FILM - Film Studies (FILM)

FILM 101/VIST 101 Introduction to Visual Studies

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Survey of topics in the interdisciplinary field of visual studies, including forms of art, media, and architecture, and visual culture in global and intercultural contexts; application of visual studies methods and techniques to art, media, and architecture; analysis of the visual in contemporary culture; in-class visual studies exercises and discussions. Cross Listing: VIST 101/FILM 101.

FILM 215/GLST 215 Global Cinema

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. History and theory of global cinema; historical, socio-political, national and international contexts of film production and reception; transnational film; FILM-215 also taught at Galveston campus. Cross Listing: GLST 215/FILM 215.

FILM 245/RUSS 245 Contemporary Russia in Its Own Films

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Exploration of contemporary Russian and late Soviet films; focus on present-day cultural conditions in the Russian Federation and in the diaspora; taught in English. Cross Listing: RUSS 245/FILM 245.

FILM 251/ENGL 251 Introduction to Film Analysis

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Fundamental aspects of film analysis and criticism; ENGL-251 also taught at Galveston and Qatar campuses. Cross Listing: ENGL 251/FILM 251.

FILM 256 Introduction to Video Game Studies

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of video games as a cultural, technological, and artistic medium; key concepts in game studies including game mechanics, history, player engagement, narrative, and the social and cultural impact of video games; critical analysis, readings, and gameplay exploring the significance of video games in contemporary society. Cross Listing: COMM 256 and VIST 256.

FILM 285 Directed Studies

Credits 0 to 3. 0 to 3 Other Hours. Selected fields of film studies not covered in depth by other courses. Reports and extensive reading required. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: Concurrent enrollment in FILM 251/ENGL 251 or FILM 299, and approval of instructor.

FILM 289 Special Topics in...

Credits 1 to 4. 1 to 4 Lecture Hours. Special topics in an identified area of film studies.

FILM 291 Research

Credits 0 to 3. 0 to 3 Other Hours. Research conducted under the direction of faculty member in film. Prerequisites: FILM 251/ENGL 251 or FILM 299 and freshman or sophomore classification and approval of instructor.

FILM 299 History of Film

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Historical development of significant periods, movements, styles, practices and film cultures, including several different national cinemas.

FILM 302 Diversity and the Moving Image

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Survey of both positive and negative representations of human diversity in motion picture artifacts, broadly understood; forms of diversity addressed include race, gender, sexuality, ability, and class. Prerequisites: Grade of C or better in FILM 251/ENGL 251 or FILM 299.

FILM 315/JWST 315 Cinema in Israel

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Consideration and analysis of major works of film in Israel; interpretation of diverse cultures in Israel through film; relationship of film to Israeli history; taught in English. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: JWST 315/FILM 315.

FILM 324/ENGL 324 Science Fiction and Film

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. History and trajectory of science fiction cinema into the 21st century by significant filmmakers, attending to film theory and genre studies; historical, aesthetic and technical developments; and the cultural and philosophical issues of the films. Instructors teaching this class will choose texts, assessments and approaches that represent current scholarship and satisfy course learning objectives. Prerequisites: 3 credits of literature at 200-level or above. Cross Listing: ENGL 324/FILM 324.

FILM 333/VIST 333 Story for the Screen

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Exploration of the internal structure of stories; exploration of stories through emotion and action beats; narrative scripts in the visually kinetic language through which live-action and animated films and narratively-driven video games perform stories. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification. Cross Listing: VIST 333/FILM 333.

FILM 343/WGST 343 Sex, Gender and Cinema

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Exploration of a significant topic at the intersection of women's/gender studies and film, such as cinema and sexuality studies, cinema and women, and cinema and masculinity; may include discussion of production, film content, and/or reception. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: WGST 343/FILM 343.

