The faculty of the Film and Electronic Arts Program believes that a student's economic status should not be a barrier to participation in our courses. Students enrolled in Film and Electronic production courses ("PA" courses, not including screenwriting) will have access to cameras and other filmmaking equipment, lab computers, software, and film stock necessary to complete their coursework. 

 

It is strongly recommended that students taking production courses own their own USB 3.0 portable hard drive for data storage. If editing on a personally-owned laptop, a standard (3-button) mouse is also recommended. In our efforts to be fully transparent about the cost of these items we are providing a list of the approximate costs of these supplies. 1TB USB 3.0 Hard drive: $50. Three-button mouse: $10. Students who are unable to afford these supplies will be able to request support through the Bard Student Emergency Fund. Details will be provided by instructors at the beginning of the semester.

 

Course:

FILM 106  Intro to Documentary

Professor:

Ed Halter  

CRN:

90346

Schedule:

        Class:  Thurs    2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Avery Film Center 110

Screening: Wed     7:30 PM - 10:30 PM Preston 110

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

Class cap:

20

Credits:

4

An introductory historical survey of the documentary, from the silent era to the 21st century. Topics addressed will include the origins of the concept of documentary, direct cinema and cinema verite, propaganda, ethnographic media, the essay film, experimental documentary forms, media activism, fiction versus documentary, and the role of changing technologies. Filmmakers studied will include Flaherty, Vertov, Riefenstahl, Rouch, Maysles & Zwerin, Wiseman, Marker, Greaves, Farocki, Hara, Riggs, Trinh, Honigman, Poitras, and others. Grades will be based on weekly diaries, a short paper, and a final research project. Open to all students, with registration priority for First-Year students and film majors. This film history course fulfills a moderation/major requirement. Registration for this class will be taken in August.

 

Course:

FILM 109  Aesthetics of Film

Professor:

Richard Suchenski  

CRN:

90330

Schedule:

        Class:  Tue  Thur  12:10 PM - 1:30 PM Avery Film Center 110

Screening: Wed  7:30 PM -  Avery Film Center 110

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

Class cap:

20

Credits:

4

A one-semester survey course comprising weekly screenings and lectures designed for first-year students, especially those who are considering film as a focus of their undergraduate studies. Central cinematic issues are addressed both in terms of the films viewed and the assigned theoretical readings: narrative design, montage, realism, film and dreams, collage, abstraction, and so forth. Films by Chaplin, Keaton, Renoir, Rossellini, Hitchcock, Deren, Brakhage, Bresson, Godard and others are studied. Readings of theoretical works by authors including Vertov, Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Munsterberg, Bazin, Brakhage, Deren and Arnheim. Midterm and final exam; term paper. This film history course fulfills a moderation/major requirement. Registration for this class will be taken in August.

 

Course:

FILM 115  History of Cinema before WWII

Professor:

Andrew Vielkind

CRN:

90337

Schedule:

Mon       2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Avery Film Center 110

Screening: Sun 7:00 PM – 10 PM Avery Film Center 110

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

Class cap:

20

Credits:

4

Designed for first year students, this course (the first part of a two part survey) will address the history of cinema during its first fifty years.  In addition to offering an interdisciplinary look at the development and significance of the cinema during this period, we will consider the nature and function of film form through lectures, discussions, the reading of key texts, and close study of works by exemplary directors such as Méliès, Griffith, Chaplin, Eisenstein, Vertov, Hitchcock, Dreyer, Lang, Murnau, Renoir, Ford, Welles, and Mizoguchi.  Special focus will be paid to film's relationship to related arts and to the larger history of culture.  Attendance and participation is assumed and there will be a midterm exam, two short papers, and a final examination. This film history course fulfills a moderation/major requirement. Registration for this class will be taken in August.

 

Course:

FILM 207 A Electronic Media Workshop

Professor:

Laura Parnes  

CRN:

90333

Schedule:

  Wed     9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Avery Film Center 333

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

This course is designed to introduce you to various elements of video production with an emphasis on video art and experimentation.  The class culminates with the completion of a single channel video piece by each student.  To facilitate this final project, there will be a number of camera and editing assignments that are designed to familiarize you with digital video technology while investigating various aesthetic and theoretical concepts. Class sessions will consist of technology demonstrations, screenings, critiques and discussions. Technology training will include: cameras, Adobe Premiere, studio lighting and lighting for green screen, key effects, microphones and more. No prerequisites, permission from instructor.  This production course fulfills a moderation/major requirement. Registration open to Sophomores and above.

