| FMST 102-01 |
Fundamentals of Digital Film Production
Instructor: Nevil Jackson
Course Description:
This course provides instruction in the basic aesthetic and technical aspects of digital film production, including writing, producing, directing, shooting, lighting, recording and mixing sound, and editing. Students will learn to harness digital tools while focusing on their roles as storytellers. Each participant will write and direct a video, rotating through various crew positions as they carry out exercises designed to deepen their knowledge of the different elements of moviemaking. Ultimately, students will collaborate in teams on short movies, which will be screened at the final class.
Offered spring semesters.
|
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W
BOSLER 213 |
| FMST 210-01 |
Japanese Literature Into Film
Instructor: Alex Bates
Course Description:
Cross-listed with EASN 205-01. This course introduces students to major figures in the cinematic and literary history of Japan, along with some more recent additions, while exploring the issue of film adaptation. Each week we will read a book or short story and watch a film made from that source. At the same time, we will be reading key theorists in adaptation theory and participate in their scholarly conversation. Rather than discuss questions of a film's fidelity, we will examine how different techniques are used in the source and the adaptation to explore similar or even diverging themes. The class will conclude with a project in which student groups will create their own adaptation. Additional Time Slot: Mondays 7-10pm for film screenings. Alternate modes of viewing will be made available for those with unavoidable conflicts.
|
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
DENNY 212
07:00 PM-09:00 PM, M
BOSLER 208 |
| FMST 210-02 |
Science Fiction Cinema
Instructor: Nevil Jackson
Course Description:
Cross-listed with AMST 101-01. Science fiction cinema enables us to imagine and explore the hopes and perils intertwined with scientific and technological progress. As a medium where science, philosophy, and the sociopolitical intersect, it offers a lens through which we can examine the aspirations, fears, and anxieties of society. Through films ranging from Georges Mlis' A Trip to the Moon (1902) and Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) to contemporary films like Ex Machina (2014) and They Cloned Tyrone (2023), we will explore major themes in science fiction such as artificial intelligence and posthumanism, dystopias and utopias, space exploration and alien contact, genetic engineering and bioethics, climate catastrophe and ecological futures, and Afrofuturism. Evening Film screening time is optional.
|
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF
DENNY 212
06:00 PM-08:00 PM, W
ALTHSE 106 |
| FMST 210-03 |
Introduction to U.S. Latinx/Chicanx Literature and Culture
Instructor: Amaury Leopoldo Sosa
Course Description:
Permission of Instructor Required. Cross-listed with LALC 295-01 and SPAN 295-01. This interdisciplinary introduction to Latinx/Chicanx Studies discusses cultural, literary, historical, political, and artistic texts produced within U.S. Latinx/Chicanx communities. This class will cover the varied lives and identities of Latinx individuals, with a particular focus on the Caribbean diaspora. This course will be taught primarily in English, with the FLIC option available for credit towards majors/minors in Spanish.
|
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
BOSLER 314 |
| FMST 210-04 |
Introduction to Documentary Film
Instructor: Nevil Jackson
Course Description:
Cross-listed with AMST 200-02. What does it mean for a film to be "nonfiction" when every choice a filmmaker makes - what to film, what to exclude, and how to edit, shapes the reality we see on screen? This course introduces students to documentary film through an exploration of its major modes: observational, expository, reflexive, performative, participatory, and poetic. We will examine how documentaries reflect the world, construct truth, and represent communities, while also confronting ethical questions that arise in nonfiction storytelling.
|
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF
DENNY 212 |
| FMST 220-01 |
Introduction to Photography
Instructor: Andy Bale
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ARTH 221-01.An entry-level course in black-and-white photography emphasizing theory, history, and practice. Students learn how to create images, use cameras, develop film and make prints using conventional darkroom processes. Students will also be introduced to Photoshop as well as the basics of scanning and digital printing.
