FTMFCP: Film: Creative Peaks and Industries

Module code: FTMFCP

Module provider: Film, Theatre and TV; School of Arts and Comm Design

Credits: 20

Level: Postgraduate Masters

When you'll be taught: Semester 1

Module convenor: Professor Lucia Nagib, email: l.nagib@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 27 June 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

‘Film: Creative Peaks and Industries’ looks at film history and geography through a democratic and inclusive approach. Rather than separating arthouse from commercial cinema, it frames film production as a polycentric phenomenon with peaks of creation in different places and periods, which organically responds and interacts with the highs and lows of the film industry worldwide. Instead of establishing primacies and hierarchies, the module identifies common tropes and cross-pollinations beyond national and cultural borders. Focusing on new cinemas and new waves, as well as on booms of production in different places and periods, the module will analyse films from the seven continents, from block busters from the US, India and Nigeria to indigenous landmarks from Australia, Canada and Brazil, demonstrating how they compare and interrelate through the portrayal of shared desires and concerns. 

The aims of this module are: 

• To expose students to the main theories relating to world cinema; 
• To train students on productive ways of understanding cinema, away from centre-periphery binarisms and ethnocentric views of film history and geography; 
• To locate and study common tropes and cross-pollination across a number of film productions and movements from the world’s seven continents, defined as ‘creative peaks’; 
• To develop students’ ability to interrelate art and commerce, industry and experimentalism, independence and corporation interests, so as to deconstruct preconceptions and prejudices; 
• To develop students’ critical and analytical skills in film; 
• To contextualise films within real-world issues, such as migration, climate change, race and gender. 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to: 

1. Demonstrate solid knowledge of different theories of and approaches to film history and geography; 
2. Demonstrate close familiarity with a number of world cinema’s creative peaks and their aesthetic and political contributions; 
3. Demonstrate familiarity with industrial modes of film production, from a variety of cultural backgrounds; 
4. Develop critical skills conducive to career development in the fields of film criticism and industry.
5. Develop critical, analytical and interpretative skills and tools to deal with a variety of films and cultural traditions. The module will enable them to articulate text and context when looking at regional, national and transnational films, both of narrative and non-narrative nature, commercial and experimental style. The module will provide them with an overarching vision of extensive processes of cross-pollination across the history and geography of film. And it will expose them to original and cutting-edge theories in the film research field.  

Module content

The module will start with an overview of world cinema’s creative peaks, contrasted with industrial booms (and occasional busts) worldwide. Weekly topics can include: 

• David Bordwell, André Bazin and the ‘classical-modern’ debate; 
• A polycentric approach to film studies (Lúcia Nagib) and deconstructing Eurocentrism (Ella Shohat & Robert Stam); 
• World Cinema and Feminism (Patricia White); 
• Hollywood and similar phenomena in India, Nigeria, Japan and Turkey. 
• Neorealism and Iranian cinema; 
• Inuit, Brazilian and Australian indigenous cinemas; 
• French and Japanese nouvelle vagues; 
• Chinese Fifth Generation and the ‘Melody Films’; 
• Contemporary peaks and the role of film festivals; 
• Greening the medium. 

This module addresses global issues by definition. Film analyses will include questions of industry, genre, minorities, migration, colonialism and censorship, across a range of cultures, nationalities and periods 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

A range of teaching styles will be used and may vary from week to week. Where appropriate, lectures will be used to establish contexts and introduce issues for discussion and debate. The dominant teaching form will be the seminar, which will concentrate primarily on close analysis of films, including film clips and powerpoint slides, and discussion of critical approaches and contexts. Seminars will require preparation in the form of weekly screenings and specified critical reading. Part of the seminar sessions will be devoted to interaction with students, on the basis of questions proposed by the tutor or brought about by the students, and occasional mini-presentations by students on particular issues addressed in the module may take place on a formative basis. Visits to film studios and other field trips may be included in the teaching method, though they will be formative, rather than summative or compulsory. 

Study hours

At least 20 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 50% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

 External visits and field trips 

Reassessment

Additional costs