 

Course:

FILM 207 B Electronic Media Workshop

Professor:

Sky Hopinka  

CRN:

90345

Schedule:

   Thurs    2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Avery Film Center 333

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

This course is designed to introduce you to various elements of video production with an emphasis on video art and experimentation.  The class culminates with the completion of a single channel video piece by each student.  To facilitate this final project, there will be a number of camera and editing assignments that are designed to familiarize you with digital video technology while investigating various aesthetic and theoretical concepts. Class sessions will consist of technology demonstrations, screenings, critiques and discussions. Technology training will include: cameras, Adobe Premiere, studio lighting and lighting for green screen, key effects, microphones and more. No prerequisites, permission from instructor.  This production course fulfills a moderation/major requirement. Registration open to Sophomores and above.

 

Course:

FILM 208 

Introduction to 16mm Film

Professor:

Ephraim Asili  

CRN:

90329

Schedule:

 Tue      10:20 AM - 1:20 PM Avery Film Center 319

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

An introduction to filmmaking with a strong emphasis on mastering the 16mm Bolex camera. Students will be required to shoot six different assignments designed to address basic experimental, documentary, and narrative techniques. A wide range of technical and aesthetic issues will be explored in conjunction with editing, lighting, and sound recording techniques. No prerequisites, permission from instructor. This production course fulfills a moderation/major requirement. Registration open to Sophomores and above.

 

Course:

FILM 221  Found Footage and Appropriation

Professor:

Laura Parnes  

CRN:

90339

Schedule:

 Tue      2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Avery Film Center 333

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Experimental Humanities

This course surveys the history of appropriation in experimental media from the found footage, cut-up and collage films of the 1950's through the Lettrists and Situationists and up to current artistic and activist production efforts such as culture jamming, game hacking, sampling, hoaxing, resistance, interference and tactical media intervention.  The spectrum of traditions which involve the strategic  recontextualizing of educational, industrial and broadcast sources, projects that detourn official 'given' meaning, re-editing of outtakes, recycling of detritus, and a variety of works of piracy and parody which skew/subvert media codes will be examined for their contribution to the field.  Issues regarding gender, identity, media and net politics, technology, copyright and aesthetics will be addressed as raised by the work.  Students are required to produce their own work in video, gaming, installation, collage and/or audio through a series of assignments and a final project. This course fulfills a moderation/major requirement. Registration open to Sophomores and above.

 

Course:

FILM 223  Graphic Film Workshop

Professor:

Brent Green  

CRN:

90336

Schedule:

Mon       2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Avery Film Center 333

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

This course explores the materials and processes available for the production of graphic film or graphic film sequences. It consists of instruction in animation, rephotography, rotoscoping, and drawing on film and of viewing and discussing a number of films that are primarily concerned with the visual. This production course fulfills a moderation/major requirement. Registration open to Sophomores and above.

 

Course:

FILM 256A  Writing the Film: Adaptation

Professor:

Lisa Katzman

CRN:

90332

Schedule:

  Wed     9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Avery Film Center 117

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Written Arts

Since its invention, narrative cinema has relied on the adaptation of myths, folk tales, and various theatrical and performative traditions. In this workshop students will study the fundamentals of screenwriting—character development, dialogue, plot, tone, and theme—by writing a screenplay derived from a mythological or folkloric source. This could be a West African or Hopi folk tale, a Celtic, Indian or Greek myth or a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Course work will include an examination of films adapted from myths and folk tales from a diversity of cultures in a variety of film genres and styles, including films directed and written by Jean Cocteau, Angela Carter, Kenji Mizoguchi, Sergei Parajanov, and Charles Burnett among others; films made by Hollywood and Bollywood, as well as animated adaptations. This is an elective course for Film and Electronic Arts and does not fulfill moderation/major requirement.

