ENG/FS 282: Film as Social Commentary Instructor: Dinah Holtzman Office Hours: dinah.holtzman@rochester.edu ET 605 CRN 37562 M 10:30-12:30 PM MW 9:35-10:25 and by appointment ET 412 Screenings: M 7:00-9:30 ET 412 Course Description Since the invention and popularization of motion pictures, critics and audiences alike have considered film a medium meant primarily for entertainment and occasionally for educational or rhetorical purposes. Beyond the realm of academia, scholarly film criticism, cinephilia, and fan communities we seldom seek to analyze movies the way we might examine a work of literature or fine art. However, along with myriad other forms of audio-visual media such as television, streaming online video, podcasts, and social networking sites, our experiences with film shape our beliefs and moral/ethical codes as well as how we perceive ourselves, others, culture/s, and society in general. “Film as Social Commentary” will present concepts such as film form, aesthetics, and style while also focusing on how cinema involves interactions between specific audiences and larger social structures. We will view a number of American films made between the early 1990s to the present day as historical artifacts that both represent and respond to several key socio- cultural political themes that have arisen over the course of the last two decades. Each themed unit of the course will take place over two weekly course sessions during which we will watch two thematically related films. You will notice as you look over the syllabus that there are two types of readings assigned to you each week. The first set of readings relate to the films we will be screening in class. These essays are available via hyperlink on the electronic copy of the syllabus posted on Angel. The other set of assigned readings are from the textbooks required for this course. These essays deal with general film studies concepts and provide instruction on how to write about and view films critically with an eye to both form and content. Required Text: -The Film Experience: An Introduction, Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White (Eds.). -A Short Guide to Writing About Film, Timothy Corrigan. 1