Courses / Undergraduate

Fall 2018

  • Film Genre: Romantic Comedy

    108 | CCN: 32301

    Instructor: Emily West

    M/W 11:00am-12:30pm; W 3:30-6:30pm, Dwinelle 188   Although its lovers are legion, romantic comedy is frequently considered to be without value: a “low” cultural form that, like horror or science fiction film, provides pleasures that are simple at worst and... More

  • History of Avant-Garde Film

    129 | CCN: 21523

    Instructor: Jeffrey Skoller

    T/Th 2:00-3:30pm, Dwinelle 142; W 7:00-10:00pm, BAMPFA This class explores the idea of experimentalism as filmmaking without a net; a risk taking approach to creative expression and a philosophical position that emphasizes art as process and invention over product... More

  • Special Topics in Film – The Film Essay: James Baldwin, Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag

    140-001 | English 173 | CCN: 25123

    Instructor: Damon Young and Stephen Best

    T/Th 3:30-5:00pm; Th 5:00-8:00pm, Dwinelle 142 This course offers an in-depth study of three of the most influential public intellectuals of the twentieth century: James Baldwin, Roland Barthes, and Susan Sontag. Working in the postwar period between France and the... More

  • Special Topics in Film: Digital Game Cultures

    140-002 | CCN: 21436

    Instructor: Jacob Gaboury

    M/W 12:30-2:00pm; M 6:00-9:00pm, Dwinelle 188 Over the past 40 years, video games have transformed from household novelties and hobbyist toys to one of the most globally recognized forms of popular entertainment. Games are no longer marginal entertainment:... More

  • Special Topics in Film: Documentary Film Now! Explorations in Contemporary Non-Fiction Film & Media

    140-003 | CCN: 25121

    Instructor: Jeffrey Skoller

    T/Th 11:00am-12:30pm; T 5:00-8:00pm, Dwinelle 188 Today we are in a golden age of Documentary film! Never before has non-fiction cinema been more popular with audiences, more diverse in subject matter or more innovative in its forms and technologies. This... More

  • Special Topics in Film – Outside the Box: Television and American Culture

    140-004 | CCN: 32298

    Instructor: Emily West

    M/W 9:30-11:00am; M 1:00-4:00pm, Dwinelle 188 What is television? What does it do? The earliest television viewers – audiences of broadcast networks’ first programs in the late 1930s and early 1950s – would not recognize the television programming or distribution formats of the... More

  • Auteur Theory: The Films of Ingmar Bergman

    151 | Scandinavian 115 | CCN: 25125

    Instructor: Linda Rugg

    T/Th 9:30-11:00am; W 3:00-6:00 PM, Pacific Film Archive, Barbro Osher Theater 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of premier Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman’s birth, and retrospectives and celebrations are taking place all over the world. UC Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive... More

  • National Cinema: Introduction to Japanese Cinema

    160 | J185 | CCN: 25129

    Instructor: Miryam Sas

    T/TH 12:30-2:00 PM, Dwinelle 188; T 2:00-5:00 PM Screening, Dwinelle 188 How does cinema convey meaning? How do the images and sounds and spaces of cinema shape the way we think about gender, about our place in the... More

  • National Cinema – The Italian Cinema: When Italy Meets America

    160-002 | Italian 170 | CCN: 32628

    Instructor: Margherita Ghetti

    With the turn of the 20th century, Italian people came in waves to the North-American shores, carrying along their families, goods and language. Cinema lent itself to representing and questioning this encounter. As Italian food and gestures... More

  • Beginning Screenwriting

    180 | CCN: 24648

    Instructor: J. Mira Kopell

    T 9:00am-12:00pm, Dwinelle 226 Students explore the art and craft of writing a feature-length, narrative screenplay. Each writer pitches three story ideas, chooses one concept to develop into an outline and completes the first act of the script.... More