 

Course:

FILM 256 B Writing the Film: Character and Story

Professor:

A. Sayeeda Moreno  

CRN:

90344

Schedule:

  Wed     2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Avery Film Center 338

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Written Arts

Starting with personal histories, lineage, and identities, students learn the tools to write invigorating, character-driven short screenplays. The course will focus on poetic strategies creating the blueprint for a narrative film. Building characters through transcription, investigation, and fictionalizing of family and friends to enhance character development, story arc, and create a visual language. With writing assignments and vigorous analysis establishing the bedrock, students develop and workshop a short screenplay (maximum 10-15 pages). This course will require extensive outside research. You are responsible for committing to a rigorous writing and rewriting process. Registration open to Sophomores and above. This is an elective course for Film and Electronic Arts and does not fulfill moderation/major requirement.

 

Course:

FILM 258  Asian Cinematic Modernisms

Professor:

Richard Suchenski  

CRN:

90342

Schedule:

        Class: Wed     2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Avery Film Center 110

Screening:  Tue      8:00 PM -  Avery Film Center 110

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Art History; Asian Studies

This seminar will explore the various permutations of modernism in and between the cinemas of East, Central, South, and Southeast Asia by looking closely at major films and the cultural configurations from which they emerged.  Special attention will be paid to the way in which strong directors from different traditions use formal innovations to mediate on the dramatic changes taking place in their societies as well as on the way in which the meaning of these strategies shift over time.  We will consider the ways in which the different modernisms being discussed differ both from Western paradigms and from each other.

 

Course:

FILM 259  Documentary Production Workshop

Professor:

Sky Hopinka  

CRN:

90334

Schedule:

   Thurs    10:20 AM - 1:20 PM Avery Film Center 333

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

An introductory video production course for students interested in social issues, reportage, home movies, travelogues and other forms of the non-fiction film. Taught by the Film and Electronic Arts Program's visiting documentarian. No prerequisites. This course fulfills a moderation/major requirement. Registration open to Sophomores and above.

 

Course:

FILM 261  Cinematic Spectacle

Professor:

Andrew Vielkind  

CRN:

90623

Schedule:

   Tue   2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Avery Film Center 110

   Mon   7:30 PM - 10:30 PM Avery Film Center 110

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

This seminar will survey the history and theory of cinematic technology from its nineteenth century precursors to the twenty-first century information age. We will particularly focus upon the ways in which technical developments and the proliferation of immersive exhibition formats have established film as a medium of mass spectacle. Topics will include the painted panorama, special effects, CinemaScope, Cinerama, World’s Fairs, theme parks, 3-D cinema, computer generated imagery, and virtual reality. Screenings will feature works by directors such as Georges Méliès, Nicholas Ray, Stanley Kubrick, Alfonso Cuarón, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Jacques Tati, Norman McLaren, and Jean Cocteau, among others. Grades will be based on in-class discussion, short writing assignments, and a final research essay.

 

Course:

FILM 307  Landscape and Media

Professor:

Ephraim Asili  

CRN:

90341

Schedule:

  Wed     2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Avery Film Center 117

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

This class is an investigation into the natural (and manufactured) landscape in relationship to its representation in (digital) media.  We will compare and contrast a variety of forms of landscape offered throughout the history of cinema and painting and for our own image production, visit local sites through which we will consider environmental issues, the social uses of land and parks, travel and tourism and more generally, the politics of place. A broad range of tools and techniques will be introduced, such as: panoramas, cartography, image archives, drones, creative geography, 360 degree cams and others. Films relevant to our topic by Thom Anderson, Farocki, Jennifer Baichwal, Ruiz, Antonioni, Sharon Lockhart, Teshigahara, Abbas Fahdel and Jia Zhangke will be screened.  Students are required to complete a short video every two weeks in response to local site visits that will be regularly scheduled throughout the semester and may occasionally involve commitment outside of class time. This is an advanced course. Students are expected to have some experience with video camera operation and editing. This course fulfills a moderation/major requirement.

 

Course:

FILM 324  Science Fiction Cinema

Professor:

Ed Halter  

CRN:

90335

Schedule:

        Class: Fri   10:20 AM - 1:20 PM Avery Film Center 217

Screening: Thurs    7:30 PM - 10:30 PM Avery Film Center 110

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

A critical examination of science fiction film from the silent era to today, with a special focus on the relationship between science fiction and avant-garde film practices. Readings include essays by Susan Sontag, Parker Tyler, Annette Michelson, Vivian Sobchak, Kodwo Eshun, Ursula LeGuin, Samuel Delany, and others. Topics will include: visualizing gender and sexuality through speculative fictions; aliens, robots, and nonhuman countertypes; futurism, utopia, and dystopia; Cold War and post-Cold War politics as seen through science fiction; science fiction’s relationship to camp and parody; Afrofuturism; abstraction, special effects, and the sublime; counterfactuals and alternative history; the poetics of science fiction language. Coursework includes one short writing assignment, committed seminar participation, and a final research project. Film majors and those with past coursework in film will be given priority.

