An introductory course in film studies examining the history and development of Hollywood and the movie business and their sustained influence on American culture. The tools of cinematic grammar in creating a universal visual language are also explored.

This course examines the international history of cinema from its late 19th century origins to the 1930s. The development of film technology, aesthetics, and genre are covered from 1880s France to the establishment of the Hollywood Studio System. Topics include early film technology, the development of Classic Hollywood style, French Impressionism, German Expressionism, Soviet Montage, early animation, the introduction of sound technology, and the establishment of the Hollywood studio system.

This course examines the international history of cinema from the 1930s to the 1960s. The development of film technology, aesthetics, and genre are covered from the 1930s studio systems of England, Japan, and India to the New Waves cinemas of France, Germany, and Eastern Europe in the 1960s. Topics include Socialist Realism, the development of the Classic Hollywood style, French Impressionism, German Expressionism, Soviet Montage, and the establishment of the Hollywood studio system.

An auteur study of the films of Alfred Hitchcock as both the "master of suspense" and an artist of anxiety. We will explore Hitchcock's films in terms of their themes, stylistic tendencies and social/historical context. Hitchcock's enduring influence and place in film history is explored in depth.

Study the enduring appeal and social/political commentary of film noir's dark shadows, corruption, seductive femme fatales, alienated antiheroes, mid-century psychological struggles, and rain-slicked streets, often adapted from pulp novels and hard-boiled crime fiction.

Study the history and development of cult films and the integral role cannabis and drug culture has and continues to play in their creation, production and reception. Considering the social, cultural and political subversion of films screened; reception and ritual practices of cult audiences; analyze the transgressive nature of midnight movies, questions of taste, film aesthetics, and the influence of cult films and cannabis culture on mainstream cinema and branding.

Feminist film studies. Uses an intersectional lens to analyze women's roles in cinema as filmmakers and actors from its origins to the present.