Proposed Curriculum Plan for 2025-26
- Course offerings for the current academic year are subject to change.
- If a specific course is not listed, then the course is not expected to be offered during the current academic year
- Course Topics and Meeting Days and Times can be found in the Schedule of Classes.
- The complete Course Catalog and Course Descriptions can be found in the General Catalog
Fall Quarter:
| Course | Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| FILM 20A | Introduction to Film Studies | Shelley Stamp |
| FILM 20B | Introduction to Television Studies | Yulia Gilichinskaya |
| FILM 80A | The Film Experience | Topiary Landberg |
| FILM 80S-01 | Special Topics in Film and Digital Media: Activist Media1 | Yulia Gilichinskaya |
| FILM 80S-02 | Special Topics in Film and Digital Media: Topic TBA | Logan Walker |
| FILM 132B | International Cinema 1960 to Present | Selmin Kara |
| FILM 136C | Visual Culture and Technology: History of New Media | Chari Smith |
| FILM 150 | Screenwriting | Natasha V |
| FILM 160H | Film Genres: Supernatural/Horror | Martin Rizzo-Martinez |
| FILM 162F | Female Filmmakers | Shelley Stamp |
| FILM 170A | Fundamentals of Digital Media Production | Abram Stern |
| FILM 170B-01 | Fundamentals of Film and Video Production | Quentin Lareau |
| FILM 170B-02 | Fundamentals of Film and Video Production | Quentin Lareau |
| FILM 171A | Sound | Anna Friz |
| FILM 172 | Narrative Video Workshop | Jon Ayon Alonso |
| FILM 179A | Special Topics in Animation: Topic TBA | Joseph Erb |
| FILM 187 | Advanced Topics in Television Studies | Abram Stern |
| FILM 189 | Advanced Topics in Digital and Electronic Media Studies: Machine Visions: AI, Visual Culture, and the Posthuman2 | Edward Shanken |
| FILM 194A | Film Theory Seminar: Deep Focus on Jaws (1975): Film Theory at Its Limits3 | Jennifer Horne |
| FILM 194C | New Media Theory Seminar: Technoshamanism: Digital Art and Healing4 | Edward Shanken |
| FILM 200C | Theory and Praxis of Film and Digital Media 2 | Chari Smith |
| FILM 202 | Pedagogy in Film and Digital Media | Merve Genc Ünsal |
| FILM 222 | Critical Methodologies in Film and Television | Anna Friz |
| FILM 236 | Making… in the Anthropocene | Selmin Kara |
| SOCD 201A | Introduction to Documentary Field Production and Editing | Jon Ayon Alonso |
| SOCD 203 | Documentary Research Methods and Social Science Representation | Martin Rizzo-Martinez |
| SOCD 294A | Production/Analysis/Editing | Irene Gustafson |
Winter Quarter:
| Course | Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| FILM 20C | Introduction to Digital Media | Livia Perez |
| FILM 80H | A History of Animation | Susana Ruiz |
| FILM 80S | Special Topics in Film and Digital Media: Intro to Film Sound | Chari Smith |
| FILM 80V | Video Games as Visual Culture | Soraya Murray |
| FILM 120 | Introduction to Media Theory | Warren Sack |
| FILM 130 | Silent Cinema | Jennifer Horne |
| FILM 134B | American Film, 1960 to Present | Logan Walker |
| FILM 136B | History of Television | L.S. Kim |
| FILM 151 | Film Directing | Staff |
| FILM 165B | Race on Screen | Yiman Wang |
| FILM 170B-01 | Fundamentals of Film and Video Production | Irene Gustafson |
| FILM 170B-02 | Fundamentals of Film and Video Production | Joseph Erb |
| FILM 171C | Special Topics Workshop: Found Footage | Topiary Landberg |
| FILM 174A | Reasonable Doubts: Making an Exoneree Part A5 | Sharon Daniel |
| FILM 175 | Documentary Video Workshop | Quentin Lareau |
| FILM 185S | Advanced Topics in Film Studies: Indigenous Cinema | Martin Rizzo-Martinez |
| FILM 185X | EyeCandy Seminar | Topiary Landberg |
| FILM 194D | Film History Seminar: Film Festivals | Logan Walker |
| FILM 194S | Special Topics Seminar: Korean Cinema | L.S. Kim |
| FILM 196A | Senior Project in Narrative Production | Jon Ayon Alonso |
| FILM 196B | Senior Project in Screenwriting | Natasha V |
| FILM 200B | Theory and Praxis of Film and Digital Media 1 | Warren Sack |
| FILM 221 | Audio Arts and Methods | Lien Do Matthew Pereira |
| FILM 235 | Feminist Media Histories | Shelley Stamp |
| SOCD 200 | Approaches to Social Documentation | Jennifer Horne |
| SOCD 201B | Advanced Documentary Field Production and Editing | Staff |
| SOCD 294B | Production/Analysis/Editing | Irene Lusztig |
Spring Quarter:
| Course | Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| FILM 20A | Introduction to Film Studies | Jennifer Horne |
| FILM 20P | Introduction to Production Technique and Theory | Quentin Lareau |
| FILM 80S | Special Topics in Film and Digital Media: Topic TBA | Martin Rizzo-Martinez |
| FILM 132A | International Cinema to 1960 | Livia Perez |
| FILM 134A | American Film, 1930-1960 | Shelley Stamp |
| FILM 136D | Documentary Film and Video | Topiary Landberg |
| FILM 150 | Screenwriting | Natasha V |
| FILM 160 | Film Genres: Topic TBA | Irene Gustafson |
| FILM 165D | Asian Americans and Media | L.S. Kim |
| FILM 170B-01 | Fundamentals of Film and Video Production | Staff |
| FILM 170B-02 | Fundamentals of Film and Video Production | Staff |
| FILM 171S | Special Topics in Film and Digital Media Production: Topic TBA | Joseph Erb |
| FILM 174B | Reasonable Doubts: Making an Exoneree Part B | Sharon Daniel |
| FILM 179B | Documentary Animation Workshop | John Jota Leaños |
| FILM 185D | Sound and Image in Theory and Criticism | Selmin Kara |
| FILM 194F | Film and Other Arts: Topic TBA | Soraya Murray |
| FILM 194S | Special Topics Seminar: Topic TBA | John Jota Leaños |
| FILM 196A | Senior Project in Narrative Production | Jon Ayon Alonso |
| FILM 196C | Senior Documentary Workshop | Sharon Daniel |
| FILM 197 | Senior Project in Digital Media | Warren Sack |
| FILM 200A | Introduction to Graduate Study | Abram Stern |
| FILM 223 | The Film/Video Essay | Irene Gustafson |
| SOCD 201C | Project Planning for the Social Documentary | Susana Ruiz |
| SOCD 294C | Production/Analysis/Editing | Irene Lusztig |
- FILM 80S-01 COURSE TOPIC: Activist Media
This course is dedicated to theories and practices of activist media from the early twentieth century to the present. Surveying different media forms, we will explore the significance of media in activist practices and social movements. Through an interdisciplinary, intersectional, and transnational lens, we will examine various social movements and the media practices they developed in the service of bringing about social or political change.
