Screen Studies and Popular Culture

This course introduces the study of film and television from critical and technical perspectives. It explores how film and television are made, and industrial, cultural, political, and social factors that influence television and filmmaking, as well as various styles and genres. This course familiarizes students with the vocabulary of screen studies by examining topics such as directing, editing, mise-en-scene, costume, lighting, framing, composition, genre, and various modes of representation. By understanding how film and television work, students can interpret the ways that films, shows, series, and documentaries can inform, entertain, manipulate, or captivate the viewer.

This course is an introduction to adaptation studies: the study of how narrative is reinterpreted from one medium (often text-based) to another (often visual-based). It introduces the specific aesthetics of film and television as compared to other media, including text and stage. Students will identify and develop discourse around key features of adaptation such as interpretation, evaluation, point of view, and characterization. This course also broadens students' understanding of the historical, political, cultural, and social contexts that impact interpretation, and determine how narratives are re-evaluated, manipulated, and redeployed to reflect dominant cultural values across different moments in history. This course introduces aspects of interpretation that are generally overlooked in mainstream film studies by using a range of different media, including novel excerpts, graphic novels, stage plays, video games, film, and TV.

Students from the winter 2022 class produced a short film entitled, The Egg — A Short Story by Andy Weir.

This course examines a range of true crime events as depicted on screen. It explores the ways in which our understandings of real-life crime are habitually filtered through the media in the form of films, TV series, docuseries, podcasts, news and social media. Through various case studies, this course explores the ‘true crime’ phenomenon through a variety of critical frameworks, including the ethics of representation; the legal system; criminal profiling; criminal psychology; historical and contemporary journalism; fan culture; social history and discrimination. By interrogating the complex relationship between true crime and popular culture, students will gain critical insights into the field of true crime.

This course focuses on affinities between printed and cinematic narrative forms, introducing students as well to some of the principles of semiotics, and to the place of film theory within the context of cultural studies more generally.

This course explores the key institutions and issues relating to media and popular culture in Canada. Topics include: film, television, state institutions like the CBC, state regulation of media, and the connections among media, consumerism, and public life.

This course studies films and film makers of the French-speaking world, ranging from screen adaptations of literary works to an exploration of cultural issues, and introduces film theory and aesthetics. This course is taught in French. Written work may be submitted in English.

This course investigates the processes and forms of contemporary popular culture. It introduces students to the major theoretical debates in the field of popular culture and examines the development of popular cultural expression.