The Minor in Film Studies helps prepare students for the challenges associated with negotiating life in a world dominated by images, and by the multiple, sophisticated and complex appeals made by a growing range of increasingly interrelated image-based media. Exposure to film’s history, its aesthetic elements, and its industrial contexts will allow students to develop the fundamental and vital skills to address, critically assess and engage with cinema in its myriad contexts.

The programme will introduce students to a range of perspectives on the study of film, hone critical and analytical skills, and enhance a thoughtful and engaged appreciation of film culture in its historical, industrial, political and socio-cultural contexts. The interdisciplinary nature of the minor offers students the opportunity to interrogate moving images from the varied vantage points of different disciplines, examining film as art, culture and business, and as text, discourse and product.

Students will
(1) Gain insight into the history of film and its key aesthetic practices;
(2) Interrogate the social meanings, functions and uses of film;
(3) Develop their media literacy through film analysis skills; and
(4) Cultivate an informed, critical approach towards the role of images in our society.