|
09:30 AM-11:29 AM, TR
WEISS 327 |
| FMST 220-02 |
American Television
Instructor: Greg Steirer
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 101-01. For most of the twentieth century-and arguably still today-American television has functioned as a form of "public sphere," in which contemporary debates about race, class, gender, and sexuality were represented through visual and narrative forms. In this course we will examine television from institutional, aesthetic, social, and historical perspectives so as to understand its role in the negotiation of cultural change and identity. Attention will be given to traditional broadcast television and cable as well as more recent streaming television platforms, such as Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney+.
|
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF
EASTC 411 |
| FMST 220-03 |
History and Theory of Photography
Instructor: Shannon Egan
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ARTH 205-02. How does photography intersect with ideas about art and truth? This course explores critical issues in photography from its invention in 1839 through the present. Students will approach the history of photography through the following themes: portraiture and self-representation; photography and political movements; landscape/travel photography and the environment; the relationship between photography and painting; and connections between photography and film. Through close examination of historical equipment and photographs in The Trout Gallery and Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections, students will learn about changing technologies, styles, and uses for photography.
|
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
WEISS 235 |
| FMST 220-04 |
Theories and Methods in Media Studies
Instructor: Russell McDermott
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 222-02. This course introduces students to a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of media. It will build on the frameworks and analytical skills introduced in general media studies courses. This course will put a variety of analogue and digital media forms and practices in conversation with multiple theoretical lenses and methodologies, including medium specificity, media effects, cultural studies, media archaeology, ecocritical, and infrastructural. Students will be asked to apply these models and methods to specific objects, practices, and systems and to begin research in media studies. Students will also be asked to consider the costs of media practices: to the environment, to society, and to individuals.
|
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
EASTC 314 |
| FMST 220-05 |
From Paintbrushes to Deepfakes: The History of Truth and the (Photographic) Image
Instructor: Samuel Driver
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ARTH 205-03, PHIL 261-05 and RUSS 260-01. "From Paintbrushes to Deepfakes" explores the evolving relationship between photography and truth from the medium's earliest days to present-day technologies of image generation and digital manipulation. This interdisciplinary course examines how photography sits at the center of both art history and the history of science, tracing how our conceptualization of photographic images and their claims to truth have developed over time. Students will develop critical foundations for analyzing both theoretical questions around photography and history and contemporary challenges, including visual disinformation and deepfakes. The course draws from diverse fields, including philosophy, art history, cultural studies, cognitive science, and media studies, engaging with a substantial breadth of scholars, practitioners, and theoreticians. Through these texts and in-class discussions, students will develop a broad interdisciplinary framework for navigating and analyzing contemporary and historical image cultures. Taught in English. No previous disciplinary knowledge required.
|
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
BOSLER 315 |
| FMST 220-06 |
Indigenous Storytelling: Digital Media & Beyond
Instructor: Amanda Cheromiah
Course Description:
Cross-listed with AMST 101-04. Since the beginning of time, Indigenous Peoples and Communities have shared stories through the oral tradition. This interactive course explores Indigenous storytelling traditions, Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being, and the dynamic intersection with modern digital platforms. Students will explore how Indigenous Communities use digital tools to preserve and amplify their cultural narratives, challenge stereotypes, and advocate for the futures of Native Peoples. The course will cover traditional Indigenous storytelling techniques and how these have been adapted to contemporary forms such as podcasts, photography, blogs, videos, and social media. Through critical analysis and hands-on projects, students will examine the role of storytelling in identity formation, community building, and resistance against cultural erasure. By the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of the power of storytelling in Indigenous cultures, and they will develop the skills and confidence to create and amplify their own stories.
