Film Studies

There are two alternative types of dissertation: research-only and practice-based.

• The research-only dissertation allows you to identify a topic that you wish to explore in depth, about which you will produce an extended piece of work, typically between 18,000-20,000 words.
• Alternatively, you can undertake a practice-based dissertation, which offers the distinctive opportunity to explore the relationship between theory and informed creative practice at a postgraduate level. The practice-based dissertation is typically weighted at 60% for the written piece (between 10,000-12,000 words) and 40% for the practical project, which could be a short film, documentary, etc.

In the first term, three 2-hour workshops will focus on designing and undertaking a dissertation, covering the following points:

• Introduction to the dissertation module
• Undertaking a literature review
• Making use of supervision
• Purposeful and critical reading
• Using resources for literature searches
• Students presenting their dissertation rationales
• A focus on structure and writing strategies
• Producing a chapter plan
• Input tailored to group identified needs

Thereafter, you will have one-to-one supervision and support leading to the submission of your dissertation.

Contemporary Film Theory aims to help you develop a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the key theoretical approaches to film and related critical methodologies, which are influential in the scholarly analysis of cinematic texts. This module explores the way in which thinkers have sought to understand cinema since its inception while allowing you to develop your own critical engagement with cinema. It introduces the key debates in contemporary film theory and film-philosophy, with topics exploring the relations between film and other arts, cinema and politics, cinema and psychoanalysis, film and gender to name a few. This module aims to prepare you and give you the tools you need for your advanced independent research.

Here is an indicative list of topics this module will cover:

• Introduction to contemporary film theory
• Semiotics & Psychoanalysis
• Psychoanalysis: Contemporary Movements
• Gender, Race, Sex, & Class
• Cognitive Theory and Post-Theory
• Film Philosophy
• Phenomenology, Materiality, & Theories of Affect
• Memory
• The Digital Turn & Cinematic Futures

The fluidity of the contemporary 'nation' has complicated our understanding of international cinematic production, distribution, and exhibition. These cross-culture and cross-border interactions and encounters are best understood within the field of contemporary transnational film studies. This module explores a variety of the key concepts, debates and theoretical approaches to film studies which problematize the idea of ‘national’ and ‘world’ cinemas. This module provides an overview of debates that have recently emerged in the field of translational cinema while covering a range of approaches to analysing films that fall under this paradigm. This module will look at films from different national and regional contexts, films about immigrant identities, transnational encounters, cosmopolitanism and citizenship, terrorism, border politics, legality and race.

Some of the topics may include:

• Approaches to Transnational National Cinema Studies
• The Nation and the Region
• Genre Crossings
• Migration and Border Crossing
• Different national and regional cinemas from across the Globe (British Cinema, German Cinema, Nordic Cinema, Korean Cinema, Hong Kong Cinema, Japanese Cinema, Russian Cinema, Palestinian Cinema, Iranian Cinema, Lebanese Cinema, Turkish Cinema, Egyptian Cinema, Algerian Cinema, Senegalese Cinema, Nigerian Cinema, etc.)

This module explores the history and theory of African American cinema, primarily since the 1950s, focussing on the complicated relationship between this filmmaking tradition and mainstream (Hollywood) projections of blackness. Chronologically organized, it starts with the work of Oscar Micheaux and the “race” films of the 1920s and 1930s, ending with films made in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, such as Dee Rees’s Pariah and Mudbound, Tyler Perry’s Madea franchise, Ava DuVernay’s Selma and 13th, Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, and Ryan Cooglar’s Fruitvale Station and Black Panther.

This module explores Hong Kong cinema from the mid-1980s up to the present – an era whose beginning witnesses the international breakthrough of a new wave of local filmmakers, and which goes on to encompass the early 1990s’ production surge, the 1997 handover to mainland China, the crippling economic crisis, and the outbreak of the SARS virus. The module will give you the opportunity to develop an understanding of a number of basic industrial, aesthetic, social and cultural trends marking Hong Kong films in the contemporary era. These include the emergence and impact of independent production; the rise of ‘high-concept’ filmmaking; the movement toward pan-Asian co-productions; the importance and cross-marketing of star performers and local musical traditions such as Cantopop; the popularity of genres like the swordplay film; and aesthetic tendencies such as episodic plotting and the narrative ‘thematisation’ of politics and identity. Emphasis will be placed not only on representative mainstream product, but also on the emergence of a distinct Hong Kong art cinema, whose presence and success on the international festival circuit has brought artistic credibility to a predominantly popular cinema, and which has heralded the arrival of a fresh wave of local ‘auteur’ filmmakers.