↩︎ - FILM 189 COURSE TOPIC: Machine Visions: AI, Visual Culture, and the Posthuman
Can a machine be intelligent? Can a machine make art? What are the relationships between human and machine intelligence and artistry? To what extent do we program machines and to what extent do they program us? In 2003, Lev Manovich claimed that “New media technologies… have become the greatest works of art today.” If, in 2025 AI software programs are the “greatest works of art,” what is the role of human artists? What will be our role in the future? These are some of the central questions that we will investigate in FILM 189: Machine Visions: AI, Visual Culture, and the Posthuman. The course will explore the mythic roots, and enduring dreams of, endowing machines with human qualities, and of the potential of technologies to amplify and extend human life, intelligence, and consciousness. We will examine a variety of theoretical texts, technologies, and monuments of AI in visual culture, including film, video games, and new media artworks. Our goal is to cultivate a high level of literacy to think about and use AI critically. Class meetings will combine lectures, dicussion, and group activities. Coursework will also integrate the use of AI text and image generators. ↩︎ - FILM 194A COURSE TOPIC: Deep Focus on Jaws (1975): Film Theory at Its Limits
It is an understatement to say that Jaws (1975) is, by nearly any measure, one of the most successful American films of all time. This year marks the 50th anniversary of that monster of a summer blockbuster, a whale of a film, and the cinematic ship that launched countless parodies, snatched the title for most instantly identifiable musical theme from Psycho, re-introduced the power of deep focus cinematography, and, due to the legendary fierceness of one hard-to-get-along-with animatronic shark, made behind-the-scenes Hollywood history. Surprisingly, Jaws has been neglected and disregarded in the scholarship of film theorists. It was considered too entertaining, too obvious, too workmanlike, too profitable…too much.
This seminar invites you on a ten-week excursion into the deep theoretical waters of Jaws as a film of cultural, historical, and ecological significance worthy of film & media theory. Beginning with scholarly and popular treatments of the film’s production history, sonic and visual aesthetic elements, and its reception, each member of the seminar will help lay the groundwork for deeper analysis. The second and third sections of the course delve into Jaws as an ideological and philosophically meaningful symbolic relic of the 1970s. In the final section of the course, our conversations will turn to the non-human perspectives animated by undersea photographic perspectives. We will encounter narratives of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal experience alongside the recent marine research that reveals how the film’s cultural impact affected real shark populations and conservation efforts.
↩︎ - FILM 194C COURSE TOPIC: Technoshamanism: Digital Art and Healing
This course defines Technoshamanism as the combination of traditional shamanic technologies with emerging post-industrial technologies based in silicon (dry), biology (wet) and hybrid (moist) media, all in the service of expanding insight and healing. The term technoshamanism has been used to refer to a range of manifestations, including healing modalities and spiritual rituals, rave culture and electronic dance music, various digital arts practices involving installation, performance, and screen-based works, and large festivals, such as Burning Man. Part of our work will be to identify key theories and monuments that demarcate this amorphous, emerging field. This course will address parallels between the technologies of ancient shamanic practices and contemporary new media practices in the realm of visual culture. A primary goal is to define technoshamanism by coming to terms with these fields of praxis, comparing and contrasting their key features, and applying our growing understanding to the critical analysis of works of art, film, and digital culture, as well as to your own creative practices. FILM 194C will be lead as a joint theory/practice seminar. We will begin with some lectures and prescribed foundational readings, then follow the flow of participants’ particular interests, with members identifying research areas, recommending shared readings, and driving discussion. Interim and final projects may be purely theoretical or combine theory and practice. ↩︎ - FILM 174A & 174B COURSE DESCRIPTION: Reasonable Doubts: Making an Exoneree (Part A in Winter 2026, Part B in Spring 2026)
Making an Exoneree is an extraordinary and unprecedented course series in which undergraduate and law students work together across multiple universities to reinvestigate likely wrongful conviction cases. Students will spend two quarters as investigative journalists and documentarians, with a goal of creating a public documentary and social media campaign that makes the case for the innocence of a wrongly convicted person. Applications are required and are due Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 11:59pm. Apply today: https://bit.ly/MAE-Winter2026. Questions? Reach out to FDM Professor Sharon Daniel at sdaniel@ucsc.edu ↩︎