2022 – Summer

Film Journalism (Session 1)

Course Number: SS1: JOUR-UA 202.002

Day & Time: Tue/Thu - 4:00-7:00pm

Location: 20 Cooper Sq., Room 655

Instructor: Craigh Barboza

Albert Course Number: 2698

This course is designed for students with a serious interest in writing about movies for print and digital media. A capacity to laugh at deadline pressure—or at quips and witty retorts coming from the back row of the movie theater—is also required. Students collaborate with peers on key projects, pitch into shape stories and come up with ideas for their own articles, reporting on a variety of film topics. Beyond screening contemporary and essential films, students will be asked to engage in close readings of important critical works by François Truffaut, Pauline Kael, Donald Bogle, Molly Haskell, Stephanie Zacharek and Wesley Morris that will deepen their understanding of cinema as an art form. This course equips students with a working knowledge of the film industry they will report on, as well as the ability to identify and describe major movements and pioneering artists. Students attend and cover the 2022 Brooklyn Film Festival. Other planned class trips include the Film Foundation, an organization founded by director Martin Scorsese that is dedicated to protecting and preserving motion picture history. We do topic-inspired lessons, presentations and pop-up workshops on journalism skills and ethics. Guest speakers will offer guidance on reporting techniques, the forces transforming modern film and the purpose of criticism. By the time the course credits roll, students will have raised their cinema I.Q. and completed several publishable, well-sourced articles.