12374

FILM 116      History of Cinema since 1945

Richard Suchenski             Screening:

T  Th 11:50 am-1:10 pm   W      Begins at 7:00 pm

AVERY 110 AVERY 110

AA

AART

 Designed for first year students, this course (the second part of a two-part survey) will address the history of cinema since the end of the Second World War, 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 Rossellini, Hitchcock, Brakhage, Bresson, Tati, Resnais, Godard, Bergman, Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Kubrick, Fassbinder and Hou.  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. 

Class size: 25

 

12379

FILM 130 A  Praxis

Jacqueline Goss

W       9:30 am-12:30 pm

AVERY 333

PA

PART

 2-credits This is a production course designed for first-year students intending to concentrate in Film and Electronic Arts. The course will cover the basics of video production: camera operation, lighting, sound recording, and editing. Participants will each produce one final project utilizing the techniques covered in class. Designed for students with no prior video production experience. Pre-requisite: one film history course. The course will meet every other Wednesday for the full semester.

Class size: 12

 

12383

FILM 130 B  Praxis

Jacqueline Goss

W       1:30 pm-4:30 pm

AVERY 333

PA

PART

 See above. This course meets every other week. 

Class size: 12

 

12387

FILM 167      Survey of Electronic Art

Edward Halter             Screening:

Th       1:30 pm-4:30 pm W         7:00 pm-10:00 pm

PRE 110 AVERY 110

AA

AART

Cross-listed: Science, Technology, Society

Open to all students, registration priority for first-year students and film majors. An introductory lecture course on the history of moving-image art made with electronic media, from the earliest computer-generated films, through television, the portable video camera, the internet, and gaming. Topics include analog versus digital, guerrilla television, expanded cinema, feminist media, video and performance, internet art, video installation, and the question of video games as art. Requirements include two short essays and a final in-class exam or final research paper

Class size: 25

 

12376

FILM 207      Electronic Media Workshop

Laura Parnes

T         1:30 pm-4:30 pm

AVERY 333

PA

PART

 This course is designed to introduce 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 class fulfills a moderation requirement. 

Class size: 12

 

12372

FILM 208 A  Introduction to 16mm Film

Effie Asili

M          1:30 pm-4:30 pm

AVERY 319

PA

PART

 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 class fulfills a moderation requirement. 

Class size: 10

 

12373

FILM 208 B  Introduction to 16mm Film

Lindsey Lodhie

T        10:10 am-1:10 pm

AVERY 319

PA

PART

 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 class fulfills a moderation requirement. 

Class size: 10

 

12371

FILM 216      Border Cinema

Lindsey Lodhie

Sun     7:00 pm-10:00 pm M          1:30 pm-4:30 pm

AVERY 110 AVERY 217

AA D+J

Cross-listed: Human Rights

 This course examines the construction, representation and interrogation of borders in cinema and visual culture. We will consider how contemporary debates around borders, both literal and figurative, can be viewed through the lens of visual media given that “borderlines"—frames, boundaries, and thresholds—are integral to the language of cinema and art. Themes of movement and migration, citizenship and belonging, self and other, landscape and space, and surveillance and (in)visibility will be discussed through a broad range of texts from a global perspective. Weekly screening of film and screen-based art by Chantal Akerman, Abbas Kiarostami, Joshua Oppenheimer, Emily Jacir, Kryzsztof Wodiczko, Mika Rottenberg, Alex Rivera, Wong Kar-Wai, and Michael Haneke. Seminar participants will be responsible for attendance at class meetings and screenings, participation in discussion and weekly assignments, and completion of the mid-term and final essay.

Class size: 15

 

12390

FILM 223      Graphic Film Workshop

Brent Green

F     1:30 pm-4:30 pm

AVERY 333

PA

PART

 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 class fulfills a moderation requirement. 

Class size: 12

 

12384

FILM 256      Writing the Film

A. Sayeeda Moreno

Th    10:10 am-1:10 pm

AVERY 333

PA

PART

 Cross-listed: Written Arts

  An introductory writing course that looks at creative approaches to writing short films and dialogue scenes. There will be writing and research exercises, screenings, discussions, readings, and script critiques. The course will focus on researching and developing ideas and structure for stories, building characters, story design, and poetic strategies to writing short screenplays.  

