Film Studies Major/Minor Requirements

Film & Media at Lawrence combines the critical study of media culture with creative practice in film, video, and new media. Students explore history, theory, and production as deeply integrated facets of a larger project of media literacy and cultural engagement.

In our courses, students develop personal engagement with the art of media-making through hands-on, small-scale artisanal practice, in which each student participates in all key aspects of production. Students work in both analog film and digital media and can explore a wide range of emerging forms including handmade cinema, creative nonfiction, animation, installation, and new media. We encourage experimental and cross-media projects.

Our curriculum also introduces students to the unique properties and histories of cinema and related forms. They become skilled at analyzing the formal, technical, and aesthetic elements of moving images and can contextualize these within a variety of transnational and global contexts, drawing on interpretive frameworks including historiography, genre, film and media theory, political aesthetics, and critical identity studies.

Film & Media prizes interdisciplinary approaches and projects, and our curriculum includes courses held in Lawrence's language and culture departments– French, German, Russian, Spanish, and Chinese & Japanese– as well as in Art, Education, History, Environmental Studies, and the Conservatory of Music. Students can combine an interest in film and media with any discipline in the liberal arts.

Our faculty are committed to centering scholarly and creative works from historically marginalized groups as well as exposing students to global cinematic traditions. We believe in providing all students with radical access to the knowledge, resources, and supportive community required to participate fully as consumers, readers, and producers of media culture.

1. A minimum of 66 units to include:
   1. FIST 114: Introduction to Film & Media Studies
   2. FIST 116: Introduction to Film & Video Production
   3. One of the following film and media studies courses: FIST 210: Cinema Takes Shape, FIST 211: Cinema Takes Over, or FIST 232: Contemporary Film & Media
   4. One of the following film and video production courses: FIST 370: Avant-Doc, FIST 371: Documentary Forms, or FIST 372: Animated Documentary
   5. FIST 402: Contemporary Issues in Film & Media Theory
   6. FIST 592: Methods in Film & Media Studies or FIST 593: Creative Producing
   7. A six-unit senior seminar sequence: FIST 600: Senior Research Seminar I and FIST 601: Senior Research Seminar II or FIST 602: Senior Production Seminar I and FIST 603: Senior Production Seminar II
   8. 24 units of elective courses in film & media, no more than six of which may be a student-initiated course.
2. A Senior Experience that allows students to produce either a research project or creative work. Students must complete either the research or production seminar sequences (FIST 592/600/601 or FIST 593/602/603) as part of this requirement, submit a formal proposal, and present in the senior showcase held annually near the end of Term III.

Students majoring in film & media will complete an ambitious creative media or research project to present in the senior showcase held annually near the end of Term III. This Senior Experience will be at least three terms and include a formal proposal and enrollment in either the production or research seminar sequence. Film & media students, especially those planning to study abroad and double majors interested in designing an interdisciplinary project, are strongly encouraged to discuss their Senior Experience with their advisors as early as possible.

1. A minimum of 42 units to include:
   1. FIST 114: Introduction to Film & Media Studies
   2. FIST 116: Introduction to Film & Video Production
   3. One of the following film and media studies courses: FIST 210: Cinema Takes Shape, FIST 211: Cinema Takes Over, or FIST 232: Contemporary Film & Media
   4. One of the following film and video production courses: FIST 370: Avant-Doc, FIST 371: Documentary Forms, or FIST 372: Animated Documentary
   5. FIST 402: Contemporary Issues in Film & Media Theory
   6. 12 units of elective courses in film & media, no more than six of which may be a student-initiated course.