  • Advanced Screenwriting

    181 | CCN: 24813

    Instructor: J. Mira Kopell

    Th 9:00am-12:00pm, Dwinelle 226 In a workshop setting students will explore the art and craft of writing a feature-length narrative screenplay and a serial drama. Writers will present a detailed script outline of a feature to the class and... More

  • Narrative Short

    185 | CCN: 24647

    Instructor: J. Mira Kopell

    T/Th 1:00-4:00pm, Dwinelle 30/135 This hands-on digital video production course explores the process of making a narrative short. Students will write, pre-visualize, direct and edit three short films and crew on additional class projects. Scripts and cuts are presented... More

  • Directed Group Study: Advanced Film Writing

    198-001 | CCN: 21451

    Instructor: Eileen Jones

    This 4-credit course will serve to instruct undergraduate film majors in advanced film studies analysis, research, and writing. A variety of forms of writing will be undertaken, including film analysis, research scholarship, essay argumentation, film criticism, and... More

  • Film/Media Cultures

    20 | CCN: 21532

    Instructor: Mary Ann Doane

    T/Th 11:00am-12:30pm; T 6:00-9:00pm, Dwinelle 142 This course introduces students to theories and methods in the scholarly study of audiovisual media, including photography, television, film, video, and digital media. Throughout the semester, we will focus on questions of medium... More

  • History of Film 1: Silent – WWII

    25A | CCN: 21534

    Instructor: Anne Nesbet

    M/W 9:30am-11:00pm; W 12:30-3:30pm, Dwinelle 142 This class will serve as an introduction to narrative cinema, from its nineteenth-century prehistory to its hugely popular role in the 1930s. Topics considered will include the rise of early film, the... More

  • History of Film: 1935-2018

    25B | CCN: 25105

    Instructor: Eileen Jones

    M/W 2:00-3:30pm; M 3:30-6:00pm, Dwinelle 188 In this introductory survey course we will examine the history of cinema from the impact on national cinemas of the rise of Fascism in 1930s Europe through the international development of film as... More

  • Intro Digital Video

    26 | CCN: 25472

    Instructor: David Borengasser

    TH 9:00am-12:00pm, Dwinelle 30; Lab: F 9:00am-12:00pm Dwinelle 30 Film 26, Moving Image Media Production, is an introductory film production course that provides a basic foundation for digital video production with hands-on instruction in the use of digital... More

  • The Craft of Writing: Perception, Prosthetics and Media

    R1A-002 | CCN: 21471

    Instructor: Chi Li & Beth Bird

    T/TH 9:30-11:00 PM, Dwinelle 209; TH 6:00-9:00 PM Screening Dwinelle 182   “I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able... More

  • The Craft of Writing: Journeys Through the 4th Dimension: Cinema, New Media, Temporality

    R1A-003 | CCN: 26005

    Instructor: Jessica Ruffin & Alexandra Bush

    M/W 5:00-6:30 PM, Dwinelle 229; M 6:30-9:30 PM Screening, Dwinelle 229 What time is it now? Perhaps you’ve just glanced at your phone, a clock on the wall, a watch, the sun – or even whispered to... More

  • The Craft of Writing: The Monster, the Criminal, the Stranger

    R1B - 003 | CCN: 32701

    Instructor: Katherine Guerra & Althea Wasow

    T/Th 3:30-5:00pm, T 5:00-8:00pm; Barrows 587 “The stranger, like the poor and sundry ‘inner enemies,’ is an element of the group itself,” Georg Simmel observed in Germany in 1908. “His position as a full-fledged member,” he wrote, “involves both... More

  • The Craft of Writing: Cinematic Metanarratives: From Analog to Digital

    R1B-002 | CCN: 21530

    Instructor: Renée Pastel & Harry Burson

    M/W/F 11:00-12PM, Dwinelle 209; W 5:00-8:00 Screening, Dwinelle 109 “The sheer ubiquity of moving images has steadily undermined the standards people once had both for cinema as art and for cinema as popular entertainment.” –Susan Sontag, “The Decay of... More