FILM 345 Media Industries

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. COURSE OVERVIEW. Explores the structures, economics and regulation of media industries across sectors such as film, television, music, publishing, video games, streaming and/or digital platforms. Examines how content is produced, financed, distributed and governed within commercial, public and hybrid systems. Considers trends in media ownership, labor practices, media convergence, globalization, audience markets and/or media policy. Attention to the roles of technology, culture and/or law in shaping how media industries operate. Course material may engage with real-world issues involving politics, regulation, representation and/or controversy, as relevant to understanding industry practices. RELEVANCE AND APPLICATION. Applies to careers in media production, media law and policy, journalism, strategic communication, entertainment management, marketing, publishing and digital platforms. Informs understanding of how media businesses make decisions, respond to regulatory pressures and adapt to changing technologies and audiences. Supports advanced study in media studies, communication, business, law and policy. Useful for those navigating or analyzing industries shaped by ownership structures, market forces and cultural influence. DEEPENING UNDERSTANDINGS. Clarifies how media industries function beyond consumption and cultural familiarity. Highlights the interplay of economic interests, creative labor, technology and public policy. Encourages recognition of the power dynamics and institutional processes that shape media access, visibility and innovation. TOPICS AND THEMES. May include analysis of media ownership and consolidation; production, distribution and exhibition systems; financing models and supply-chain relations; regulation and public policy; labor and creative work; technology and convergence; niche and mass markets; globalization and cultural circulation; media ethics and advocacy. Examples may draw on current and historical cases across major and emerging sectors. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: COMM 345 and JOUR 345.

FILM 349 Documentary Cinema

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. History and theory of documentary cinema; examination of documentary film’s ability to both reflect and shape the history of its time. May be taken two times for credit. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification, or approval of instructor.

FILM 351/ENGL 351 Advanced Film

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Exploration of variable film topics each semester; possible topics include major directors, historical periods, fiction into film, film genres, theoretical discourses in cinema studies and film movements. Instructors teaching this class will choose texts, assessments and approaches that represent critical scholarship and satisfy course learning objectives. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: ENGL 251/FILM 251, FILM 251/ENGL 251, FILM 301 or approval of instructor; junior or senior classification. Cross Listing: ENGL 351/FILM 351.

FILM 352/HISP 352 Hispanic Literature and Film

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Exploration of inter-media relationships between film and literature; investigation of the language of film, especially films as expressions of cultural realities through the adaptation of Hispanic literary works; taught in English. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification, or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: HISP 352/FILM 352.

FILM 356/ENGL 356 Literature and Film

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Study of literature and film as narrative mediums and representative authors and directors. Topics may include adaptation, authorship, literary and visual storytelling, film as literature, genre studies, intended audiences. Instructors teaching this class will choose texts, assessments and approaches that represent critical scholarship and satisfy course learning objectives. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: ENGL 356/FILM 356.

FILM 358/ENGL 358 Screenwriting

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Analysis of screenplay structure and content coupled with writing assignments applying principles of form. Instructors teaching this class will choose texts, assessments and approaches that represent published creative work and satisfy course learning objectives. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification. Cross Listing: ENGL 358/FILM 358.

FILM 366/ENGL 366 Horror Studies

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. History, theory and criticism, and major genre developments in horror studies. Semester topics may include Gothic literature into modern horror cinema, horror by the decades, subgenre formation, the aesthetics of horror and horror’s national and transnational influences. Instructors teaching this class will choose texts, assessments and approaches that represent critical scholarship and satisfy course learning objectives. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification. Cross Listing: ENGL 366/FILM 366.

FILM 376/PHIL 376 Philosophy, Film and Evil

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students examine the concept of evil through the medium of film, exploring how cinema reflects, interprets and interrogates philosophical understandings of morality, suffering and human nature. Students engage with major philosophical approaches to evil, such as classical theodicies and free will defenses and modern accounts of cruelty, moral psychology and systemic violence, while analyzing cinematic depictions that illuminate these themes. Students investigate how film both represents and questions moral experience. Lectures, discussions, screenings and writing projects combine to cultivate philosophical insight through visual storytelling in cinema. Students practice respectful, thoughtful and self-aware discourse on contentious issues and understand how power and authority are exercised in and shape institutions so that they are able to competently navigate a variety of cultural environments. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: PHIL 376/FILM 376.

