With midterms over and finals looming, it is already program-planning time for Columbia students. Both film fanatics and casual movie lovers alike will have a lot to choose from in the Columbia and Barnard film department.
Aside from the usual introductory classes on American, world, and silent cinema, the department routinely presents classes on specific directors with signature styles. This semester, Annette Insdorf, director of Columbia’s undergraduate film studies program, will offer a class on director and screenwriter Philip Kaufman.
“I consider Philip Kaufman to be the most underrated American filmmaker today,” Insdorf said. “My experience teaching his work, especially ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ and ‘The Right Stuff,’ has confirmed that students are not only impressed upon discovering his work, but grapple well with his profound thematic concerns and rich cinematic style.”
In addition, the recurring Topics in World Cinema class will focus on Africa and the Arab world. “The class spends four weeks on Egyptian cinema, four weeks on other Arab cinemas, and six weeks on sub-Saharan African cinema,” said professor Richard Pena, who will teach the class. “Films I’m sure to include are ‘Cairo Station’ by Youssef Chahine, ‘Omar Gatlato’ by Merzak Allouache and ‘The Wind’ by Souleymane Cisse.”
Even Columbians not planning to major in film have plenty of options to gain a cinematic education.
“There are also interesting classes to take within other academic departments,” said professor Marie Regan, who is teaching screenwriting at Barnard next semester. “You can, for example, cross register in the East Asia department and take a cinema class.”
This spring, the East Asian Studies department features a seminar on Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa focusing on his black and white films made between 1943 and 1965, while the French department offers a course concentrating on French cinema from its beginnings to the 1970s. Students will not only study the works of New Wave directors like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, but also the films of their predecessors, the poetic realists Jean Renoir and Jean Vigo.
Outside of the language departments, the English department features a course on film noir taught by professor Ann Douglas. Barnard’s English department offers students the chance to freshen up on their Coppola and Scorsese with Mafia Movies: From Sicily to the Sopranos, while the women’s studies department offers an in-depth look at cinematic feminist theory with its class Women and Film.
No matter what classes Columbians take next semester, Regan affirmed that the film department will continue to offer a diverse selection of courses. “There are always exciting film classes that all students can take.”
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