What will I be studying?
The course is taught through a mixture of informal lectures and seminars, practical sessions and discussion.
Unit 1: Approaches to Film Analysis: Film Theory
(4 Sunday day-schools - 11 October, 1 November, 22 November and 6 December 2020)
The unit focuses on a number of key texts and concepts by influential writers who have helped to shape Film Studies as a subject in its own right and who have contributed to the development of new ways of thinking about cinema. Through the study of such theoretical approaches - semiotics, realism, auteur theory, psychoanalysis, idealogy, gender, ethnicity, race and sexuality - and debates around the nuances, merits, and limitations of each approach, and the application of these clips and films, the students will gain an understanding of how film works with regard to the relationship between cinema and society, and between cinema and the individual.
Unit 2: Women's Cinema
(4 Sunday day-schools - 17 January, 7 February, 28 February and 7 March 2021)
The unit is informed by the discussion on what constitutes 'women's cinema'. Students will gain a further sense of women's cinema history traversing various cinematic landscapes and considering a variety of cinematic styles, forms and concerns in women's filmmaking. The films discussed will include Hollywood, experimental, animated, documentary films, and other forms of cinematic expression. An eclectic selection of films will generate multifaceted enquiries around fundamental issues concerning the barriers that women filmmakers face in the film industry, their work in or against cinematic genres, and what critical perspectives and scholarly strategies may help in the analysis of women's filmmaking.
Unit 3: Global Cinema
(4 Sunday day-schools - 11 April, 25 April, 9 May and 30 May 2021)
Engaging with ideas about national and transnational cinemas outside the West, the unit will introduce the history, formal complexities, and cultural politics as well as the production issues and problems of cinemas from Africa, Asian and Latin-America. The study of films from different continents will enable students to carry out a cross-cultural examination of themes, such as gender and sexuality, nationalism and identity, religious and ethnic conflict and youth culture.
Find out more
The course guide, giving information about course content and assignment will be available soon.
If you would like an informal discussion on academic matters before making your application, please contact the Academic Director, Dr Jenny Bavidge: jrb203@cam.ac.uk
If you have any questions about the application process, contact our Admissions team: ice.admissions@ice.cam.ac.uk or +44 (0)1223 746262.
For all other enquiries, contact the Head of Academic Centre Administration, Sarah Blakeney: filmstudies@ice.cam.ac.uk or +44 (0) 01223 760865 / 746212.
