AMI Studies Courses
Students develop their critical understanding of the history, theory and art form of motion picture and new media technologies. AMI studies courses include introduction to film, documentary film, film history, national cinemas and new media.
List of AMI Studies Courses
Fall 2013
AMI 89S – First Year Seminar: Making Movie Images
Course Description:
Instructor: Kaul Shambhavi.
AMI 101 – Introduction to the Arts of the Moving Image
Course Description: Examination of critical concepts in arts of the moving image from various perspectives. Spanning both traditional cinema and emergent fields. Emphasis on technology in relation to history and viewership. Exercises in film and digital production as well as theoretical writing. Instructor: David Gatten.
AMI 190S – Experimental Interface Design
Course Description: Examination of critical concepts in arts of the moving image from various perspectives. Spanning both traditional cinema and emergent fields. Emphasis on technology in relation to history and viewership. Exercises in film and digital production as well as theoretical writing. Instructor: David Gatten.
AMI 201 – Intro to Film Studies
Course Description: Basic film theory and history of motion picture technology. Introduction to experimental, documentary, and narrative forms of Third World, European, and United States cinemas. Basic film theory and history of motion picture technology. Introduction to experimental, documentary, and narrative forms of Third World, European, and United States cinemas. Economics and aesthetics. Not open to students who have taken Theater Studies 236 or who have taken this course as FVD 130. Instructor: Markos Hadjioannou.
AMI 202 – History of Documentary Film
Course Description: Introduction to the history, theory, and styles of nonfiction film and video. Transformation in technologies and their influence on form, from actuality films to contemporary digital documentaries. Documentary's marginal status and surprising commercial appeal; the mixing of fiction and nonfiction strategies in cultural construction. Use of documentary as a tool for exploring individual identity, filmmaker/subject relationships, and fomenting political change. Instructor: Staff
AMI 206S – Cinema of Conflict
Course Description: Exploration of cinematic representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Examines history and current state of the conflict through visual representations. Focuses on representations of violence: of state violence vs. non-state terrorism. Probes relationship between spectatorship and violence. Instructor: Miriam Cooke, Shai Ginsburg
AMI 210 - Film Genres
Course Description: A historical survey of motion picture genre as a stylistic and narrative device, including comedy, horror, the musical, the western, and science fiction. Instructor: Staff
AMI 246S – Social Movements/Social Media
Course Description: Political and ethical uses of technologies in social uprisings for civil liberties and human rights particularly: Algeria, Palestine, Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Bahrain, Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba, and the global Occupy mobilization. . Comparative analyses of movements. Impact of technologies on social movements. Social transformations of technologies in history. Student driven case studies highlight engagement with technologies as tools of resistance. Instructor: Negar Mottahedeh
AMI 253S – Indian Cinema
Course Description: Sources of vitality in twentieth-century Indian cinema. The resilience of popular cinema in the face of Hollywood. Narrative and non-narrative expressive forms in folk and high culture in India. The work of Guru Dutt, Satyajit Ray, G. Aravindan, and Mani Kaul. Instructor: Ranjana Khanna
AMI 256 – World of Korean Cinema
Course Description: The world of Korean cinema, broadly defined in terms of national, generic, theoretical boundaries, beyond conventional auteur, genre, one-way influence, and national cinema theories. Cinematic texts examined in local, regional, and global contexts and intersections, in conversation with global theories and histories of cinema, visual cultures, and other representational forms. Variable topics informed theoretically and politically by discourses on gender/sexuality, race/ethnicity, global flows of people and cultures, popular and "high" culture crossovers, transnational co-productions, remakes, translations and retellings. No knowledge of Korean language/ culture presumed. Instructor: Nayoung Aimee Kwon
AMI 260 – Anime: Forms and Mutations
Course Description:
Historical origins of Japanese anime, as well as its status as art, narrative, genre. Ways in which anime mutates: formally (literature, manga, live action), culturally (fashion, otaku, fan communities), geographically. No prior knowledge of subject matter or Japanese language required. Instructor: Yoda
AMI 262.01 – Yesterday’s Classics/Today’s Movies
Course Description:
Films on the French classical era, readings of related texts, and film reviews. Analysis of themes/preoccupations from seventeenth century to today. The nature of classicism and its role in shaping of a French mentalite. Instructor: Michele Longino
AMI 263S – Screening the Holocaust
Course Description: Probes representations of the Jewish Holocaust in World Cinema. Explores divergent filmic strategies employed to represent what is commonly deemed as "beyond representation". Focuses on theoretical and philosophical questions that pertains to the representation of horror in general and of the genocide of Jews in particular. Asks whether anything is permissible in representing such an event: Is there an appropriate way, in contradistinction to inappropriate way, to represent the Jewish Holocaust? Instructor: Shai Ginsburg
AMI 270 – Chinese Prostitution
Course Description: Dialectic of prostitution as lived experience, and as socio-cultural metaphor. Focus on literary and cinematic texts, together with relevant theoretical works. The figure of the prostitute will be used to interrogate assumptions about gender identity, commodity value, and national discourse. Transnational traffic in women will provide context for examination of discourses of national identity in China and beyond, together with the fissures at the heart of those same discourses. Instructor: Carlos Rojas
AMI 290S – Topics in Film Studies
Course Description: Seminar version of Arts of the Moving Image 290. Instructor: Staff.
AMI 301S – Moving Image Practice
Course Description: Film and digital video production in conjunction with the history and theory of these technologies. Students may produce work in 8mm, 16mm film and digital video and learn the basics of non-linear digital editing on Final Cut Pro. Instructor: Josh Gibson.
AMI 290S – Special Topics in Film Studies
Course Description: Seminar version of Arts of the Moving Image 290. Instructor: Staff
AMI 321LS – Virtual Form and Space
Course Description: Studio course that explores various applications of virtual environments and specific 3D modeling techniques. Introduction to animation principles. Screenings, discussions, and lab. Instructor: Staff
AMI 336S – Documentary and Policy
Course Description: Examines documentaries as catalysts for change in local, state, and federal laws and regulations, with special attention to relationships between film and organizations with political influence. Looks at how documentaries have altered public sentiment and political outcomes. Uses case studies of documentary films (essay-style, journalistic, information-driven films; narrative, story-driven films; propaganda; art films; and hybrids of all of the above). Instructor: Karen Price.
AMI 340S - Experimental Filmmaking
Course Description: The history of avant-garde in film and video combined with production exercises. Instructor: Staff
AMI 499S – Capstone Course in Arts of the Moving Image
Course Description: Culminating seminar for Arts of the Moving Image Program certificate students. Designed to allow students to complete their certificate with a finished project or advanced research in the field. Instructor: David Gatten.
For other AMI courses, consult our listing in the 2012-13 Undergraduate Bulletin.