FILM 382 Feminist Film Theory

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Examination of major concepts from feminist film theory; focus on film, television and digital media, from a global intersectional perspective; topics include representation, spectatorship, historiography and authorship. Prerequisites: Grade of C or better in FILM 251/ENGL 251, ENGL 251/FILM 251, FILM 299 or WGST 200; junior or senior classification.

FILM 394 Studies in Film Genre

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Study of a specific film genre, such as the western, science fiction, the melodrama, the horror film or the musical, or, in some semesters, a selection of genres; films are screened and analyzed along with readings that explore characteristics of the genre or genres in question and its/their cultural importance. Depending on the semester, specific foci or methodologies may be applied in an extended way to a given genre or samplings of genres, such as: science fiction films and reception studies, the western and historical consciousness, the musical and cinematic authorship, the horror film and theories of gender and sexuality, or action films and materialist analyses of culture. May be taken two times for credit. Prerequisite: ENGL 251/FILM 251, FILM 251/ENGL 251, or FILM 299, or approval of instructor.

FILM 398/AFST 398 Africana Cinema

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Overview of African cinema; historical survey of cinema from Africa and the African Diaspora; introducing films produced in several geographical regions and reflecting different filmmaking traditions. May be taken two times for credit. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: AFST 398/FILM 398.

FILM 399/PERF 399 Star Studies

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Examination of stardom as a cultural, economic, creative, and performative force; may focus on national or global star industries; topics include examination of film, theater, television, sports, or social media stardom depending on the term. Prerequisites: Grade of C or better in FILM 251/ENGL 251 or FILM 299. Cross Listing: PERF 399/FILM 399.

FILM 401 National Cinema History

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Cinema History of a given film-producing nation other than the United States, such as Japanese Film, Swedish Film, South African Film. May be taken three times for credit. Prerequisites: ENGL 251/FILM 251, FILM 251/ENGL 251, or FILM 299, or approval of instructor.

FILM 405/EURO 405 European Cinema

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Exploration of key movements in European cinema from 1895 to the present, including both national cinematic traditions, such as Italian Neorealism or French New Wave, and international trends such as Formalism, Expressionism, or Auteurism. Prerequisite: FILM 251/ENGL 251, FILM 299, or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: EURO 405/FILM 405.

FILM 406 Propaganda and Dissidence

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Use of film as a medium to promote political ideology, government propaganda, political dissidence, and subversion, with focus on Europe. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.

FILM 415/CLAS 415 The Ancient World in Film

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Study of modern films as they relate to ancient literary texts that inspired them or with which they share common themes; relationship between Greek epic, tragedy, and comedy and their cinematic adaptations; treatment of Rome as an idea or ideal in the work of both ancient Romans and modern filmmakers. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification, or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: CLAS 415/FILM 415.

FILM 417 Film Authorship

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Exploration of a major film author (director, screenwriter or writer/director) as a vehicle for emphasizing intensive analysis, scholarship, film criticism and the question of individual authorship with the collective enterprise of filmmaking. Prerequisites: ENGL 251/FILM 251, FILM 251/ENGL 251, or FILM 299, or approval of instructor.

FILM 425/FREN 425 French Film

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Overview of French cinema from its origins to the present; interpretation of French cultural history and politics through film; taught in English. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification, or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: FREN 425/FILM 425.

FILM 434/HIST 434 History and Film

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Relationship between film, historical events, and public memory; cinematic representation of political, social, and economic change in various contexts; analysis of movies as historical texts; topics covered will vary according to an individual instructor’s discretion. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification. Cross Listing: HIST 434/FILM 434.

FILM 435/GERM 435 German Film

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Consideration and analysis of major works and directors of German Film; interpretation of culture through film; relationship of film to history, literature, and other arts; taught in English. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification, or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: GERM 435/FILM 435.

