Department of Film Studies

Honours modules

Students who missed this year's preadvising meeting can find our preadvising handbook and list of honours modules on offer here.

Because we cannot offer every module each semester, please check with your adviser or Film Studies for available modules when registering.

Modules on offer for 2011-2012: Semester 2

FM4099 Dissertation

Module Convener: Professor Robert Burgoyne

Seminars: TBD by Professor Burgoyne. 

FM4109 Film and the Archive

Module Conveners: Dr Tom Rice and Dr Joshua Yumibe

Seminars: Thursday, 10am-12pm, Film Studies Boardroom, 99 North Street

Screenings: Wednesday, 7-10pm, Film Studies Boardroom, 99 North Street

FM4303 Documentary Cinema

Module Convener: Dr Leshu Torchin

Seminars: Tuesday, 10am-12pm, Film Studies Boardroom, 99 North Street

Screenings: Monday, 7-10pm, Film Studies Boardroom, 99 North Street

FM4304 Film and Sexual Identities

Module Convener: Dr Elisabetta Girelli

Seminars: Monday, 10am-12pm,  Film Studies Boardroom, 99 North Street

Screenings: Thursday, 7-10pm, Film Studies Boardroom, 99 North Street

Film Studies Honours Modules

FM3001 | FM4099 | FM4109 | FM4303 | FM4304 | FM4307

30 credits

This module examines the diverse range of film theories that have emerged since the 1970s. It charts the various different theoretical directions that Film Studies has explored, and introduces the various contexts (historical, political and methodological) from which these approaches were drawn. The types of theory explored will typically include the study of masculinity, post-feminist approaches to popular genres, queer theories, post-colonial critiques of western cinema, third cinemas, the examination of national and transnational cinemas, philosophical approaches to film, the study of expanding global markets, and diasporic and minority audience practices.

30 credits

This dissertation offers students the possibility of personal advanced study on a topic in Film Studies on which they already have adequate basic knowledge and for which a suitable supervisor can be found. Guidance will be offered on research methods and on presentation. The dissertation will, as a rule, consist of a study of a given body of primary material in a defined perspective. Its length should be 10,000 words maximum. It should be submitted in accordance with guidelines and deadlines, and be written in English. The topic must be agreed in advance by the Chairman of Department following a favourable report from the Supervisor, whom students should contact in the first instance.

30 credits

This Honours module aims to provide a thorough grounding in methodologies relevant for the archival study of cinema history. Students will be trained for archival research and will carry out a research project relevant to the archival topic of the module. The specific archival topics addressed in the module may vary over semesters, but the topics will in general revolve around archival issues pertaining to the global, national, and local circulations of the cinema. For further details on the specific focus of the module for the current semester, contact the Department of Film Studies.

30 credits

This module surveys the history of documentary film (technological, stylistic, etc.), while taking up the theoretical debates around cinematic claims to truth and representations of reality. Students will examine how documentary differs from other kinds of filmmaking, how documentaries make 'truth claims', and how these claims influence the ways in which these films are received and circulated. Beginning with the actualities of the Lumiere Brothers, students will be exposed to multiple genres (e.g. ethnographic, civic, cinema verite, experimental, self-reflexive) and filmmakers (e.g. John Grierson, Dziga Vertov, Jean Rouch, Errol Morris) while addressing the variety of arenas (e.g. scientific, civic, commercial) in which documentary has appeared.

30 credits

This module aims at introducing students to the issues of sexual identities in filmic texts, to the notion of queer cinema, and to a representative corpus of films, drawn from different cinematic traditions, where sexuality and sexual orientation inform narrative and visual structures. The module will raise questions about the representation of alternative sexualities on screen, considering their implications for the construction of spectatorship, the filmic gaze, and for the wider cultural issues surrounding social identities. Students will be introduced to queer theory and to a body of relevant critical material, and will be encouraged to apply these theoretical structures to the study of cinema' diverse treatment of sexual identity. Films studied may typically include The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975), My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears, 1985), Ma Vie En Rose (Alain Berliner, 1995), All About My Mother (Pedro Almodovar, 1999).

30 credits

This module is both an introduction to, and interrogation of, theories and methods in the field of film and music, followed by a testing of these against an extended case study. The first part of the module looks at comparative approaches to music and film, beginning with characteristics the two art forms have in common, and then moving to a consideration of how music is actually employed in film, with a focus on several important musical and filmic innovations. Such ideas as correspondence, synesthesia, equivalence, analogy, disjuncture and counterpoint and the key notions of movement, rhythm, and structure in both media will be explored. The second part revolves around a case study. This term we will explore melodrama, which is one of the most music-intensive genres in film. In future semesters, we may consider another genre in this module.