Film and Video Studies

Field Description

In this minor field, the history, theory,and practice of the moving image are examined as are the forms, thematics, and institutional structures specific to the various practices and conceptualizaitons in the other arts and academic disciplines. Students study the impact of the moving image on aesthetics, politics, culture, and identity through historical, theoretical, and practical perspectives.

The historical approach to film and video considers the development of international cinema from the silent era to its transformation in video and its future in digital culture, as well as the relation of the images and narratives of cinema and video to those of fine art, literature, architecture, theatre, electronic art, communication, and mass culture.

The theoretical approach reflects on the conceptions of ontology, identity, race, class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality that are voiced, if not shaped, by cinema and video. Theoretical studies of cinema dialogue with disciplinary discussions in philosophy, psychoanalysis, social and literary theory, visual culture, anthropology, women's studies, and lesbian, bisexual, and gay studies.

The practical approach entails familiarization with the processes of making moving images, from script writing, camera, sound, and lighting to editing, digital transfer, and distribution.

Students who minor in film and video studies must include a faculty member from the field in the Special Committee; complete three courses in film, video or theory approved by the field; and complete a minor "A" exam in the field.

This is a minor field. Application for admission is made only to the major fields. After matriculation, a student may select minor subjects from the major or minor fields.

Contact Information

Website: http://pma.cornell.edu/
Email: dm246@cornell.edu
Phone: 607 254-2757

223 Schwartz Center for Performing Arts

430 College Avenue
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

Subject and Degrees

Concentrations by Subject

Film and Video Studies

  • film and video studies (minor)

Faculty

Anindita Banerjee

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Film and Video Studies: film and video studies
  • Research Interests: Russian and Indian Cinema; relation of film to older and newer media

Jeremy H. Braddock

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
  • Concentrations: Film and Video Studies: film and video studies
  • Research Interests: documentary film; institutional structures of the film industry; authorship and auteurism; modernism

Timothy Colin Campbell

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
  • Concentrations: Film and Video Studies: film and video studies
  • Research Interests: political philosophy and cinema; Italian neo-realism; the American and Italian western; digital media

Sabine Haenni

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Film and Video Studies: film and video studies
  • Research Interests: American film, Film Noir, gender and ethnicity

Ellis Hanson

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Film and Video Studies: film and video studies
  • Research Interests: queer cinema; theory; technology; psychoanalysis

Salah Hassan

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Film and Video Studies: film and video studies
  • Research Interests: African cinema and art

Patricia M. Keller

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
  • Concentrations: Film and Video Studies: film and video studies
  • Research Interests: Spanish cinema; film theory and criticism

Patrizia C. McBride

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
  • Concentrations: Film and Video Studies: film and video studies
  • Research Interests: 18th to 20th century German literature and culture; visual studies; media studies; literary theory

Timothy Conway Murray

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Film and Video Studies: film and video studies
  • Research Interests: American, British, and French cinema; video/digital media; film theory; psychoanalysis; film and performance

Deborah Ann Starr

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
  • Concentrations: Film and Video Studies: film and video studies
  • Research Interests: Egyptian cinema; Arabic literature and film; Israeli literature and film; cosmoplotianism

Geoffrey Carter W Waite

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Film and Video Studies: film and video studies
  • Research Interests: German cinema; visual culture; Marxist theory