Class size: 12

 

12380

FILM 265      Music Video

Laura Parnes

W      10:10 am-1:10 pm

AVERY 217

PA

 Music has been a driving force in experimental video and avant-garde film from its inception–with artists, directors and musicians working in collaboration, lifting and borrowing from each other, all while blurring the boundaries between art and popular culture. From early live action musical shorts with Cab Calloway, to collaborations between Kenneth Anger and Mick Jagger, we will examine historical works as well as present-day examples of the form, while keeping a broad view of what a “music video” can be. Features of the form including lip-synching, nonlinear experimentation, animation, dance and storytelling through song will be explored. The diverse intergenerational artists screened will include: Charles Atlas, Arthur Jafa, Gretchen Bender, Ragnar Kjartansson, Kalup Linzy, Pipilotti Rist, Wynne Greenwood, A.L. Steiner, Laurie Anderson and My Barbarian. Students will be asked to complete a series of short assignments that will culminate in an ambitious final project. Collaboration with musicians and dancers is encouraged. Prerequisite: Completion of one 200-level Film and Electronic Arts production (PA) course. Application procedure: Prior to registration, email lparnes@bard.edu one paragraph (no more than 100 words) explaining your interest in taking this course.

Class size: 12

 

12389

FILM 267      The Films of Andy Warhol

Edward Halter

Th     7:00 pm-10:00 pm     F     10:10 am-1:10 pm

AVERY 110

AA

Cross-listed: Art History; Gender and Sexuality Studies

 Between 1963 and 1969, American artist Andy Warhol made over a hundred 16mm films, many of them shot in and around his Manhattan studio, The Factory. This course will study selections from the complete range of Warhol’s cinematic output, including his later forays into producing features by other directors such as Paul Morrissey, and his work in television and video art. We will analyze Warhol’s filmmaking and its impact through a variety of frameworks and approaches, considering his central place within the New American Cinema and as a precursor to what P. Adams Sitney would name the structural film; looking at his films as major elaborations of Pop and minimalism; applying critical theories developed in relation to his painting and sculpture to talk about serialism, materiality, and the mechanical reproduction of the image; investigating how his films participated in a new explosion of queer identity and liberated sexuality onscreen; and looking at how Warhol’s filmmaking intersected with his other activities in art, publishing, photography, and music. Readings will include key studies of Warhol by Jonas Mekas, Parker Tyler, Stephen Koch, Callie Angell, Annette Michelson, Juan Suarez, Peter Gidal, Douglas Crimpand, and others. Required coursework will include in-class participation, short writing assignments, and a final research paper.

Class size: 15

 

12388

FILM 290      Narrative Film Workshop

Brent Green

Th     1:30 pm-4:30 pm

AVERY 333

PA

PART

 Students will explore visual storytelling strategies. Through weekly video exercises students will shoot original assignments or excerpts from selected narrative films. They will work both individually and on crews. For crew assignments members of the class will act as a production team: planning, shooting and editing. Crewmembers should rotate positions so that everyone is getting the chance to experience the various areas of filmmaking. Students will construct a sound design for each piece but must refrain from using music.  No titles or credits. All work must be precise. There are no non-decisions. 

Class size: 12

 

12377

FILM 302      Advanced 16mm Workshop

Effie Asili

T         1:30 pm-4:30 pm

AVERY 319

PA

PART

 This course is designed to build on the technical and theoretical concepts introduced in Introduction to 16mm film.  Students will explore special effects using a bolex camera, how to hand process film, shoot sync sound film with an Arriflex SRII camera, and optically print film. In addition to learning about advanced cameras and techniques, students will also have the opportunity to shoot color film, work on collaborative projects, and participate in screenings and discussions that illustrate and exemplify the approaches taught in class. Prerequisites: Introduction to 16mm Film and one film

Class size: 12

 

12381

FILM 315      Reframing Reality: Doc Prac II

Fiona Otway    Screening:

T         7:00 pm-10:00 pm  W        1:30 pm-4:30 pm

PRE 110 AVERY 117

PA

Cross-listed: Human Rights

 How can documentary filmmaking open a portal for learning about ourselves and the world we live in? This intensive production course is designed as a laboratory to explore curiosities, complexities and conundrums. We will use documentary filmmaking as a means to articulate provocative, nuanced, juicy questions about how the world works and what it means to be human. In the process, we will interrogate how power is embedded in authorial voice, question how documentary grammar can be used to subvert or reify metanarratives, probe the relationship between form/content and process/end product, examine the intersection of filmmaking and social justice, challenge our own assumptions and the assumptions of others. We will use individual and collective filmmaking exercises, writing, field research, theoretical readings, and screenings to build creative muscles. Expect a rigorous course that requires active participation and significant time commitment outside the classroom. This course is the second in a two-semester documentary video production sequence. Skills and ideas introduced in "FILM 260: Reframing Reality" (Fall 2019) will be expanded and deepened through the completion of a more ambitious documentary project this semester. Students completing FILM 260 will be given priority for spots in Spring semester course. All students are expected to have prior experience with video camera operation and editing. Advanced students who did not take FILM 260 but would like to take this course should email fotway@bard.edu one paragraph explaining their interest in taking this course and their video production background. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement.

