The Film Studies Minor at Georgia Southern

Film Studies Minor at Georgia Southern

Rationale for the Program:
In 2005-06 Georgia Southern has launched a long-awaited interdisciplinary Minor in Film Studies. The new program meets the obvious needs and interests of today’s visually-oriented students while reflecting the school’s continuous growth and status as the most comprehensive regional university in Georgia. The resources, both intellectual and material, for such a program have been in place for many years. GSU has had a number of faculty with degrees and scholarship in media studies and considerable experience teaching film. The University’s Cinema Arts Program has been bringing the very best foreign, independent, and arthouse films for over 25 years. Operated out of the Department of Literature and Philosophy, it is GSU’s longest running cultural program.

Film is both a serious and popular art. Present generations are born into and raised by visual culture. American students have already watched more movies than they have read books. And they will continue to watch even more after they graduate. The overriding goal of the Film Studies Minor, therefore, is to provide our students with ways of increasing their understanding of the medium and enhancing and refining their tastes and appreciation of films. Through exposure to important and original cinema of diverse kind, students in the program will become more informed, articulate, and sensitive film viewers and consumers.

Advantages of a Minor in Film Studies Program:
Film Studies is one of the fastest growing liberal arts programs at American colleges and universities. Unlike filmmaking, which teaches technical knowledge and practical production skills, Film Studies invites students to look at films aesthetically, historically, and culturally. Because of its unique interdisciplinary nature, a Minor in Film Studies allows students an exceptionally broad understanding of contemporary culture and its international dimensions while developing strong critical skills needed to articulate that understanding. Graduates with a Minor in Film Studies will clearly expand their career options and enhance their marketability. They can find jobs with film companies, film archives, and festivals. They can work in public relations or commercial advertising, for government agencies and non-profit organizations. They can be technical writers, critics, journalists, art managers, or teachers. The possibilities are almost unlimited.

Film Studies Minor Requirements:
15 semester hours with at least 12 hours at 3000-level or above after completing the 3-hour-prerequisite (see below).

Prerequisites: (3 hours)
FILM 2331 – Introduction to Film (offered at least once a year)
FILM/ENGL 2434 – Language of Film (offered every Fall)

Required Courses: (6 hours)
FILM/AMST 3331 – History of American Film
FILM 3333 – Art of Film

Upper-Division Electives: (9 hours)
Currently students can choose three of the following:
FILM 3030 – Selected Topics
FILM 3332 – Documentary Film
FILM/POLS 3334 – Film and Politics
FILM/IRSH 3430 – Ireland in Film
FILM/ENGL 3535 – Patterns and Themes in Film and Literature

Forthcoming by Spring 2008:
FILM/ENGL 3232 – Art of Film Adaptation of Literature (to be approved by Spring 2008)
FILM/WRIT 3335 – Screenwriting

(all the above courses naturally count towards majors or minors of their respective designations)

FILM 3030 is taught every year. It has covered such topics as
Screenwriting, Auteur Cinema, Race and Gender, and Genre Cinema.

FILM 3535 has been taught since 1990 at least once every two years. Its topics have included Japanese Cinema and Literature, Political Sci-Fi, Vampires, Eastern European Film and Literature, The Theme of the Double in Film and Fiction, and Art of Adaptation.

Planned Additional Electives:
African-American Cinema
Gender Cinema
Film Animation (in cooperation with College of Information Technology)

Film Studies Director:
Dr. Tomasz Warchol,
Department of Literature and Philosophy
P.O. Box 8023,
Newton 2223A
tel: 681-5823
e-mail: tomwar@georgiasouthern.edu

Other Core Faculty:
Dr. Reed Smith, Communication Arts
rsmith@georgiasouthern.edu
Joanna Bastarache, Communication Arts
jbastarache@georgiasouthern.edu

Revised 9-24-2007