COLLEGE-LEVEL TEACHING
City College of San Francisco
Cinema Department
CINE 18 American Cinema
An introductory course that examines the history, development, and influence of Hollywood on American culture. The course also covers the evolution of cinematic form in the United States and its influence on international film style.
CINE 20A International Film History (1880s-1930s)
This course examines the international history of cinema from its late 19th century origins to the 1930s. The development of film technology, aesthetics, and genre are covered from 1880s France to the establishment of the Hollywood Studio System. Topics include early film technology, the development of Classic Hollywood style, French Impressionism, German Expressionism, Soviet Montage, early animation, the introduction of sound technology, and the establishment of the Hollywood studio system.
CINE 20B International Film History (1930s-1960s)
This course examines the international history of cinema from the 1930s to the 1960s. The development of film technology, aesthetics, and genre are covered from the 1930s studio systems of England, Japan, and India to the New Waves cinemas of France, Germany, and Eastern Europe in the 1960s. Topics include Socialist Realism, Auteurism, Poetic Realism, and American Cinema in the Postwar Era.
CINE 20C International Film History (1960s-today)
This course examines the international history of cinema from the 1960s to the present. The development of film technology, aesthetics, and genre are covered from the documentary and experimental films of the 1960s to the digital cinema of the current era. Topics include New Hollywood, political cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, continental and subcontinental cinemas post 1970, media conglomerates, and global film culture.
CINE 21 Introduction to Film Studies
An introductory course that addresses the formal analysis of cinema. The course covers filmmaking techniques such as cinematography, editing, mise-en-scène, sound, lighting, acting, and narrative.
CINE 23A Films of Alfred Hitchcock
An auteur study of the films of Alfred Hitchcock as both the "master of suspense" and an artist of anxiety. We will explore Hitchcock's films in terms of their themes, stylistic tendencies and social/historical context. Hitchcock's enduring influence and place in film history is explored in depth.
CINE 23B Focus on Film Noir
Study the enduring appeal and social/political commentary of film noir's dark shadows, corruption, seductive femme fatales, alienated antiheroes, mid-century psychological struggles, and rain-slicked streets, often adapted from pulp novels and hard-boiled crime fiction.
CINE 23C Cult Cinema (developed to support the Cannabis Studies Program)
Study the history and development of cult films and the integral role cannabis and drug culture has and continues to play in their creation, production and reception. Considering the social, cultural and political subversion of films screened; reception and ritual practices of cult audiences; analyze the transgressive nature of midnight movies, questions of taste, film aesthetics, and the influence of cult films and cannabis culture on mainstream cinema and branding.
CINE 40 Film Festival
An overview of the cultural and practical considerations of presenting a public film festival. The class produces, curates and screens the annual City Shorts Student Film Festival. Experience in planning, programming, promotion, fundraising, exhibition and house management.
CINE 170 Film/Video Work Experience
Jobs usually arranged by the student, subject to Cinema Department approval. Job experience at CCSF, such as issuing film equipment, mentoring/tutoring cinema students, crewing or editing sound or picture for a local production company, are within the scope of this learning experience of film/video industry or related projects. One unit of credit is earned for 54 hours of unpaid or paid work.
WGST 10 Women and Film
Feminist film studies. Uses an intersectional lens to analyze women's roles in cinema as filmmakers and actors from its origins to the present.
California College of the Arts
San Francisco, California
Visual Studies and Film Departments
Film Genres & Practices (FILMS 360)
This course provides an introduction to a wide range of cinematic styles, genres, and practices. Each session will provide a historical survey of a particular mode of film practice, tracing the development of indie cinema, experimental film and video, documentary styles, types of art house cinema, and tendencies within mainstream Hollywood narratives. One guiding question throughout the semester will be how contemporary trends can be traced back to their earlier historical roots in global film culture. In addition to our exploration of genres and types of films, we will also discuss both changing and enduring viewing practices, as well as modes of distribution and exhibition. Students will be required to develop and present research or creative projects in which they delve deeper into a topic introduced in our class sessions.
Academy of Art University
San Francisco, California
Liberal Arts and Motion Pictures & Television Departments
Genres in Film (LA 182)
This course introduces students to a variety of film genres, such as drama, comedy, western, science fiction, mystery/suspense, musical and film noir implementing concepts such as reflectionism, social functions of genre, the four cycles of genre and rules and regulations set by the Production Code and later the MPAA. I aim to broaden their understanding of basic elements of each genre beginning with film history and moving into contemporary examples of hybrid-genres that rely on developed familiarity with tropes and elements to fully enjoy contemporary film. Through a number of writing assignments, students explore the similarities and differences between genres such as Melodrama/Horror, Western/Science Fiction.
