Are you a film buff who could spend hours streaming movies on Netflix? Take your love of movies to the next level with a film studies minor.
You’ll learn to appreciate motion pictures as an art and cultural phenomenon while fulfilling the artistic expression requirements of our central curriculum.
Inside Film Studies
Watch movies in and outside of class? Check.
Read books and journals and blogs about movies? Check.
Talk and write about movies? Check.
Maybe even write screenplays and shoot short features? Check.
Popcorn? It’s up to you.
Our minor in film studies introduces students to the academic study of film. You’ll learn the vocabulary of film criticism and appreciation and apply it to the analysis of American and international films of the past century.
You may take all five film studies courses to satisfy the minor or any number of film-based courses in topics such as history, English literature, political science and Jewish studies. Another option is to take screenwriting or production courses for film studies credit.
In recent years, we’ve offered courses on topics as diverse as:
The history of horror films
The films of Robert Altman
Cult films
Israeli cinema
Novel to film adaptations
Film classes taken while studying away are also often appropriate for transfer credit as film studies courses.
Add a film studies minor? Check.
When you enroll at Susquehanna, you’ll be paired with an advisor and application tool to guide you in your course planning and scheduling. The following is an excerpt from the complete course catalog. Enrolled students follow the requirements of the course catalog for the academic year in which they declare each major and/or minor, consult with their advisor(s) and the Academic Planning Tool.
Learning goals
Film students understand films as works of art.
Film students understand the relationship between films and their audiences and cultures.
Film students possess a vocabulary to describe and evaluate films.
Film students explore otherness through films.
Minor in Film Studies
The minor in film studies is an interdisciplinary program using courses in several departments and coordinated by the Film Institute. It provides students with a broad introduction to motion pictures as an art and cultural phenomenon. Students minoring in film studies complete, with grades of C- or better, 20 semester hours from the following: FILM-150, FILM-180, FILM-210, FILM-220, FILM-230, FILM-240, FILM-260/MUSC-260, FILM-300, COMM-282 or COMM-382. Independent Studies and COMM-502 Individual Investigation are also available for credit toward the film studies minor, with Film Institute and instructor approval.
Double-counting restriction for interdisciplinary minors
Only 4 semester hours of this minor may be double-counted toward the student’s major.
Film Production
The Department of Communications offers the following film-related production courses: COMM-282 Fundamentals of Digital Video Production and COMM-382 Intermediate Digital Multimedia Production
An interdisciplinary study of film as an art and cultural phenomenon. Stresses the history, aesthetics and social implications of film rather than movie-making techniques. Studies commercial cinema in connection with traditional humanistic disciplines such as literature, history, and philosophy. 4 SH. CC: Artistic Expression.
Focuses on religious, ethical, aesthetic and epistemological values as exemplified in selected films. Examines such issues as peace and war, personal ethics, civil disobedience, deception, truth, beauty, and the sordid. Emphasizes the nature of the ethical choices and value systems, and the extent to which these are adequately represented or oversimplified and distorted by films. 4 SH.
A study of films based upon literary works and their cinematic adaptations. Stresses an understanding of the relative criteria of artistic form for film and literature and problems of translating the written word into visual images, techniques of narration, and questions of verisimilitude. 4 SH.
An interdisciplinary study of outstanding foreign films as works of art and cultural artifacts. Stresses film theories and criticism, as well as the appreciation of foreign films as creative exemplifications of national mores and culture. Includes particular attention to the work of distinguished directors, such as Eisenstein, Lang, Renoir, Bunuel, Fellini, Kurosawa and Bergman. 4 SH. CC: Artistic Expression.
An interdisciplinary study of American film as an art, industry and cultural phenomenon. Stresses the history and aesthetics of American cinema, as well as the interaction between the American film industry and major events in U.S. history from 1895 to present. 4 SH.
This course examines the emergence and development of the female action heroine in film over the course of the last fifty years within the popular “action film” genre. This course critically evaluates visual and thematic markers of femininity, masculinity, sexuality, race, and class with respect to representations of female action heroines in a variety of films. Same as WGST-240. 4 SH. CC: Artistic Expression, Diversity Intensive.
Exploration of the art, technique, and history of music developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to accompany silent movies. 4 SH.
Intensive study of advanced or specialized areas in film and its relation to the humanities and fine arts. Subjects vary and may include Imagination and the Artist, Film Theory and Criticism, studies in national cinema, individual artists, and film-based study of historical phenomenon. May be repeated with permission of the Film Institute coordinator. 4 SH.
