Greetings! A reminder to please complete your Fall Course Evaluations by the deadline tomorrow, Wednesday, December 20th. Here are the links to log in via computer or via smartphone.
Questions about the Final Exam?
Please post any questions about the final exam as a comment below—and please post any answers you have to your classmates’ questions, as well! (Of course, you can always email me, but I encourage you to use the blog so that others who may share your question can see the reply…)
Reminder: Final Papers Due in Class Tomorrow (12/8)
Just a reminder that hard copies of your final papers are due in class tomorrow. Please also be sure to include the completed peer review sheet you received from your partner along with your paper. (If you did not receive a review for any reason, please use the worksheet to self-assess your own work, and include that.) Feel free to be in touch with any last-minute questions, or to post them as comments below.
Submitting and Peer-Reviewing Drafts
You can find instructions for submitting and peer-reviewing the research paper drafts in my email. But just as a reminder, the drafts should be submitted to the “Files” page of our site. Because it looks a little different than the blog, I’m including the screenshot below for guidance:
Make-Up Assignments
As promised, here are the details about the make-up assignments you can do during the Thanksgiving break (or any time before the end of classes). Each counts as a one-pager. You can do both of these assignments, but can’t get credit for doing more than one of each. Please read the instructions carefully:
1. Movie (Theater) Ethnography: Watch a film, and write a short blog post (around 200-300 words) describing the exhibition and viewing experience; the goal is to provide a historical “snapshot” of film-going circa 2017. Some questions you should address in your post (not all may apply). Where did you see the film? (At a theater, in a classroom, at home, etc?) What technology was involved? What did you eat and/or drink? What other activities, if any, were you doing as you watched? If you went to a theater, how much did the ticket cost, and did you have to purchase it ahead of time? What were the seats like, and how did your fellow viewers behave? To receive credit, you must select the “movie theater ethnography” category and add relevant tags.
2. Home Screening: Write a short blog post (approximately 200-300 words) in which you analyze a film you watch outside of class in light of the historical questions and concerns we’ve raised this semester. (For instance, you could think about it in relation to any of the movements, trends, films, or filmmakers we’ve talked or read about, or consider its relevance to specific historical events.) The goal is to “historicize” your viewing experience, and situate the film you’ve watch in a broader context. To receive credit, you must select the “mome screening” category and add relevant tags.
Women in/and Hollywood: Jane Campion and Julie Dash
Jane Campion accepting the Oscar for best original screenplay at the 1994 Academy Awards…
…along with victory speeches by Anna Paquin (for best supporting actress) and Holly Hunter (for best actress).
An Interview with Julie Dash, on working as a female director in a male-dominated industry:
Final Papers: Comments on Proposals & Updates
First, a quick note to say that I have commented on everyone’s proposals (which can be found on the “Paper Proposal” page of the blog; if yours wasn’t appearing there before, it should be now.) Take a look at my suggestions, and feel free to follow up in the comments with any follow-up questions. And please do take a look at your classmates’ projects, if you haven’t; a number of you have some overlap between your topics, so it would be particularly useful to share resources and feedback.
Second, an update about the timeline: Instead of completing a draft by tomorrow, 11/21, I am going to ask you to circulate drafts for electronic peer review by a week from tomorrow, Tuesday, 11/28. Keep in mind these are drafts, which means they’ll necessarily be works in progress, rather than polished final products! That said, you should have at least 3 pages drafted by the 28th, along with a working bibliography. I’ll provide you with more detailed instructions and a checklist you can use to assess your own and a peer’s work, which will help ensure you’re moving toward completing a final version by the due date, December 8th.
Finally, instructions about the extra-credit and make-up assignment to come shortly; stay tuned! And see you tomorrow, on Tuesday aka “CUNY Friday,” for our discussion of two major female filmmakers: Jane Campion and Julie Dash.
Instructions for Making Timelines
In class today I’ll be walking through the instructions for using the digital tool Timeline JS. In the meantime, here’s a link to my sample timeline (purely for illustration purposes!)
Iranian New Wave
Clips from Jafar Panahi’s This is Not a Film (2011) and Abbas Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us (1999).
Research Papers: Some Guidelines and Resources
A reminder that you should post a short, 1-paragraph proposal describing the focus of your final research paper by the end of the day. If you’re feeling stuck: Feel free to say so, and to use your paragraph to describe a general topic area that you’d like to refine and develop. The purpose of posting these ideas “in public” is to allow you to receive feedback from me and your classmates at a very early stage in your writing and research process—the kind of input scholars always seek out.
I’m also including some very general guidelines (below) to help you move from broad topic areas toward more narrowly defined and researchable questions. Because this is only a 6-7 page paper, it is especially important that you think about how you will constrain your topic so that it’s not “too big,” and to consider how you will organize your essay (so, for instance, think about whether you will work with one main film/case study or several examples). Finally, you’ll want to make sure you think about how your essay will add to existing scholarship on the topic—so do some preliminary research to see what’s been written, and what particular angle or fresh perspective you can bring to the subject. Use the “resources for writing” links on the right-hand side of the blog, or even Google Scholar, to get started.
Resource: From Topics into Questions
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