Intro to Film Theory

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

When is the last time you saw a film? “Well, that depends,” you might be thinking, “What do you mean by film?” Film can refer to a strip of celluloid, a sequence of still images projected rapidly to give the illusion of motion, a 90-120 minute motion picture, or a thin layer covering the surface of something. “Introduction to Film Theory” is itself a film in that last sense, because it covers all the ways that these different meanings of film have helped filmmakers, critics, and philosophers explain what motion pictures are, how they work, and what they make us feel. If you want to know why a movie makes you cry, even when you don’t want to cry, film theory is going to tackle that question. If you want to know whether Netflix videos still count as film, it will answer that too (or at least try to). If you want to know what is so special about motion pictures—why we love them, learn from them, and even revile them—then “Introduction to Film Theory” can help. The specific theoretical approaches to film we will study include ontology, phenomenology, semiotics, materialism, critical race theory, feminist and queer theory, and genre theory, among others.