Cinema and Digital Media: Film Theory

Prof. Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli

Film Theory — FMS 127

W 10:00-12:50 ARTANX 107

Screenings on Wednesday, 5:10-8:00 PM ART Annex 107

Office Hours: M 11:00-1:00 or by appointment

Office: 150 Everson

Email: ravetto@ucdavis.edu

Head TA: Jacob Hagelberg

Email: hagelberg@ucdavis.edu

Office Hours: Tu 12:00-1:30 or by appointment

Office: 115 Art Annex

Course Description: This seminar provides a survey of contemporary theoretical concepts and movements since the late sixties, engaging some of the key contributions to studies of the moving-image. We examine imaging and sound capture techniques drawing from science studies, film, philosophy and new media. The course as a whole will discuss the transformation of film as an art form and the transformation of the critical thinking about film and other related media. The concentration of the course will be on the presentation of a variety of films that have inspired critical thought or have challenged the existing knowledge about film. This is an intensive writing course, designed to explore different forms of college level writing: from close reading of images, sounds, texts, to critical thinking and research papers. It offers a survey of issues debated in film theory and the history of the moving image. Focuses on the relation between aesthetics and cultural history and analyzes relevant films/media that make creative use of critical thinking. Readings range from Barthes, to Deleuze, and other contemporary scholars.  It begins with various definition of modernity and with it the recorded image and recorded sound, to digital technologies and postmodern.

Course Objectives: To achieve a broad understanding of the theoretical discourse of the image, sound and the moving image.  This course is designed as an in-depth study of the 20^th century thinking about images, icons, sound, language, and criticism about film.