Class size: 12

 

12375

FILM 326      Ethnographic Film

Jacqueline Goss             Screening:

T         1:30 pm-4:30 pm M          7:00 pm-10:00 pm

AVERY 217 AVERY 110

AA

Cross-listed: Anthropology

 “Ethnographic” is a term applied to a variety of films and sound recordings that attempt to describe aspects of cultures different from one’s own. These works range from Robert Flaherty’s “Nanook of the North” to Zora Neale Hurston’s audio recordings of the American South, to the fictive works of the Karrabing collective in Australia. In between lies a rich history of visual anthropologies, traditional documentaries, and experimental works that reveal a range of techniques for working with, understanding, describing, and ultimately recording the lives of other people. In this course we will study the writings, and visual/sonic work of anthropologists and filmmakers including Edward Curtis, Margaret Mead, Jean Rouch, Maya Deren, Trinh Minh-ha, Lucian-Castiang Taylor, Ilisa Barbash, Sky Hopinka, and Akosua Adoma Uwusu. Course participants should expect to write weekly responses to assigned readings and screenings and two longer topical papers.

Class size: 15

 

12370

FILM 342      Stereoscopic 3D Video

Ben Coonley

M        1:30 pm-4:30 pm  Th       5:00 pm-7:00 pm

AVERY 117

PA

PART

Cross-listed: Experimental Humanities This course introduces methods and strategies for producing stereoscopic 3D and 360-degree moving image artworks. Students will learn to use 3D and 360 videocameras, 3D projection systems, VR headsets, and related technologies that exploit binocular and panoramic viewing. We will examine moments in the evolution of 3D technology and historical attempts at what André Bazin called “total cinema," considering the perceptual and ideological implications of apparatuses that attempt to intensify realistic reproductions of the physical world. Students attend weekly screenings of a broad range of 3D and 360-degree films and videos, including classic Hollywood genre movies, contemporary blockbusters, short novelty films, independent narratives, animations, industrial films, documentaries, avant-garde and experimental artworks. Creative assignments challenge students to explore the expressive potential of the immersive frame, while developing new and experimental approaches to shooting and editing 3D images. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement. 

Class size: 12

 

12382

FILM 358      Auteur Studies

Richard Suchenski             Screening:

W        1:30 pm-4:30 pm T         Begins at  7:00 pm

AVERY 110

AA

AART

 In this seminar, we will undertake a comparative study of major directors, with the focus and theme changing each time the course is offered. This time, the primary subject is filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, whose rich body of work has become a paradigm for international art cinema. Among other things, we will examine Tarkovsky’s cultural inheritance, relationship to Russian and Soviet history, and influence on subsequent generations, with a special focus on film style, film sound, time, and the cinematic adaptation of painting and poetry. In addition to studying all of Tarkovsky’s features, we will watch films by directors such as Ingmar Bergman, Luis Buñuel, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Alexander Dovzhenko, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Mikhail Kalotozov, Larisa Shepitko, Alexander Sokurov, and Andrey Zvyagintsev. We will read a range of relevant criticism and primary documents, along with contextual material and literary works by figures such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Stanisław Lem, and Alexander Pushkin. Grades based on in-class discussion, short writing assignments, and a final research essay. Upper-college students who have taken courses in film criticism and history will have priority.

Class size: 12

 

12385

FILM 362      Movement/Activating Character

Jean Churchill A. Sayeeda Moreno

W       1:30 pm-4:30 pm

FISH NUREYEV ST FISH CONFERENCE

PA

Cross-listed: Dance

 With movement as the catalyst, this screenwriting workshop will incite memory, activate character development, and clarify story and plot through visual storytelling and found identities. Building community and a structural cadence within the class, and making space for verbal and non-verbal communication, embedding a strong, foundational physical language. The class will culminate in poetic strategies and writing assignments forming the bedrock for vigorous analysis as students develop and workshop a short screenplay. This course will require extensive outside research. Students are responsible for committing to a rigorous writing and rewriting process. No prior dance experience necessary. Interested students should email churchil@bard.edu and asmoreno@bard.edu one paragraph (no more than 100 words) explaining your interest in taking this course and highlight if they have any screenwriting experience.

Class size: 12

 

12378

FILM 405      Senior Seminar

Ben Coonley

T         5:00 pm-7:00 pm

AVERY 110 / 217

 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.

Class size: 30