Film Studies Minor

The newly-created Film Studies Program offers a multi-disciplinary minor for students who wish to learn and write about film, television, and digital visual media in a sustained, intensive fashion. Film Studies (FS) course offerings give students the opportunity to approach the subject from many important angles, including genre (the Western, film noir, New Wave), director (Alfred Hitchcock, Jane Campion, Wong Kar-Wai), and nationality (in addition to established courses in Japanese and Chinese cinemas, cinema from Europe, Africa, the Americas, and other Asian traditions). The courses and faculty represent an array of humanities disciplines (English, History, Foreign Languages, Philosophy), which will provide students with additional intellectual enrichment.

The Digital Film and Television minor remains available for students who are mainly interested in film production; the Film Studies minor is for those who want to focus on viewing, appreciating, studying, and writing about film. Film Studies students will learn to better understand and interpret various filmic forms, and the issues and themes that animate them. Students will learn about the technical production of film, only to the extent that this knowledge will deepen their appreciation and discernment of the films themselves. Students will discover the historical and cultural contexts, and the theoretical and artistic underpinnings, that have informed the various filmic traditions, and they will use this knowledge to think, talk, and write critically about their experiences as viewers.

Requirements for the Minor in Film Studies:

Students must take a minimum of 18 hours in Film Studies (FS) and affiliated classes.

FS 101 - Introduction to Film Studies* is the core course, and students should take it in the year the minor is declared.

Students will take an additional 15 hours of elective courses from the approved Film Studies list:

• DFT 343 - Film History
• DFT 344 - Film and TV Genres*
• FS 300 - International Cinema
• FS 301 - Major Directors
• FS 302 - Major Genres
• EH 478 - Studies in Film
• HY 384 - Japanese Film
• LG 283 - Chinese Film (cross-listed with DFT 283 and HY 283)
• PHL 301 - Skepticism in Media and Philosophy

For further information contact Dr. Becky McLaughlin, Chair, Film Studies Program, Department of English, (251) 460-6146, bmclaughlin@southalabama.edu.