Explore Cinema Studies Winter 2020 Core Ed Courses

Registration begins November 18, 2020.  Read below for more information and course descriptions!

Courses below are open to all majors!

Cinema Studies Majors:  Visit the course list page for the complete list of courses and how they satisfy the major.

CINE 110M*: Intro to Film & Media > 1 (4 credits)
Tuesday/Thursday 8:00-9:50 a.m. / Elio Garcia

 People respond to movies in different ways, and there are many reasons for this. We have all stood in the lobby of a theater and heard conflicting opinions from people who have just seen the same film. Some loved it, some hated it, some found it just OK. Perhaps we've thought, "What do they know? Maybe they just don't get it." Disagreements and controversies, however, can reveal a great deal about the assumptions underlying these various responses. If we explore these assumptions, we can ask questions about how sound they are. Questioning our own assumptions, and those of others, is a good way to start thinking about movies. In this course, we will see that there are many productive ways of thinking about movies and many approaches we can use to analyze them. These approaches include the study of narrative structure, cinematic form, authorship, genre, stars, reception and categories of social identity. Overall, the goal of this course is to introduce you to the basic skills necessary for a critical knowledge of the movies as art and culture. This course will satisfy the Arts and Letters group requirement because it introduces students to modes of inquiry that have defined the discipline of film studies. These include such diverse approaches as studying narrative structure, authorship, genre, and reception. By requiring students to analyze and interpret examples of film and media using these approaches, the course will promote open inquiry into cinematic texts and contexts from a variety of perspectives.

CINE 230: Remix Cultures >1 (4 credits)
Monday/Wednesday, 10:00-11:50 a.m. / Andre Sirois 

In "Remix Cultures," students learn the historical, practical, and critical views of "intellectual property" (IP) by analyzing everything from the UO mascot to Jay-Z. The course highlights how “ideas” are part of a remix continuum: new ideas often remix the great ideas that preceded them and will themselves be remixed in the future. Students will deconstruct the relationship between politics and economics and interrogate the everyday ways that their lives are governed by (and often break) IP laws. As a group-satisfying Arts and Letters course, Remix Cultures provides students with a broad yet fundamental knowledge of how "IP" and "innovation" impact their lives: students of all majors engage with intellectual properties daily and may seek professions in fields that valorize intellectual property. By asking all students to actively and critically engage consumer media culture as intellectual property, the course provides a better understanding of how collaborative efforts are governed by laws that typically value and reward a singular author/genius. 

CINE 266: History of Motion Picture II: From 1927 to the 1960s >1 (4 credits)
Tuesday 2:00-4:50 p.m.; Thursday 2:00-2:50 p.m. / Peter Alilunas 

CINE 266 (previously ENG 266) is the second in a three-part chronological survey of the evolution of cinema as an institution and an art form. CINE 266 covers the post-World War II period through the 1950s. The primary texts for the course are the films themselves, but supplementary readings will also be assigned. The aim of the course is to develop interpretive skills relevant to the study of film by examining the history of major movements in Hollywood and world cinema. As a broad introduction to interpretive, theoretical, and institutional issues that are central to the study of film, CINE 266 satisfies the university's Group Requirement in the Arts and Letters category. The courses in motion picture history, CINE 265, 266, and 267 may be taken individually or as parts of an integrated series.

Previously taught as ENG 266; not repeatable.

CINE 268: U.S. Television History >1 (4 credits)
Monday/Wednesday, 8:00-9:50 a.m. / Erin Hanna 

This Arts & Letters course analyzes the history of television, spanning from its roots in radio broadcasting to the latest developments in digital television. To assess the many changes across this historical period, the course addresses why the U.S. television industry developed as a commercial medium (compared to television industries across the globe), how television programming has both reflected and influenced cultural ideologies through the decades, and how historical patterns of television consumption have shifted due to new technologies and social changes. By studying the historical development of television and assessing the industrial, technological, political, aesthetic and cultural systems out of which they emerged, this course helps you better understand the catalysts responsible for shaping this highly influential medium into what you view today. In this process, students will gain a basic understanding of various approaches used to analyze television history, including industrial history, technological history, formal history, reception history, and social/cultural history. 

CINE 335: Exhibition & Audiences >1 (4 credits)
Tuesday/Thursday 10:00-11:50 a.m. / Michael Aronson & Elizabeth Peterson 

This course explores how audiences make sense of movies—particularly in relation to the way that movies are shown or exhibited—and how we historically have consumed movies in relation to their surrounding contexts, including the environment in which we see a film (at a movie theater, in a classroom, at home, or on an airplane with an iPad). Both films and how they’re exhibited have changed over the history of cinema; how and where we watch movies has also affected our interpretations of films over time. We will explore why this is and how it relates to other factors in a film’s reception—social class, gender, race, politics, national identity, and other cultural values audiences might hold. Within this context, we will focus specifically on how this has played out in Oregon’s towns and cities to examine how local film histories align and diverge from dominant histories of American cinema. 

CINE 345: Stars >1 (4 credits)
Tuesday/Thursday 2:00-3:50 p.m. / Sergio Rigoletto 

In this Arts & Letters course, we examine how and why stars are produced and marketed by the entertainment industries, the ways in which they “signify” within media narratives and how they relate to a spectator’s fantasies and desires. What does a star bring to a movie or a TV show? How can understanding stars help us to think about the relation between media, ideology, society and individuality? During the course, we will examine the emergence of the star system, its development and contemporary examples of stardom and celebrity.

CINE 381M*: Film, Media & Culture >1>IP>US (4 credits)
Monday/Wednesday 2-3:50 p.m. / Allison McGuffie 

This course studies works of film and media as aesthetic objects that engage with communities identified by class, gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality. It considers both the effects of prejudice, intolerance and discrimination on media and filmmaking practices and modes of reception that promote cultural pluralism and tolerance. It historicizes traditions of representation in film and media and analyzes works of contemporary film and media to explore the impact and evolution of these practices. Classroom discussion will be organized around course readings, screenings and publicity (interviews, trailers, etc). Assignments will supplement these discussions by providing opportunities to develop critical /analytical /evaluative dialogues and essays about cinematic representation. CINE 381M satisfies the Arts and Letters group requirement by actively engaging students in the ways the discipline of film and media studies has been shaped by the study of a broad range of identity categories, including gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and class. By requiring students to analyze and interpret cinematic representation from these perspectives, the course will promote an understanding of film as an art form that exists in relation to its various social contexts. CINE 381M also satisfies the Identity, Pluralism, and Tolerance multicultural requirement by enabling students to develop scholarly insight into the construction of collective identities in the mass media forms of film and television. It will study the effects of prejudice, intolerance and discrimination on mainstream media. Students will study the ways representational conventions, such as stereotypes, have resulted from filmmaking traditions that have excluded voices from varying social and cultural standpoints. The course will also consider filmmaking practices and modes of reception that promote cultural pluralism and tolerance.

Previously taught as ENG 381; not repeatable.

CINE 440: Contemp Global Art Cinema >GP>IC (4 credits)
Monday/Wednesday 4:00-5:50 p.m. / Daniel Steinhart

What is art cinema? How does it differ from commercial film practices such as Hollywood cinema? To answer these questions, this course explores the form, style, and industry of contemporary art cinema from around the globe. We focus on the concept of national cinemas, acclaimed international filmmakers, and the role of film festivals in supporting art cinema. The course follows a global approach as we compare art movies from a rich array of film-producing cultures in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and even the United States. In the end, students will come away with an understanding of how art cinema can serve as a viable model for alternative storytelling, production, distribution, and exhibition strategies.