 

Course:

FILM 335  Video Installation

Professor:

Sky Hopinka  

CRN:

90331

Schedule:

  Wed     9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Avery Film Center 116

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

This production course explores the challenges and possibilities of video installation: an evolving contemporary art form that extends video beyond conventional exhibition spaces such as theaters into sculptural, site-specific, physically immersive, and multiple channel exhibition contexts. Presentations, screenings, and readings augment critical thinking about temporal and spatial relationships, narrative structure, viewer perception and the challenges of presenting time-based media artwork in a gallery or museum setting. Workshops hone technical skills and introduce methods for the creative use of video projectors, video monitors, sound equipment, surveillance cameras, media players, multi-channel synchronizers, digital software, and lightweight sculptural elements. Students develop research interests and apply their unique skill sets to short turnaround exercises and a larger self-directed final project. This is an advanced course. Students are expected to have some experience with videocamera operation and editing. This course fulfills a moderation/major requirement.

 

Course:

FILM 368  Chronicle of a Season

Professor:

Jacqueline Goss  

CRN:

90328

Schedule:

 Tue      10:20 AM - 1:20 PM Avery Film Center 333

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts

Class cap:

12

Credits:

4

Adapted from the title of Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch’s famous 1960 Paris documentary Chronicle of a Summer, this is a joint film production course taught simultaneously on several Bard campuses (Annandale, AUCA, Smolny, Al-Quds) and OFF University in Istanbul in which the theme is to create a cinematic chronicle of each locality. The theme of these synchronized chronicles is also derived from Morin and Rouch’s film; each local film project takes as its prompt the deceptively simple question, “Are you happy?” By using this device, Chronicle of a Summer reveals a city filled with inhabitants considering ways in which colonialism, war, capital, race and gender shape their personal and social experiences. In our course, the asking of this question can show the complexities of contemporary life in specific locations within a limited time-frame. Ideally the making of these films will reveal points of connection for course participants and provide opportunities to learn about the subtleties of contemporary life in each locality. Our joint-taught media production course will be structured around initial viewings of Chronicle of a Summer (as well as other films derived from Chronicle), shared conversations about its tools and techniques, and the parallel making of films derived from the asking of the question, “Are you happy?” The six instructors bring a wealth of diverse skills and knowledge to the leading of this course. This is an advanced course. Students are expected to have some experience with video camera operation and editing. This course fulfills a moderation/major requirement.

 

Course:

FILM 405  Senior Seminar

Professor:

Jacqueline Goss  

CRN:

90347

Schedule:

 Tue      5:30 PM - 7:30 PM Avery Film Center 110

Distributional Area:

 

Class cap:

20

Credits:

0

A requirement for all Film and Electronic Arts majors, the Senior Seminar is an opportunity to share working methods, knowledge, skills, and resources among students working on their Senior Projects. Classes are devoted to presentations and critiques of Senior Project work-in-progress, workshops and presentations by visiting artists, a review of film distribution strategies and grant writing opportunities for emerging filmmakers, and discussions with Bard Film alums about finding employment, pursuing graduate education, and making art after graduation. The course is an integral aspect of Senior Project for all seniors in Film and Electronic Arts and carries no credit.

 

Cross-listed courses:

 

Course:

HR 377  World War Two in the Cinema

Professor:

Ian Buruma  

CRN:

90340

Schedule:

Mon       5:30 PM - 8:30 PM Avery Film Center 217

  Tue       2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Avery Film Center 217

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Film and Electronic Arts

 

Course:

LIT 366  Romance and Realism: Italian Cinema from the Silent Screen to the Internet Age

Professor:

Joseph Luzzi  

CRN:

90279

Schedule:

Mon       2:00 PM - 4:20 PM Aspinwall 302

Distributional Area:

FL Foreign Languages and Lit

Class cap

18

Credits:

4

Cross-listed:  Film and Electronic Arts; Italian Studies