This course provides an overview of film theory and its connection to the aesthetics of film for graduate students. The course is designed to provide a foundation in academic film study in the context of contemporary film research.Moving Images is a seminar that will explore contemporary art and film practices, including sculpture, performance, filmmaking, and other mediums and materials through literal and metaphorical explorations of the word ‘moving’. From the earliest zoetropes and kinetoscopes (that explored how to animate still images across a frame) to the visual effects and physicality of grip and camera equipment (think the handheld shaky camera, a dolly shot, fancy or DIY physical rigs and wires) we will explore ways to incorporate all kinds of movement into various materials and types of work. (Can a photograph be installed on a lazy susan? YES! Can a sculpture be displayed or a film screened on a bike ride through the city? PLEASE!) We’ll look at highly choreographed bodies on stage and screen - think Busby Berkeley films, vaudeville, slapstick. We will also do a deep dive into emotionally moving images from the intensely overwrought (weepies, melodramas, camp) to the minimal (mumblecore, transcendental, structural). While this class will be rooted in a cinematic history that will be excavated for multiple approaches beyond the screen, students will be producing work situated in contemporary visual and cinematic art.

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