AMU2449 - Film histories: From 1895 to the present - 2019

The unit introduces students to key moments in film history from the earliest days of cinema up to the present day. It covers aesthetic, technological and industrial developments, while also exploring the relationship between the cinema and the changing historical contexts of its production, distribution and exhibition. It also examines different types of cinema from across the world, covering a range of filmmaking nations, genres and styles. In discussing the main periods in film history, students will engage with issues of historiography as well as the critical approaches and debates that have shaped understandings of the cinema and its evolving relationships with culture and society.

Upon successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:

1. discuss film form and style across a range of national contexts and in different periods of film history;
2. explain the main developments in the technological evolution of the cinematic apparatus and how this has shaped cinema's aesthetic and institutional agendas;
3. evaluate the key factors in shaping the evolution of cinema as a technology, as a business and as an art;
4. assess the impact of cinema's changing industrial structure on its cinematic output;
5. identify and explain the main ways in which cinema has been shaped by its changing social and political contexts from the late 19th to the early 21st centuries.

Within semester assessment: 100%

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

See also Unit timetable information

Screen studies