Spring

The ancient and multivalent image of the underground has crystallized over the last two centuries to denote sites of disaffection from--and strategies of resistance to--dominant social, political, and cultural systems. We will trace the development of this metaphor from the Underground Railroad in the mid-1800s and the French Resistance during World War II to the Weather Underground in the 1960s-1970s, while also considering it as a literary and artistic concept, from Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground and Ellison's Invisible Man to Chris Marker's film La Jetée and Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker. Alongside such literary and cinematic tales, drawing theoretical guidance from refuseniks from Henry David Thoreau to Guy Debord, this course investigates how countercultural spaces become--or fail to become-- sites of political resistance, and also how dissenting ideologies give rise to countercultural spaces. We ask about the relation between social deviance (the failure to meet social norms, whether willingly or unwittingly) and political resistance, especially in the conditions of late capitalism and neo-colonialism, when countercultural literature, film, and music (rock, punk, hip-hop, DIY aesthetics etc.) get absorbed into--and coopted by--the hegemonic socio-economic system. In closing we will also consider contemporary forms of dissidence--from Pussy Riot to Black Lives Matter--that rely both on the vulnerability of individual bodies and global communication networks.

Why has lip syncing caused so many scandals and successes across media, from Milli Vanilli to Beyoncé? This course examines how sound synchronization binds voices to notions of identity and authenticity. Primarily focusing on American popular media, we will diagnose how vocal appropriation and synthesis have been used from The Jazz Singer to today’s frighteningly authentic deepfakes and vocaloids. We may think we know lip sync and voice synthesis when we see and hear them, but deeper issues of technological construction, performance, and audio-visual aesthetics are at play. For example, Singin’ in the Rain dramatizes film’s transition to sound as technicians struggled to match the “right” voice to the “right” body: a beautiful woman with an ugly voice lip syncs to the lovely voice of a woman who Hollywood deems unsuitable to appear onscreen.

From drag to dubbing, this course investigates how sound synchronization creates alternate identities and realities. We will consider lip syncing as a platform for new acts of authorship and citation in music videos, animation, video games, and more. Looking back to Mr. Ed and The Monkees and forward to Guitar Hero and The Masked Singer, we will explore how lip sync’s eye-to-sound connections cue up states of credibility and belief. Questions of talent, star power, and credibility also confront performances of gender and sexuality, from RuPaul’s “lip sync for your life” to playback singers in Indian cinema: for example, Lata Mangeshkar supplied Bollywood stars’ voices for five decades, so that numerous women “sang” with the industry’s ideal female vocal sound. No matter the motive, vocal manipulation can never be taken at face value, especially in an age when contortions between sounds and their sources can be passed off as truth.

This course introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which students will discuss through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres. Along with questions of film technique and style, students will examine the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Films discussed will include works by Dorothy Arzner, Vera Chytilová, Julie Dash, Alfred Hitchcock, Barry Jenkins, Wanuri Kahiu, Akira Kurosawa, and Agnès Varda.

Documentary Production II focuses on the shaping and crafting of a non-fiction video. Enrollment will be limited to those students who have taken CMST 23930 Documentary Production I. The class will discuss issues of ethics, power, and representation in this most philosophical and problematic of genres. Students will be expected to write a treatment outline detailing their project and learn about granting agencies and budgeting. Production techniques will concentrate on the language of handheld camera versus tripod, interview methodologies, microphone placement including working with wireless systems and mixers, and lighting for the interview. Post-production will cover editing techniques including color correction and audio sweetening, how to prepare for exhibition, and distribution strategies.

This course offers an introduction to Japanese animation, from its origins in the 1910s to its emergence as global culture in the 1990s. The goal is not only to provide insight into Japanese animation within the context of Japan but also to consider those factors that have transformed it into a global cultural form with a diverse, worldwide fanbase. As such, the course approaches Japanese animation from three distinct perspectives on Japanese animation, which are designed to introduce students to three important methodological approaches to contemporary media — film studies, media studies, and fan studies or cultural studies. As we look at Japanese animation in light of these different conceptual frameworks, we will also consider how its transnational dissemination and ‘Asianization’ challenge some of our basic assumptions about global culture, which have been shaped primarily through the lens of Americanization.

This course shifts our critical attention from watching movies to listening to them. Amid a strong emphasis on cinema—ranging from musical accompaniment during the silent era to sound in experimental films; or from classical Hollywood underscoring to Bollywood musical numbers—we will consider the soundtrack of moving pictures within a growing variety of audiovisual media, including television, music videos, and computer games. Interactive lectures (Mondays and Wednesdays) and discussion sections (Fridays) combine a historical overview with transhistorical perspectives. Supplemented by screenings and readings, the course will address a variety issues and topics: aesthetic and psychological (such as representation, narration, affect); cultural and political (such as race, ethnicity, propaganda); social and economic (such as technology, production, dissemination).

This course explores the styles and functions of Chinese independent documentary since 1989, with particular attention to the social and political contexts that underpin its flourishing in Mainland China and Taiwan. We will discuss the ways in which recent Chinese documentaries challenge current theories of the genre, how they redefine the relationship between fiction and non-fiction, and the problems of media aesthetics, political intervention, and ethics of representation that they pose. We will look at their channels of circulation in Asia and elsewhere, and will discuss the implications and limits of the notion of independence. Readings will include theorizations of the documentary genre in relation to other visual media and narrative forms, analyses of specific works, and discussions on the impact of digital media.

This seminar will present a critical survey of the principal authors, concepts, and films in the classical period of film theory. The main though not exclusive emphasis will be the period of silent film and theorists writing in the context of French and German cinema. We will study the aesthetic debates of the period in their historical context, whose central questions include: Is film an art? If so, what specific and autonomous means of expression define it as an aesthetic medium? What defines the social force and function of cinema as a mass art? Weekly readings and discussion will examine major film movements of the classical period—for example, French impressionism and Surrealism—as well as the work of major figures such as Vachel Lindsay, Hugo Münsterberg, Rudolf Arnheim, Jean Epstein, Germaine Dulac, Béla Balázs, Erwin Panofsky, Hans Richter, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, André Bazin, and others.

This seminar emphasizes disciplinary methodologies in the history and theory of cinema and media, and close film, image, and media analysis. The topics covered in the Junior Seminar are intrinsic to BA-level training in Cinema and Media Studies, and are central to building the skills necessary for completing the B.A. thesis, as well as the written portion of the creative thesis option. 

The Advanced Seminar will be offered during both the fall and spring quarters. Students who wish to study abroad during spring quarter of their third year must meet with the Director Undergraduate Studies no later than the beginning of their third year to discuss possible alternatives.

This course seeks to develop skills in perception, comprehension, and interpretation when dealing with film and other moving image media. It encourages the close analysis of audiovisual forms, their materials and formal attributes, and explores the range of questions and methods appropriate to the explication of a given film or moving image text. It also examines the intellectual structures basic to the systematic study and understanding of moving images. Most importantly, the course aims to foster in students the ability to translate this understanding into verbal expression, both oral and written. Texts and films are drawn from the history of narrative, experimental, animated, and documentary or non-fiction cinema. Screenings are a mandatory course component.