers an in-depth examination of a specific national film culture or related group of cultures. The course may address the entire cinematic history of a specific nation-state, be narrowed by a historical period, mode or region within a national cinema, or extended across national borders.

Film Studies 3355F/G - Advanced Studies in Gender and Sexuality

This course offers an in-depth examination of a specific topic or topics in the audio-visual representation of gender and sexuality. The course may be narrowed by a focus on a specific national or regional cinema, a historical period or genre, or a particular theme or issue in audio-visual representation.

Film Studies 3359F/G - Family Viewing: Melodrama

With an emphasis on questions of genre and gender, this course pays close attention to cinematic constructions of the home, site of the family, as a symbolic structure of identity. Relationships between the family, domestic space, and the space of the nation will be a central focus.

Film Studies 3360F/G - Film Genres

This course examines a specific film genre or cycle, focusing on its historical contexts and development and its aesthetic, cultural and political significance.

Film Studies 3362F/G - The Musical

Musical films are one of the most enduring forms of cinema, in Hollywood and around the world. This course explores the range of musical films, from all-singing, all-dancing extravaganzas to the eruption of “musical moments” in popular films, art cinema, and the avant-garde.

Film Studies 3364F/G - Screening the Vietnam War

This course examines aesthetic, generic, and theoretical approaches to the representation of the Vietnam War in film from the 1950s to the present. Key topics include: Vietnam war cinema; television and the Vietnam War; veteran narratives; and the mediation in film of history, trauma, and militancy in this conflict.

Film Studies 3365F/G - Quality Television in the U.S

This course investigates key periods, forms, and figures in American quality television. Topics include how television has been framed in relation to literature, theater, and cinema; how quality television engages with cultural hierarchies; the role of cable TV; and quality television's attention to social conflicts and debates in postwar American culture.

Film Studies 3370F/G - Advanced Film Aesthetics

This course provides an opportunity for advanced formal investigation of film, including historical and conceptual debates on style, and technological developments like digital processes. Students may complete course requirements with a short video.

Film Studies 3371F/G - Film Theory

This course will investigate major writings in two areas of classical film theory: the realism-formalism debate and the auteur theory. Additional topics in film poetics and semiotics will also be discussed.

Film Studies 3373F/G - Theories of National Cinemas

This course will introduce students to theories of nationalism and national identity, to determine how they influence our understanding of national cinemas. Issues such as colonialism, postcolonialism, imperialism, multiculturalism, regionalism, and globalization will be explored through reading political and cultural essays. The course will examine one or two national cinemas.

Film Studies 3375F/G - Japanese New Wave

This course focuses on Japanese cinema as part of a global ‘new wave' of films in the 1960s that scandalized audiences with unsettling representations of sex, violence, and politics. Students will debate the ethics and aesthetics of new wave films, and discover the role of the films in creating film studies.

Film Studies 3377F/G - Haunted Screen Early German Cinema

This course will focus on the sensational origins of cinema in Germany. Topics may include the transition from “attractions” to narrative; the history of film exhibition; the early star system; Expressionist horror, gender and genre; early film theory and the auteur/art film; and/or modernity.

Film Studies 4409E - Undergraduate Thesis

Individual instruction in the selection of a topic, the preparation of materials, and the writing of a thesis. Students who wish to take this course must apply to the Chair of the Department. The course is restricted to students in fourth year of an Honors Specialization in Film Studies.

Film Studies 4470F/G - Seminar in Film Aesthetics

The third course in the Film Department's Aesthetics progression, the seminar provides students with the opportunity to further develop their skills in film and video production.
Note: Enrolment is limited to ten students and based on the submission of a portfolio of creative work and a statement of purpose.

Film Studies 4472F/G - Seminar in Film Theory

The course provides an intensive and advanced examination of a particular significant film-theoretical issue or body of theoretical work.

Film Studies 4474F/G - Seminar in Film Studies

The topics will vary from year to year. Topics will come from specific areas of film studies (theory, criticism, history).

Film Studies 4490F/G - Seminar in Film Studies

The topics will vary from year to year. Topics will come from specific areas of film studies (theory, criticism, history).

Film Studies 4495F/G - Film Academic Internship

Third or fourth year students enrolled in a honors, major or specialization in Film Studies, who have a modular average of 75% are eligible for an internship within an approved media-related organization. The student must find a faculty supervisor willing to oversee and grade his/her final paper.