CINE 355: American Cinema

This course offers various ways of surveying American movies from the perspective of the dominant Hollywood model and from its margins. It is designed to allow a variety of topics in American cinema to be taught or the cinema studies minor. Specific course descriptions change based on each iteration o the course. Drawing on the elect range of American voices, this course might focus on a historical moment, a specific group of Americans as filmmakers or audiences, and/or aesthetic questions related to American cinema. It may consider the changing aesthetics of Hollywood films by looking at films made across the complex and shifting production circumstances before, during and after the decline of the studio system; it may look as well to filmmakers working outside of the mainstream to explore how the processes by which American identities are reflected upon and challenged through movies varies according to the perspectives and methods of engagement of those who make movies. Taking into account artistic, cultural, and commercial aspects of American cinema, the course examines any number of its roles as a system of representation and communication.