|
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
LIBRY MMORRIS |
| FMST 310-01 |
Fascism and Film: Propaganda, Sexualized Politics and Male Fantasies
Instructor: Nicoletta Marini Maio, Sara Galli
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ITAL 323-01 and WGSS 301-03. Taught in English. In this course, we will explore the narratives of fascism in cinema from the 1920s onwards. The infamous slogan "cinema is the most powerful weapon" was coined by fascist dictator Mussolini who understood how the media could create consensus and control. We will begin our analysis from the Italian cinema produced before and during fascism by directors Camerini, Gallone, and Brignone: their cinema revolves around a fantasy of masculinity associated with racial and ethnic superiority, in contrast to the feminine sphere of reproduction, pliability, and madness. We will then examine the shift to selective memories of victimization and rejection in postwar antifascist films by directors such as Bertolucci, De Sica, Wertmuller, Fellini, Cavani, Taviani, and Spielberg. These films characterize fascism through symbols of violence, immorality, and instability: from the policing of national and sexual boundaries to man-to-man bonding and the fear of homosexuality, and images of Nazi and fascist eroticism. Finally, through the analysis of works by directors such as Scola, Benigni, Bellocchio, and Tarantino, we will explore how cinema continues to intercept the cultural configurations that fascism has constructed of itself, the system(s) of power it has created, and the ur-fascist myths still present in western societies. The FLIC session in Italian (Wednesday, 11:30 - 12:30pm) is offered for Italian minors/majors, INBM majors, and INST majors who have completed ITAL 231 or equivalent.
Additional time slot: FLIC Italian sessions will be held from 11:30am - 12:30pm on Wednesdays for ITAL/INBM/INST students.
|
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
BOSLER 314 |
| FMST 310-02 |
From Neorealism to Global Screens: History, Genre, and Aesthetics in Italian Cinema
Instructor: Nicoletta Marini Maio
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ITAL 400-01. This seminar traces the evolution of Italian cinema from Neorealism in the aftermath of World War II to the diverse, globally networked productions of the 21st century. Through landmark films and key critical debates, we will investigate how Italy's shifting political landscapes, socio-economic transformations, and cultural identities have shaped cinematic narratives and styles over the past eight decades. We will study major movements-Neorealism, auteur modernism, commedia all'italiana, genre cinema (spaghetti western, giallo/horror), political cinema of the "Years of Lead," and contemporary auteur works-alongside the industrial, technological, and institutional frameworks that enabled them. Readings and discussions will situate each film within its historical context while also analyzing cinematography, mise-en-scne, editing, sound, and performance. Specifically, we will focus on how form and history intersect, from postwar location realism to contemporary digital hybridity.
|
11:30 AM-12:45 PM, M
BOSLER 208
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, R
BOSLER 313 |
| FMST 310-03 |
The American Auteur
Instructor: Greg Steirer
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 311-02.Auteurs are usually defined as filmmakers whose individual styles and extraordinary control over the elements of production allow them to create unique films that reflect their own personalities and artistic preoccupations. In this class we will examine the work of four contemporary American directors who are usually identified as auteurs: David Lynch, Spike Lee, Sofia Coppola, and Gregg Araki. Through examinations of their films and through discussions of film authorship and culture in the United States, we will interrogate the concept of auteurism as it functions in America today.
|
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF
EASTC 301 |
| FMST 320-01 |
Media and Empathy
Instructor: Russell McDermott
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 331-01. This class asks us to interrogate the role of emotion and empathy in our engagements with media objects. Together we will construct working definitions of empathy, sympathy, and pity and apply these definitions to a variety of media. We will touch on the moral qualities of empathy, and the role of art in doing good or citizen making. Theoretically, the class will draw from a diverse set of readings from philosophy to literary studies to neuroscience and will task students with thinking across disciplines. Concepts drawn from these readings will be applied to a variety of objects: from autofiction and memoir, to video games and virtual reality. The course will culminate in a final critical or creative project which will extend or address key concepts from the class.
|
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
EASTC 301 |
| Courses Offered in ARTH |
| ARTH 205-02 |
History and Theory of Photography
Instructor: Shannon Egan
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 220-03. How does photography intersect with ideas about art and truth? This course explores critical issues in photography from its invention in 1839 through the present. Students will approach the history of photography through the following themes: portraiture and self-representation; photography and political movements; landscape/travel photography and the environment; the relationship between photography and painting; and connections between photography and film. Through close examination of historical equipment and photographs in The Trout Gallery and Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections, students will learn about changing technologies, styles, and uses for photography.
