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 |
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Professor: |
Ed Halter |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Richard Suchenski |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Andrew Vielkind |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Laura Parnes |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Sky Hopinka |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Ephraim Asili |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Laura Parnes |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Brent Green |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Lisa Katzman |
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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 |
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Professor: |
A. Sayeeda Moreno |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Richard Suchenski |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Sky Hopinka |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Andrew Vielkind |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Ephraim Asili |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Ed Halter |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Sky Hopinka |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Jacqueline Goss |
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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 |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Ian
Buruma |
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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 |
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Professor: |
Joseph Luzzi |
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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