Program Director: Dr. Paul McEwan, Associate Professor of Media and Communication and Film Studies
Professors: Birgel, Cartelli, Coppa, Tafler
Associate Professor: Corbin
Assistant Professor: Bazaz
Film has emerged in the last 100 years as a global phenomenon with broad social, cultural, and commercial implications. National cinematic traditions have developed in virtually every corner of the world, making an understanding of film’s relationship to its conditions of production and reception integral to the work of cultural historians, students of politics and communications, philosophers, and sociologists alike. Thus, film is a vital subject of intellectual inquiry that is useful to a wide range of students, not merely as vocational training for media professionals.
The film studies program at Muhlenberg offers a rigorous interdisciplinary experience that helps students understand both the technical and expressive components of the cinematic medium and gain practical experience in film production within the framework of a liberal arts education. Students will be exposed to many different forms and genres of film, including classic Hollywood cinema, but also documentary, independent, and experimental film along with the rich traditions of world cinema. The production component of the curriculum gives every student the opportunity for hands-on experience in filmmaking and allows motivated students to pursue additional work in screenwriting, acting and directing, and advanced video production. Both film studies and production tracks culminate in a senior experience course.
Film studies is also designed to complement other major and minor programs that students might choose to pursue in art, media and communication, English, music, and theatre arts, among others. The program’s goal is for all students of the discipline to extend the range and quality of their viewing experiences and to become better informed interpreters of the ways in which film both shapes and represents the world around them.
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