|
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
WEISS 235 |
| Courses Offered in EASN |
| EASN 206-01 |
Law and Justice in East Asian Cinema
Instructor: Neil Diamant
Course Description:
Cross-listed with LAWP 290-08. Focusing on films in China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, this course looks at how a wide variety of films in several genres (gangster movies, police procedurals, documentaries, social commentaries, dramas, LGBTQ-themed) have addressed the relationship between justice and law. We will examine the extent to which courts and lawyers are as prominent in securing justice in East Asian films as they are in American cinema, whether ordinary people feel that governments are a solution or a cause of their problems, and whether interpersonal and community-based justice, such as getting revenge or demanding an apology, is seen as a legitimate substitute to seeking redress through the legal system. Befitting the expertise of the instructor, this course stresses the political, legal, and economic contexts of the films, not the elements of cinematic form.
|
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
STERN 103 |
| Courses Offered in ENGL |
| ENGL 101-01 |
American Television
Instructor: Greg Steirer
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 220-02. For most of the twentieth century-and arguably still today-American television has functioned as a form of "public sphere," in which contemporary debates about race, class, gender, and sexuality were represented through visual and narrative forms. In this course we will examine television from institutional, aesthetic, social, and historical perspectives so as to understand its role in the negotiation of cultural change and identity. Attention will be given to traditional broadcast television and cable as well as more recent streaming television platforms, such as Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney+.
|
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF
EASTC 411 |
| ENGL 222-02 |
Theories and Methods in Media Studies
Instructor: Russell McDermott
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 220-04. This course introduces students to a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of media. It will build on the frameworks and analytical skills introduced in general media studies courses. This course will put a variety of analogue and digital media forms and practices in conversation with multiple theoretical lenses and methodologies, including medium specificity, media effects, cultural studies, media archaeology, ecocritical, and infrastructural. Students will be asked to apply these models and methods to specific objects, practices, and systems and to begin research in media studies. Students will also be asked to consider the costs of media practices: to the environment, to society, and to individuals.
|
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
EASTC 314 |
| ENGL 311-02 |
The American Auteur
Instructor: Greg Steirer
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 310-03. Auteurs are usually defined as filmmakers whose individual styles and extraordinary control over the elements of production allow them to create unique films that reflect their own personalities and artistic preoccupations. In this class we will examine the work of four contemporary American directors who are usually identified as auteurs: David Lynch, Spike Lee, Sofia Coppola, and Gregg Araki. Through examinations of their films and through discussions of film authorship and culture in the United States, we will interrogate the concept of auteurism as it functions in America today.
|
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF
EASTC 301 |
| ENGL 331-01 |
Media and Empathy
Instructor: Russell McDermott
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 320-01. This class asks us to interrogate the role of emotion and empathy in our engagements with media objects. Together we will construct working definitions of empathy, sympathy, and pity and apply these definitions to a variety of media. We will touch on the moral qualities of empathy, and the role of art in doing good or citizen making. Theoretically, the class will draw from a diverse set of readings from philosophy to literary studies to neuroscience and will task students with thinking across disciplines. Concepts drawn from these readings will be applied to a variety of objects: from autofiction and memoir, to video games and virtual reality. The course will culminate in a final critical or creative project which will extend or address key concepts from the class.
|
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
EASTC 301 |
| Courses Offered in LAWP |
| LAWP 290-08 |
Law and Justice in East Asian Cinema
Instructor: Neil Diamant
Course Description:
Cross-listed with EASN 206-01. Focusing on films in China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, this course looks at how a wide variety of films in several genres (gangster movies, police procedurals, documentaries, social commentaries, dramas, LGBTQ-themed) have addressed the relationship between justice and law. We will examine the extent to which courts and lawyers are as prominent in securing justice in East Asian films as they are in American cinema, whether ordinary people feel that governments are a solution or a cause of their problems, and whether interpersonal and community-based justice, such as getting revenge or demanding an apology, is seen as a legitimate substitute to seeking redress through the legal system. Befitting the expertise of the instructor, this course stresses the political, legal, and economic contexts of the films, not the elements of cinematic form.
|
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
STERN 103 |