History of Film 2: Post-War Cinema (1941-1974) (LA 282/MPT 256)
This course explores the major movements in the modern world of cinema from World War II to Vietnam including Neo-realism, the French New Wave, Classical Hollywood, Cinema Vérité and New Hollywood Cinema. We examine the work of John Huston, Vittorio de Sica, Billy Wilder, Akira Kurosawa, François Truffaut, Stanley Kubrick and other directors.
History of Film 3: Contemporary Cinema (1975-Present) (LA 382)
This course explores the major movements in contemporary cinema and the birth of the video/digital revolution from 1975 to the present including: the Hollywood Blockbuster, Sundance Film Festival, Dogme 95, The Political Documentary, and Third World New Wave. We examine the work of Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jane Campion, David Lynch, The Coen Brothers, Lars von Trier, Wong Kar Wai.
Exploring Science Fiction Cinema (LA 386)
This course investigates the history of science fiction cinema beginning with George Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis in the early 20th century through the Golden Era of the 1950s, counter-culture and international efforts in the 1960s, revisionist approaches of the 1970s, big budget 1980s, cyberpunk influenced 1990s and ending with today’s genre-bending special-effects-laden epics. In class we perform close review of scenes and films with detailed discussions about narrative structure and visual style, making students aware of how the use of filmic elements, such as cinematography, mise-en-scène, and editing contribute to the impact of the cinematic experience within the genre.
analog before digital: punk/no wave film & music (LA 408)
This course investigates the film, music and art world cross-over activities that were unique to New York, London, Los Angeles and San Francisco from 1975-1989, as well as influences from the 1950s and 1960s. We screen and discuss the historical background of each film through the filters of the late 1970s-mid 1980s art world, club scene and music with selected readings. A number of short critical writing assignments are paired with an short form essay midterm and a project based final that is reviewed and critiqued by the class.
Art and Ideology of the 20th Century (GLA 602) Graduate
After a brief review of the art of the 19th century and the avant-garde, this course focuses on the artistic movements, styles and world of ideas of the 20th century. Various philosophies, social movements and artists will be considered while exploring what constitutes modernism, art and culture.
Motion Picture Theory and Style (GLA 605/MPT 602) Graduate
This graduate course addresses the formation and evolution of motion picture production and style in the areas of camera, lighting, editing, mise-en-scène, sound, story and performance. The history of cinema is examined with an emphasis on aesthetic developments and the forces behind technical, theoretical and formal innovations that influence contemporary works.
Crossing Borders: Art & Culture in Global Society (GS 606) Graduate
This graduate course explores the historical relationships between the dominant, Euro-American culture and other cultures. Students consider concepts including post-colonialism, transnationalism and globalism, and examine how these factors have shaped the production, circulation and consumption of art. Through presentation of art, film and music the class surveys trans-national influences via museum exhibits to question modes of presentation of European, Asian and non-Western art and artifacts.
European Graduate School
Media & Communication
Saas-Fee, Switzerland
Experimental Cinema, Teaching Assistant to Barbara Hammer (MCF42)
Support for seminar on Experimental Cinema, Personal Documentary and the Essay Film. I presented screenings and led class discussion about Marlon Riggs’ Tongues Untied (1989) and the rise of LGBT, personal/documentary film and New Queer Cinema.
San Francisco Art Institute
Film Department
San Francisco, California
Estranged Cinema: How to Make Film(s) (on) Your Own
A 15-week beginning film production class introducing students excited and passionate about film as a form of expression to the mechanics and how-to of small scale, independent/DIY production, providing them with a background and structure through experimental, narrative and documentary examples from film history. Projects include the production of hand-made film, a haiku super-8 film, graphic editing exercises and in-class demonstrations of hand-processing of super-8 b&w film.
Introduction to Film, Teaching Assistant to Jay Rosenblatt (FM101)
This course is a practical hands-on introduction to filmmaking. Its primary aim is for students to come away with a working knowledge of issues pertaining to filmmaking and moving image language. Emphasis is placed on visual/temporal developments, working with technology and developing an understanding of the basics of film language and grammar. Striving to stretch and expand beyond the ways in which film has traditionally been used in the industry, this class explores various definitions of the medium as artists use it. Assisting in course layout, content and structure, I provided daily technical support and trouble-shooting. I also lectured and provided demonstration and instruction in darkroom safety, hand-processing and hand-made film practices.
Introduction to Film Editing, Teaching Assistant to Jay Rosenblatt (FM204)
This course introduces students to practical skills and conceptual issues connected with the history, techniques and effects of editing, utilizing image, sound and music. Assisting in course layout, content and structure, I lectured on a number of examples of diverse editing approaches for documentary, experimental and narrative films.