| Course Name | Women’s Cinema |
| Code | Semester | Theory (hour/week) | Application/Lab (hour/week) | Local Credits | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDM 217 | Fall/Spring | 3 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Prerequisites | None | |||||
| Course Language | English | |||||
| Course Type | Elective | |||||
| Course Level | First Cycle | |||||
| Mode of Delivery | - | |||||
| Teaching Methods and Techniques of the Course | DiscussionCase StudyLecture / Presentation | |||||
| Course Coordinator | - | |||||
| Course Lecturer(s) | ||||||
| Assistant(s) | - | |||||
| Course Objectives | This course aims to introduce students to the representation of females in the work of female filmmakers, in films that focus on women’s experiences and in those that are shot from women’s point of view. |
| Learning Outcomes | The students who succeeded in this course;
|
| Course Description | This course reviews a series of women’s films in the light of readings on gender and cinema. You are expected to watch one film per week and read the assigned texts before you come to class. We will use class time to expand on the topic and discuss the film. Evaluation will depend on one midterm exam, one final project, and participation. |
| Related Sustainable Development Goals |    |
|
| Core Courses | |
| Major Area Courses | X | |
| Supportive Courses | ||
| Media and Managment Skills Courses | ||
| Transferable Skill Courses |
| Week | Subjects | Required Materials |
| 1 | Introduction Representation of Female Experience https://feministfrequency.com/video/the-bechdel-test-for-women-in-movies/ Tuesday, Ziya Demirel, 2015 (12 min) Vanished into Blue, Abdurrrahman Öner, 2012 (12 min) | The Bechdel test: https://bechdeltest.com Read: http://thehathorlegacy.com/why-film-schools-teach-screenwriters-not-to-pass-the-bechdel-test/ |
| 2 | Gender and Representation | John Berger “Chapter 3” Ways of Seeing. Penguin, 1972. pp. 45-64. John Berger, Episode 2, Ways of Seeing, BBC documentary. 1972. Codes of Gender Lecture 1 & 2, Sut Jhally, Media Education Foundation: https://vimeo.com/83762524 https://vimeo.com/83764949 |
| 3 | Early Women Filmmakers The Cabbage Fairy, Alice Guy Blache, 1896. BFI Anthology: Early Women Filmmakers, 1911-1940 (Selection of Films from the anthology) Dance, Girl, Dance, Dorothy Arzner (1940) | Pamela Hutchinson “Where to begin with early women filmmakers” British Film Institute, 2019. (https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/where-begin-early-women-filmmakers) Alice Guy Blache “Women’s Place in Photoplay Production” The Moving Picture World. Vol.XXI, No.2 (July 1914), p.195. Pamela B. Green, Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché. 2018. Women Film Pioneers Project, Columbia University (https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/) |
| 4 | The Male Gaze Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock, 1954 (112 min) | Laura Mulvey “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” Screen, Volume 16, Issue 3, Autumn 1975, pp. 6–18. Tania Modleski “Chapter 5: The Master’s Dollhouse: Rear Window” in The Women Who Knew Too Much. Hitchcock and Feminist Theory. Taylor and Francis. 1988, pp.72-85. |
| 5 | The Female Gaze The Love Witch, Anna Biller, 2017 (120 min) | Christopher Heron “A Woman Constructing Her World: Anna Biller Interview” The Seventh Art Online. Apr 5, 2017. http://theseventhart.org/anna-biller-interview-the-love-witch/ UCTV Interview with Anna Biller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wjMnxB9xTg |
| 6 | Feminist Gaze Jean Dielmann, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Chantal Akerman, 1975 (3 h 21 min) | Carina Yervasi “Dislocating the domestic in Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman” Sites, Vol. 4:2, pp. 385-398. Marsha Kinder “Reflections on Jeanne Dielman” Film Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Summer, 1977), pp. 2-8. |
| 7 | Sisterhood Thelma and Louise, Ridley Scott (1991) | Sharon Willis “Hardware and Hardbodies, What Do Women Want? A Reading of Thelma and Louise” in Film Theory Goes to the Movies. Cultural Analysis of Contemporary Film. Eds. J. Collins, A. P. Collins, H. Radner. Taylor & Francis, 2012, pp.120-128. Brenda Cooper “‘Chick Flicks’ as Feminist Texts: The Appropriation of the Male Gaze in Thelma & Louise” Women's Studies in Communication. Volume 23, 2000 - Issue 3, pp. 277-306. |
| 8 | Midterm Exam | |
| 9 | Motherhood The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal, 2021 (120 min) | Stiliana Milkova “Mothers, Daughters, Dolls: On Disgust in Elena Ferrante’s La fi glia oscura” Italian Culture, Vol. xxxi No. 2, September 2013, 91-109. Chloe Benson (2022) “An adaptation: The Lost Daughter (2021),” Journal of Bisexuality. 22:3, 459-462. |
