110 Film and Writing
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021,
Fall 2022,
Spring 2023,
Fall 2023,
Spring 2025210 Coming to Terms: Cinema
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018,
Spring 2022,
Spring 2023,
Fall 2023,
Spring 2025215 Knowing Television
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2010, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Fall 2016, Fall 2019
220 Foundations and Integrations: Film and Media Studies
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2017
221 Foundations in Video Production
Other years: Offered in Fall 2014,
Fall 2022,
Spring 2023,
Fall 2023,
Fall 2024,
Spring 2025227 The Film Portrait
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2007, Spring 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2021
228 Introduction to Super 8 Film and Digital Video
(Offered as FAMS 228 and ENGL 287.) This course will introduce students to basic Super 8 film and digital video techniques. The course will include workshops in shooting for film and video, Super 8 film editing, Final Cut Pro video editing, lighting, stop motion animation, sound recording and mixing. Students will learn to think about and look critically at the moving and still image. Students will complete three moving image projects, including one Super 8 film, one video project, and one mixed media project. Weekly screenings will introduce students to a wide range of approaches to editing, writing, and directing in experimental, documentary, narrative, and hybrid cinematic forms. Screenings include works by Martha Rosler, Bill Viola, the Yes Men, Jennifer Reeves, Mona Hatoum, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Dziga Vertov, D.A. Pennebaker, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Cécile Fontaine, and Johanna Vaude.
Admission with consent of the instructor. Please complete the questionnaire at https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/film/major/major-requirements/forms. Limited to 13 students. Omitted 2015-16. Five College Professor Hillman.
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2020, Fall 2021
240 Screenwriting
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2015
312 Pioneer Valley Soundscapes
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2017, Fall 2018,
Spring 2023,
Fall 2024313 The Soviet Experience
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2021
316 Performance
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2014, Fall 2017, Fall 2020,
Spring 2023322 South Asian Feminist Cinema
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Spring 2019
323 Weimar Cinema: The "Golden Age" of German Film
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2010, Spring 2012, Spring 2015, Spring 2020
325 Nazi Cinema
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2016, Spring 2021
333 Videogames and the Boundaries of Narrative
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2015, Spring 2018
335 Experiments in 16mm Film
Other years: Offered in Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Fall 2019,
Spring 2022,
Fall 2023,
Fall 2024341 Video Production: Bodies in Motion
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2014, Fall 2016
342 Performance in Place: Site Specific
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2013, Spring 2016, Spring 2021
343 Lost and Found: Appropriated, Recycled and Reclaimed Images
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2013, Spring 2015
345 Performance Studio
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2020, Fall 2021
350 Experimental Narrative Cinema in a Global Context
(Offered as FAMS 350 and ENGL 376). This course will introduce students to a diverse range of experimental approaches to narrative filmmaking. Students will gain skills in filmmaking and criticism through project assignments, readings and analysis of language, performance and visual structure within selected films. Workshops in cinematography, sound recording and editing will be offered. The course will concentrate on filmmakers who are working in a context of multiple languages, hybrid forms and transnational histories. Screenings will include works by Jia Zhangke, Mati Diop, Abderrahmane Sissako, Pedro Costa, Claire Denis, and Nagisa Oshima. Students will complete three film and video projects. Lab fee required. Course meetings include one three hour consecutive meeting per week and one screening time per week.
Recommended prior coursework: ENGL 287/FAMS 228, Introduction to Super 8 Film and Digital Video, or other introductory course in film and video, photography, or painting. Admission with consent of instructor. Please complete the questionnaire at https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/film/major/major-requirements/forms and submit to Prof. Hillman. Limited to 13 students. Fall semester. Five College Professor Hillman.
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2015
351 Cinema and Everyday Life
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2013, Fall 2015, Spring 2020
353 A Decade Under the Influence: U.S. Film of the 1970s
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2011, Spring 2014, Spring 2017, Spring 2019
358 Spike Lee’s Joints
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2013, Spring 2016, Spring 2020
359 The Cinema of Robert Rodriguez
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2018
370 Traumatic Events
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2008, Fall 2010, Fall 2014, Fall 2018
371 Film, Myth, and the Law
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2007, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2021
374 Reading Popular Culture: Girl Power
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in
Spring 2022377 Women, Gender and Popular Culture
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Fall 2019, Spring 2021,
Fall 2024378 Visual Anthropology
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2013, Spring 2016, Spring 2017,
Fall 2024379 Black Feminist Literary Traditions
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021
381 American Avant-Garde Cinema
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2015
383 The Documentary Impulse
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2015, Spring 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019
441 Documentary Production
Other years: Offered in Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2018, Fall 2019,
Fall 2023444 Films That Try: Essay Film Production
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2020,
Spring 2022451 Ghosts in Shells? Virtuality and Embodiment from Passing to the Posthuman
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2015
455 The Confession: Theory and Practice
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2015, Spring 2019,
Fall 2022462 Film and Video Curation
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2016, Fall 2017,
Fall 2022475 Serial Fictions: The Victorian Novel and Contemporary Television
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2014
479 Critical Studies in Television Intertextuality
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2019
489 Paris and the Banlieues: The City and Cinematography in French and Francophone Cinema
(Offered as FAMS 489 and ENGL 489.) This course in film production and film history will address changing cinematic representations of the architecture and urban space of Paris and the surrounding suburbs. The course will include workshops in cinematography, lighting, editing, and sound recording. We will consider shifting representations of the city and the body of the performer in the films of Feuillade, Vigo, Rivette, Prévert, Cantet, Denis, Kechiche, and Volta. We will analyze performances of identities, emphasizing the body as the primary site of a daily negotiation of language and culture. Students will be encouraged to question how performative languages of movement, architecture, and speech function as aesthetic systems that reflect the ways in which the body is coded. The course will include a study of articles from Présence Africaine, Trafic, Cahiers du Cinéma, and Bref, as well as works by Petrine Archer-Straw, Carrie Tarr, Raphaël Bassan, and Nicole Brenez. Students will complete two film or video projects. One three-hour class meeting and one film screening per week.
Recommended prior coursework: ENGL 287/FAMS 228, Introduction to Super 8 Film and Digital Video, or other introductory course in film and video, photography, or painting. Preference given to FAMS majors. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Please complete the questionnaire at https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/english/major/course_applications. Omitted 2015-16. Five College Professor Hillman.
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2014
490 Special Topics
Independent Reading Courses.
Fall and spring semester. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022,
Spring 2023,
Fall 2023,
Fall 2024498, 499 Senior Honors
Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021,
Spring 2022,
Spring 2023,
Spring 2025Non-Language Departmental Courses
320 Japan on Screen
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2016, Fall 2018, Fall 2020,
Fall 2022Introductory Courses
376 Introduction to Music and Film
Other years: Offered in Fall 2013
Non-Language Courses
368 SPACE
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2018,
Spring 2022Special Courses
321 European Film
Other years: Offered in Fall 2012,
Spring 2025327 Toward the New Wave
2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Fall 2014,
Spring 2025