FILM 445/COMM 435 Rhetoric of Television and Film

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. COURSE OVERVIEW. Explores television and film as persuasive and symbolic communication. Examines rhetorical approaches to screen media, examining how narrative, genre, style, performance and/or visual form shape cultural meaning. Emphasizes close reading and critical interpretation of selected films, series and/or audiovisual texts. Course material may include popular, historical and/or controversial media — both domestic and international — analyzed for purposes of understanding communication strategy and effect. RELEVANCE AND APPLICATION. Develops analytical and writing skills applicable to careers in media criticism, strategic communication, entertainment, journalism, advertising and social media. Supports academic preparation for advanced study in rhetoric, media studies, cultural analysis or related fields. Enhances civic awareness by strengthening the ability to assess how visual media influence identity, public opinion and debate. DEEPENING UNDERSTANDINGS. Considers how familiar entertainment texts function as arguments about identity, power, values or social norms. Reveals how meaning can emerge not only from content but also from framing, characterization and genre convention. Considers how television and film can provide evidence of changing cultural assumptions and act as resources for public imagination. TOPICS AND THEMES. May include study of genre and narrative structure; visual style and symbolism; representation of identity, morality or ideology; satire, parody and social commentary; industrial or historical context shaping production and reception; rhetorical frameworks drawn from classical, modern or contemporary theory. Course material may include programming or films involving violence, sexuality, religion and/or politically sensitive content, addressed for purposes of analysis within a respectful learning environment. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification. Cross Listing: COMM 435/FILM 445.

FILM 455/ITAL 455 Italian Cinema

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Consideration and analyses of major works and directors of Italian cinema, from its origin through Neorealism to the present; analysis of how its visual language relates to Italian history, culture and to other arts; taught in English. May be repeated two times for credit. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification, or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: ITAL 455/FILM 455.

FILM 465/CHIN 465 Chinese Film

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Consideration and analysis of major works and directors of Chinese film; interpretation of culture through film; relationship of film to history, literature and other arts; taught in English. May be taken two times for credit. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: CHIN 465/FILM 465.

FILM 469 Cult Cinema

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Analysis of the concept of cult status; textual characteristics, historical context and audience reception practices that result in certain films receiving a cult status. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.

FILM 470 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Cinemas

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Examination of cinema by and about LGBTQ individuals or communities; discussion of production, film content and reception. Prerequisites: Grade of C or better in WGST 200, FILM 215/GLST 215, FILM 251/ENGL 251, ENGL 251/FILM 251, or FILM 299, and junior or senior classification; or approval of instructor.

FILM 475/GLST 475 Film, Propaganda, and Dissidence

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Examination of films promoting well-defined political aims in various countries and historical periods; focus on dissident works produced under repressive regimes. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: GLST 475/FILM 475.

FILM 481 Seminar

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Seminar on a figure, theme, style, movement or theory in film studies, with practice in the methods of research in film studies, culminating in a substantial research paper. Open to seniors enrolled in the interdisciplinary minor in film studies and to others with approval of the Coordinator of Film Studies. May be taken two times for credit. Prerequisite: FILM 251/ENGL 251 or FILM 299, or approval of instructor; junior or senior classification.

FILM 484 Internship in Film Studies

Credits 0 to 4. 0 to 4 Other Hours. Directed internship in a public or private organization to provide students with applied experience in Film Studies; internship will be supervised by selected agency personnel and appropriate faculty; experiences and requirements will vary slightly according to placement and student interests. Prerequisite: FILM 251/ENGL 251 or FILM 299; approval of instructor.

FILM 485 Directed Studies

Credits 0 to 3. 0 to 3 Other Hours. Selected fields of film studies not covered in depth by other courses. Reports and extensive reading required. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: FILM 251/ENGL 251 or FILM 299, and approval of instructor.

FILM 489 Special Topics in...

Credits 1 to 4. 1 to 4 Lecture Hours. 0 to 4 Lab Hours. Special topics in an identified area of film studies. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.

FILM 491 Research

Credits 0 to 3. 0 to 3 Other Hours. Research conducted under the direction of faculty member in film. Prerequisites: FILM 251/ENGL 251 or FILM 299; approval of instructor.