Film and Society

This course will examine the evolution of American cinema and its relationship to society. The focus of the course is on the history of film and the social, economic and political pressures which have shaped its development. Periods of film history will include such eras as: Early "Silent" Cinema, "Classical" Hollywood of the 1930s/1940s, Post-War American Film, the "New American Cinema" of the 1960s/1970s, Postmodernism, and recent developments in Digital Filmmaking. Special attention will be paid toward important facets of the film industry such as the Auteur-Director, the Star system, as well as examples of important Genres (e.g. Musicals, Westerns, Horror, Detective, Science-Fiction, "Woman's Pictures", Social Problem films, etc).