Outline

Overview

What is the cinematic experience today, in an age of fragmented audiences and multiple platform delivery? Taking the film festival as its central case study, this unit examines the festival as a cultural institution, as a site for the making of film history, and as a scene of the curious mixture of the festive and the cerebral, the sensual and the serious.

Unit details and rules

Unit code	FILM4114
Academic unit	Art History
Credit points	6
Prohibitions ?	None
Prerequisites ?	None
Corequisites ?	None
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator	Richard Smith, r.smith@sydney.edu.au

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length
Presentation	Presentation 1 n/a	20%	Multiple weeks	1500 words
Outcomes assessed:
Presentation	Presentation 2 n/a	20%	Multiple weeks	1500 words
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Research essay n/a	60%	Week 12 Due date: 19 Nov 2020 at 23:59	3000 words
Outcomes assessed:

Assessment summary

Detailed information for each assessment can be found on Canvas.

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a High distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a Distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard.

Result name	Mark range	Description
High distinction	85 - 100
Distinction	75 - 84
Credit	65 - 74
Pass	50 - 64
Fail	0 - 49	When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

For more information see sydney.edu.au/students/guide-to-grades

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

You may only use artificial intelligence and writing assistance tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator, and if you do use them, you must also acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section.

Studiosity is permitted for postgraduate units unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity
Week 01	Introduction	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 02	Phenomenology	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 03	Affect	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 04	Ethics	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 05	Neuroscience	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 06	Cognitive Science	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 07	Evolutionary Biology	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 08	Textual Analysis	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 09	Attentional Analysis	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 10	Cinephilia	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 11	Film Festivals	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 12	Conclusion	Seminar (2 hr)

Attendance and class requirements

Attendance: According to Faculty Board Resolutions, students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences are expected to attend 90% of their classes. If you attend less than 50% of classes, regardless of the reasons, you may be referred to the Examiner’s Board. The Examiner’s Board will decide whether you should pass or fail the unit of study if your attendance falls below this threshold.
Lecture recording: Most lectures (in recording-equipped venues) will be recorded and may be made available to students on the LMS. However, you should not rely on lecture recording to substitute your classroom learning experience.
Preparation: Students should commit to spend approximately three hours’ preparation time (reading, studying, homework, essays, etc.) for every hour of scheduled instruction.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

FILM4114: THE CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE. (Film Studies Honours seminar.)

READINGS.
week 1 introduction to the unit.

PART 1. PHILOSOPHY (wks 2-4)
week 2
1. A) PHENOMENOLOGY.
Sobchack, Vivian. “The Scene of the Screen: Envisioning Photographic, Cinematic and Electronic “Presence”.” 135-162.

SUPPLEMENTARY.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. “Film and the New Psychology.” Sense and Non-Sense. Trans Hubert L. Dreyfus and Patricia Allen Dreyfus. Chicago: Northwestern University Press, 1964.

Stephens, Elizabeth. “Sensation Machine: Film, Phenomenology and the training of the senses.” Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies. 24. 4 (2012): 529 – 539.

Chammaratte, Jenny. “Embodied Worlds and Situated Bodies: Feminism, Phenomenology, Film Theory.” Symposium: Politics of the Sensing Body. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 40 2 (2015): 289 – 295.

week 3

1 B) AFFECT
Rutherford, Anne. “Cinema and embodied Affect.” What Makes a Film Tick? Cinematic affect, Materiality and Mimetic Innervation. Bern Pweter Lang, 2018. 143 – 163.

SUPPLEMENTARY.
Flaxman, Gregory. “Once More with Feeling: Cinema and Cinesthesia.” SubStance. 45. 3 (141), 2016: 174-189.

week 4
1 C) ETHICS.
Hadjioannu, Markos. “Tracing and Ethics of the Movie Image.” From Light to Byte: Toward an Ethics of Digital Cinema. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 2012. 177-209.

SUPPLEMENTARY

Gronstadt, Asbjorn.  “The Ethical Turn in Film and Visual Culture: From Content to Form.”  Film and the Ethical Imagination. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.  53 – 73.
Sinnerbrink, Robert.  “Cinematic Ethics: Film as a medium of ethical experience.”  Cinematic Ethics: Exploring Ethical experience through Film.  London: Routledge, 2015.  1 – 22.
Sobchack, Vivian.  “The Passion of the Material: Toward a Phenomenology of Interobjectivity.”  Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture.  Berkley, Los Angeles, London; California UP, 2004. 286 – 318.

PART 2 SCIENCE (wks 5-7)

week 5
2 A) NEUROSCIENCE
Gallese, Vittorio, Christian Keysers, Giacomo Rizzolatti. “A unifying view of the basis of social cognition.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 8. 9 (September 2004): 396 – 404.
Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine. “Movement and mirror neurons: a challenging and choice conversation.” Phenomenology and Cognitive Sciences. 11 (2012): 385 – 401.