| 10 | Race and Gender The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye, 1996 (90 min) Forum: Barbie | Catherine Zimmer “Histories of The Watermelon Woman: Reflexivity between Race and Gender” Camera Obscura 68, Volume 23, Number 2, 41-66. 2008. bell hooks “The oppositional gaze: Black female spectator” Black Looks: Race and Representation. South End Press, 1992, pp. 115-132. |
| 11 | Queer Femininities Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Celine Sciamma. 2019 (119 min) | Albertine Fox “Hearing the Crackles in the Background: Listening and Female Intimacy in Portrait of a Lady on Fire” Screen Queens. 14 April 2020. Alice Blackhurst “The defiant muse” LA Review of Books. 22 December 2019. (https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-defiant-muse/) |
| 12 | Trans-femininities A Fantastic Woman, Sebastian Lelio (2017) Forum: Barbie | Jose Teodoro “A Fantastic Woman” Film Comment, Vol.54, Iss.1 (Jan-Feb 2018), pp.71-72. Penny Miles “A Fantastic Woman highlights Chile’s long battle for LGBTI rights” The Conversation, March 7, 2018. (https://theconversation.com/oscar-for-a-fantastic-woman-highlights-chiles-long-battle-for-lgbti-rights-92956) |
| 13 | Social Class and Gender Tereddüt, Yeşim Ustaoğlu, 2016 (105 min) | Susan Hayward “Class” in Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. Routledge, 2013, pp. 59–64. Zeynep Kurtuluş Korkman “Film Review: Clair obscur/Tereddüt” Journal of Middle East Women's Studies. 14(2). 2018, pp. 230-232. |
| 14 | Final project | |
| 15 | Semester review | |
| 16 | Semester review |
| Course Notes/Textbooks | |
| Suggested Readings/Materials |
| Semester Activities | Number | Weighting |
| Participation | 1 | 20 |
| Laboratory / Application | ||
| Field Work | ||
| Quizzes / Studio Critiques | ||
| Portfolio | ||
| Homework / Assignments | ||
| Presentation / Jury | ||
| Project | 1 | 40 |
| Seminar / Workshop | ||
| Oral Exam | ||
| Midterm | 1 | 40 |
| Final Exam | ||
| Total |
| Weighting of Semester Activities on the Final Grade | 3 | 100 |
| Weighting of End-of-Semester Activities on the Final Grade | ||
| Total |
| Semester Activities | Number | Duration (Hours) | Workload |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course Hours (Including exam week: 16 x total hours) | 16 | 3 | 48 |
| Laboratory / Application Hours (Including exam week: 16 x total hours) | 16 | ||
| Study Hours Out of Class | 13 | 2 | 26 |
| Field Work | |||
| Quizzes / Studio Critiques | |||
| Portfolio | |||
| Homework / Assignments | |||
| Presentation / Jury | |||
| Project | 1 | 23 | |
| Seminar / Workshop | |||
| Oral Exam | |||
| Midterms | 1 | 23 | |
| Final Exams | |||
| Total | 120 |
| # | Program Competencies/Outcomes | * Contribution Level | ||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 1 | To be able to have fundamental knowledge about narrative forms in cinema, digital and interactive media, and the foundational concepts relevant to these forms. | X | ||||
| 2 | To be able to create narratives based on creative and critical thinking skills, by using the forms and tools of expression specific to cinema and digital media arts. | |||||
| 3 | To be able to use the technical equipment and software required for becoming a specialist/expert in cinema and digital media. | |||||
| 4 | To be able to perform skills such as scriptwriting, production planning, use of the camera, sound recording, lighting and editing, at the basic level necessary for pre-production, production and post-production phases of an audio-visual work; and to perform at least one of them at an advanced level. | |||||
| 5 | To be able to discuss how meaning is made in cinema and digital media; how economy, politics and culture affect regimes of representation; and how processes of production, consumption, distribution and meaning-making shape narratives. | |||||
| 6 | To be able to perform the special technical and aesthetic skills at the basic level necessary to create digital media narratives in the fields of interactive film, video installation, experimental cinema and virtual reality. | X | ||||
| 7 | To be able to critically analyze a film or digital media artwork from technical, intellectual and artistic perspectives. | |||||
| 8 | To be able to participate in the production of a film or digital media artwork as a member or leader of a team, following the principles of work safety and norms of ethical behavior. | X | ||||
| 9 | To be able to stay informed about global scientific, social, economic, cultural, political, institutional and industrial developments. | |||||
| 10 | To be able to develop solutions to legal, scientific and professional problems surrounding the field of cinema and digital media. | |||||
| 11 | To be able to use a foreign language to communicate with colleagues and collect data in the field of cinema and digital media. ("European Language Portfolio Global Scale", Level B1). | |||||
| 12 | To be able to use a second foreign language at the medium level. | |||||
| 13 | To be able to connect the knowledge accumulated throughout human history to the field of expertise. | |||||
*1 Lowest, 2 Low, 3 Average, 4 High, 5 Highest