The module aims to develop an understanding of historically important European films from the 1950s to the 1980s and the stylistic and historical significance of these films. It will explore the thematic importance of these films and consider the critical debates relating to this period of filmmaking enabling students to develop a critical understanding of the conditions of production, reception and distribution of these films.

The Experimental Cinema module introduces you to the non-mainstream, avant-garde, modes of production and the key movements and practices since the 1920s. You will be given the opportunity to study the theoretical concepts of historical and contemporary avant-garde movements and practices and witness the different ways artists and filmmakers have challenged the mainstream narrative and stylistic conventions. Throughout this module you will look at important figures in the development of experimental film aesthetics such as Man Ray, Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Michael Snow, Chantal Akerman as well as some lesser known, emerging contemporary experimental filmmakers.

The first half of the module provides a conceptual and historical overview of avant-garde filmmaking and the second half will focus on contemporary debates and the institutional shift in experimental film production with the rise of digital technology. As well as having the opportunity to develop an understanding of experimental cinema through reading and writing research papers, you will have a chance to engage with the formal and technical aspects of making an experimental film through practice-based assignments.

This module examines a historical genre that now occupies the economic centre of Hollywood film production. The module focuses centrally on film and comic book aesthetics; on questions of narration and visual depiction in these two related media; on the shifting norms of this film genre in relation to technological change across history; and on the significance and uses of the comic-book film in society. The module develops ideas and skills introduced in the core Film Studies modules taken as part of the MA Film Studies course.

This module offers a broad overview of the history of the musical genre in cinema. It begins by examining the use of sound in silent cinema before focusing on the original success of musicals with the arrival of synchronised sound in 1927. The module then tracks the success of movie musicals from the 1930s-1950s, with particular focus on Hollywood successes of MGM, Busby Berkeley, the Astaire-Rogers cycle and the emergence of the self-reflexive musical. Elements of the Hollywood musical in the 1960s and beyond are then studied, with a focus on the importance of the musical soundtrack in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and other films. The module will also examine other traditions where the Musical has been significant, such as India and France. In addition to this, aspects of race, gender and sexuality in the movie musical will be discussed. Some recent Hollywood successes (such as La La Land [2016] or The Greatest Showman [2017]) are studied towards the end of the module in the light of the Musical tradition.

In the Short Film Production module you will develop, produce and complete a short dramatic film. You will be taught and given the opportunity to follow industry standard practices throughout your project. You’ll participate in at least two class productions as both a key role member (roles like Writer/Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Art Director, and Sound Designer/Editor) and a minor role member (roles like Assistant Director, Script Supervisor, Assistant Camera, Gaffer, Grip, Sound Recordist, Boom Operator, and etc.). You’ll keep a production diary outlining your individual contributions, and be given the opportunity to gain real world experience of what working on a film production is like in the various roles. You’ll write up your experiences in an essay critically analysing the production process and outcomes.

This module offers an introduction to the broad area of silent cinema and to a range of critical approaches to this rich area of study. You will have the opportunity to view and analyse a number of important films. We will also explore a number of critical questions raised by this material with regard to the writing and study of histories of cinema (and popular culture in general). We will examine the relationships between technology and form, the economics of film production, distribution and reception, the relationship between cinema and national identity, the social and cultural impact of new (entertainment) media and the study of cinema audiences.

This module will explore the work of some of the most historically important female film-makers from the 1890s through to the present, considering films from around the globe. The module will examine the significant but often marginalized and obscured roles that women have played in industrial, experimental and avant-garde film production across a spectrum of roles from costume and production designers through to screen-writers, editors and directors. You will be invited to reflect upon the fact that, despite playing key roles in the development of the medium, women continue to be excluded at all levels of film production. The decision by Hollywood star and activist Geena Davis to establish a campaigning ‘Institute on Gender in Media’ is a measure of the urgency of this subject.

The module will engage with revisionist film histories concerned with interrogating the dominant bias of academic and popular histories of the medium; it will also draw on feminist film theory concerned both with a critical understanding of mainstream cinema and the development of politicized women’s cinemas. The module will examine a series of female directors and their work, and each week will be oriented around the screening of a case study film that will be the focus for the seminar. An example of directors included is Alice Guy-Blaché, Dorothy Arzner, Leni Riefenstahl, Ida Lupino, Laura Mulvey, Mira Nair, Kathryn Bigelow, Marziyeh Meshkini, Lynne Ramsay.