SUPPLEMENTARY

Pisters, Patricia. “Synaptic Signals: Time Travelling Through the Brain in the Neuro-Image.” Deleuze Studies. 5. 2 (2011): 261-74.

Herogenrath, Bernd. “cinapses: thinking/film – Film, Philosophy and Neuroscience.” Illuminance. 23. 4 2011: 144-148.

Gallese, Vittorio and Michele Guerra. “Embodying Movies: Embodied Simulation and Film Studies.” Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image. 3. (2012): 183-210.

week 6
2 B) COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Heimann, Katrin et al. “’Cuts in action’: A High-Density EEG Study Investigating the Neural Correlates of Different Editing Techniques in Film.” Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal. 41 (2017): 1555 – 1588.

Shimamura, Arthur P, et al. “How Attention is Driven by Film Edits: A Multimodal Experience.” Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts. 9. 4 (2015): 417 – 422.

SUPPLEMENTARY

Cohen, Anna-Lisa. Et al. “The Power of the Picture: How Narrative Film Captures Attention and Disrupts Goal Pursuit.” PLoS ONE 10. 12 (2015): 1 – 8.

week 7
2 C) EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
Grishakova, Marina and Siim Sorokin. “Notes on narrative, cognition, and cultural evolution.” Sign systems Studies. 44. 4 (2016): 542 – 561.

SUPPLEMENTARY

Grodal, Torben. “Introduction to Part II: The PECMA Flow.” And “Stories for eyes, ears and muscles: The Evolution of Embodied Sensations.” Embodied Visions: Evolution, Emotion, Culture, and Film. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. 145-180.

PART 3: INTERMISSION: THE STUDY OF FILM. wks 8-9
week 8
3 A) TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
Bellour, Raymond. “System of a Fragment (on The Birds).” The Analysis of Film. Ed. Constance Penley. Bloomington, Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 2001. 28-69.

SUPPLEMENTARY
Cahiers editors. “John Ford’s Young Mr Lincoln: A collective text by the Editors of cahiers du Cinema.” Screen. 13. 3 (Autumn 1972): 5-44.

week 9
3 B) ATTENTIONAL ANALYSIS
Cutting, James E, et al “Attention and the Evolution of Hollywood Film.” Psychological Science. 21 (2010): 432-439.

SUPPLEMENTARY
Hasson, Uri. Orit Furman, Dav Clark, et al. “Enhanced Intersubject Correlations during Movie Viewing Correlate with Successful Episodic Encoding.” Neuron. 57 (February 2008): 452-462.

PART 4 CINEPHILIA AND FILM FESTIVALS wks 10 – 12

week 10
4 A) CINEPHILIA

Mulvey Laura. “Some reflections on the Cinephilia Question. Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media. 50 1-2 (Spring-fall 2009): 190-193.

Sontag Susan. “The Decay of Cinema.” New York Times. Feb 25 1996: 60 – 61.

Barthes, Roland. “Leaving the Movie Theatre.” The Rustle of Language. Trans. Richard Howard. Berkley: University of California Press, 1989. 345 – 349.

SUPPLEMENTARY

Willemen, Paul. “Through a Glass Darkly: Cinephilia Reconsidered.” Looks and Frictions: Essays in Cultural Studies and Film Theory. Bloomington, Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 223-57.

Keathley, Christian. “The Cinephiliac Moment.” Cinephilia and History, or the wind in the trees. Indiana University press, 2006:

week 11
4 B) FILM FESTIVALS.

de Valck, Marijke. "Cannes and the Alternative Cinema Network: Bridging the Gap between Cultural Criteria and Business Demands ". In Film Festivals: From European Geopolitics to Global Cinephilia. 85-121. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007.

Wong, Cindy Hing-Yuk. “Festivals as Public spheres.” Film festivals: Culture, People, and Power on the Global Screen. Rutgers University press 2011. 19 – 189.

SUPPLEMENTARY

Wong, Cindy Hing-Yuk. “Publics and Counterpublics: Rethinking Film Festivals as Public Spheres,” 83-99. In Valck, Marijke de, Brendan Kredell, and Skadi Loist. Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Practice. London: Routledge, 2016.

week 12. Conclusion.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. synthesize disparate film concepts from different disciplines and fields of expertise
LO2. analyze, critique and ecaluate different critical and theoretical positions and approaches
LO3. present complex ideas succinctly and coherently.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

'No changes have been made since this unit was last offered'.

Additional information

Work, health and safety

This unit will be taught online

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Work, health and safety

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect

Current students

FILM4114: The Cinematic Experience

Semester 2, 2020 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Work, health and safety

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect