International Film Studies Courses, Spring 2025
*If you find an A&S course that has a significant film component and is not on this list and that you would like to include in your IFS certificate, please contact the program director for approval. nelsjrogers@uky.edu
ENG 180 Great Movies (UK Core Arts & Creativity)
See below for times and instructors.
A course introducing students to films of various genres and styles, from both historical and contemporary filmmakers, investigating a particular issue or theme. Topics vary by semester and are chosen by faculty to give a broad-based understanding of important cinematic works, trends, and the creative processes behind this important, collaborative artform. As with all Arts and Creativity classes, this class will require students to produce an artistic artifact. Intended as a general humanities course for non-majors.
Journeys
001 MWF 8:00 – 8:50. Margaret Clarie Whelan.
002 MWF 9:00 - 9:50. Martin Aagaard Jensen.
Animation
003 MWF 10:00 – 10:50 AM. Robertha Rochelle White Morgan.
004 TR 12:30 – 1:45. Frederick K. Bengtsson.
005 TR 2:00 – 3:15. Frederick K. Bengtsson.
006 TR 11:00 – 12:15. Matthew W. Godbey.
ENG 280 Introduction to Film (UK Core Humanities)
001 Part-of-term course. R 1:30 – 4:00 + asynchronous. Alan M. Nadel.
002 Part-of-term course. T 1:30 – 4:00 + asynchronous. Alan M. Nadel
003 TR 9:30 – 10:45. Frederick K. Bengtsson.
005 TR 2:00 – 3:15. Jordan Robert Brower.
006 MWF 10:00 – 10:50. Kamahra Ewing.
007 MWF 11:00 – 11:50. Kamahra Ewing.
An introduction to the study of films as narrative art and cultural documents. The course involves viewing and analyzing films from different genres and investigating a unified theme or set of topics. Students will learn how to view films closely, how to relate films to their contexts, and how to employ the basic terms and concepts of film analysis. Attention will be paid to student writing, particularly to devising a thesis, crafting an argument, and learning how to use supporting evidence. Viewing films outside of class is required.
ENG 384 Literature and Film
001 MWF 11:00 – 11:50. John A. Duncan.
This course explores the relationship between two creative traditions, literature and film, focusing on film adaptations of literary works for the screen. Subjects can include the adaptation of works by a particular writer such as Shakespeare or Jane Austen, or it may range more widely among the thousands of innovative cinematic reinventions of literary texts, e.g. Richardson's Tom Jones, Altman's Short Cuts. In some semesters the course may focus on a particular topic or genre and its treatment in both literary and cinematic texts, or on a particular moment when cinema and literary writers exerted a strong mutual influence (such as Hollywood in the 1920's). Viewing films outside of class is required.
ITA 335 Topics in Italian Cinema: Those Strangers (UK Core Global Dynamics)
001 TR 12:30 – 1:45. Matteo Benassi.
This course introduces students to representative directors, genres and periods of the Italian cinema with a special focus on its interaction with various world cinemas. Taught in English. May be repeated once up to 6 credits with a different subtitle.
PHI 393: Philosophy of Film (UK Core Arts & Creativity)
001 TR 12:30 – 1:45. Brandon C. Look.
This course will examine the aesthetics of film from the early 20th Century to the present. Instead of using films to discuss philosophical issues, we will discuss the philosophical issues that film as an aesthetic medium raises. The aesthetic-for us, medium of film- is thus understood as irreducible to the traditional division in philosophy between practical philosophy (ethics, political philosophy) and theoretical philosophy (epistemology, metaphysics). The aesthetic brings with it its own set of rules, chief among them is the idea that it's rules cannot be set out in advance of its product. We will thus be discussing art (film) as what generates a new theoretical discourse about it at each turn. The theoretical discourse, however, is in lively conversation with the product it seeks to understand and must change as the object itself evolves. What is more, film products themselves constitute their own proper critique of their own tradition in the sense that, for instance, the depth of field shot followed on from the formal constraints of the montage technique. This course will also have a practical component. Each student will create a short film (on a selected topic) which will then be shown to the class as a whole and subjected to (friendly) critique in class by all as well as in writing by a group of students. The film will then be reworked to address suggestions, reshown again so that others may comment upon it both in writing and in their own films. In this way, students will both be able to make theoretical and practical comments on each other's work.
SPA 371: Latin American Cinema: LA Cinema (UK Core Humanities)
001 002 MWF 12:00 – 12:50. Matthew J. Losada.
An introduction to the analysis and interpretation of cinema in general and Latin American cinema in particular. Open to majors and non-majors. The course will focus on films from the Latin American schools of cinema which will be studied in their social, political, and cultural context and introduce students to basic critical vocabulary. Viewing of films (with English subtitles) outside of class is required. Class lectures in English; sections in English or Spanish depending on the language ability of student. Course cannot be repeated.
WRD 312: Introduction to Documentary (UK Core Arts & Creativity).
001 TR 9:30 – 10:45. Thomas A. Marksbury.
This course is dedicated to critical examination of approaches to the documentary, and the construction of a documentary of one's own. Students will examine different strategies, structures, and topics, with an eye to production.
