1

BA Program Syllabus

ART 322: Great Directors


Instructor: Drew Ayers, Ph.D.
Qtr/Year: Fall 2014
Day & Time: Wednesday, 9:00am-11:50am
Credits: 3 units = 30 classroom hours + 69 hours work outside of class (99 hrs total work)
Office Hours: By appointment
Contact info: dayers@antioch.edu

Course Description:
This course will analyze and discuss classic and current films by international and American
auteurs, and also include cinema history, criticism and aesthetics as extensions of the film
directors' point of view. From Hitchcock to Fellini, this course considers film as the
manifestation of the director's vision and artistic expression.

B.A. Program Core Purposes:
Critical and Creative Thinking are the necessary thought processes of an effective thinker who
uses divergent and convergent thought patterns to arrive at an appropriate conclusion in a given
situation. This objective cultivates students skills in reaching conclusions founded on their
examination of a variety of authorities within and across various disciplines and with engaging in
innovation and risk taking.
Effective Communication is the co-creation of meaning focusing on how people use content to
generate understanding within and across various contexts, cultures, channels, and media. It
always includes a communicator, an audience, a subject, and a situation. Effective
communicators create a purposeful message designed to increase knowledge, to foster
understanding, or to promote change in the listeners attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors.
Global and Intercultural Awareness is a collection of skills that promote effective interaction
in a variety of cultural contexts. Global awareness is an understanding of the interconnections
between nations, socio-cultural groups, individuals, and the elements that influence them.
Intercultural awareness is knowledge of and sensitivity to diversity in all its forms, and a variety
of factors that shape culture including worldview, communication, cultural rules, and personal
biases.
Holistic Personal Development is the multifaceted process of becoming self-actualized. It
involves all aspects of the selfincluding the physical, mental, emotional and spiritualand
includes taking personal responsibility for ones own learning and development through a
process of assessment, reflection, and action.
Competence for Professional Pursuits is an understanding and a disposition that a student
builds across the curriculum and co-curriculum, from making simple connections among ideas
and experiences to synthesizing and transferring learning to new, complex situations beyond the
classroom into a professional field. Students explore the central knowledge, skills, and
2
professional conduct of their chosen field or profession to prepare for engagement in meaningful
and socially responsible work.
Praxis for Social Justice combines learning and doing for the purpose of encouraging critical
consciousness, ethical reasoning, and socially responsible behavior through civic engagement.
This objective advances critical awareness of the social, economic, political, and environmental
justice issues that demarcate the terrain of power, oppression, and resistance. Praxis for social
justice includes developing the commitment, skills, and knowledge necessary to contribute to the
on-going work for justice through activism and engagement that embraces local and global
communities.

Required Reading:
All course readings can be found on Sakai.

Required Screening:
Each week, students are required to watch one film as indicated in the weekly schedule. The
films are available on Hulu and/or Netflix, and I would suggest signing up for both services for
the duration of the course. Alternately, the films may be available via other services, including
libraries, iTunes, and Amazon.

Learning Objectives:
By the completion of this course, students will be able to
1. Articulate the key terms, concepts, and debates within auteur theory and its critics
(Truffaut, Sarris, Wollen, Barthes).
2. Demonstrate understanding of the relationship between an individual film directors work
and the historical, cultural, and industrial context in which s/he worked/works.
3. Conduct research and analysis specific to cinema studies, in particular, that related to
auteur theory.
4. Collaborate with peers to present film research and analysis to the class.
5. Demonstrate familiarity with both the techniques of film analysis and the skills of critical
reading through in-class discussion.

Assessment:
The students achievement of the above learning objectives will be assessed using the following
assignments:
1. Weekly forum posts (20%)
a. In a paragraph or two, each student will submit insights/comments/observations
about the film and readings that lead to discussion questions. Students are
encouraged to draw connections both between the film and the readings and
between the topics/films/readings of the current week and those of previous
weeks.
2. Group presentation and response paper (20%)
a. In groups of 2-3, students will present material and lead the discussion of one
class session.
b. For each presentation, students will view one other film by the director of the
week, noting similarities and differences between that film and the film assigned
for the week. The goal here is to discover (or not) auteur tendencies in the
films. It would also be helpful to provide some general historical and industrial
context for the director and the films.
3
c. As part of the presentation, students should prepare clips and discussion questions
for the class. The goal here is to familiarize the rest of the class with a film they
may have not seen previously.
d. Along with the presentation, each student in the group must also complete a 2-3
page response paper that places the two films in dialog both with each other and
with the class readings. What links the films (style, narrative, theme, etc.)? In
what ways are the films different? How does auteur theory help us understand the
films? Where does auteur theory fall short? (i.e., account for historical and
economic forces)
e. Each student should also send me a short email that states what you contributed to
the presentation and what the other group members contributed. This email will
be confidential, and it will not be shared with the other group members.
3. Progressive research paper project (40%)
a. For this paper, students will choose a director and conduct a 5-7 page auteur
study.
i. I encourage you to consider directors of various nationalities, historical
periods, ethnicities, and genders.
b. For the study, select and view at least 3 films from the director and write a
research paper that uses auteur theory (and critiques of the theory) to discuss the
similarities and difference between the films. You should also account for
historical, industrial, and cultural context in your paper.
c. 3 academic sources are required.
d. This progressive assignment consists of 3 parts:
i. Proposal
1. The proposal consists of a title, thesis statement, and brief
outline/summary of your paper.
2. Due Date: October 29
ii. Rough draft and peer review
1. The rough draft is due on November 26, and you should both
submit the draft online and email it to your peer review partner.
2. Each student will read and comment on a classmates paper. These
comments should be returned by December 3.
iii. Final version
1. Due Date: Sunday, December 14 @ 5:00pm
4. Participation (20%)
a. Participation is required during each class session, and students should engage
with the weekly readings and screenings

Weekly Schedule
All work must be submitted by the beginning of class9:00amon the day for which it is due.
Work will be commented on and returned to students within one week of the due date. All work
should be submitted electronically through Sakai.

Week/
Date
Topic
Readings/Screenings
(completed prior to class)
Assignments Due
Week 1
Oct. 8
Introductions
Why Study Film?
Writing about Film
Early Directors
Smith, Its Just a Movie
Corrigan, Writing about the
Movies
Goscsik & Barsam, Kinds of
Film Papers

4
Week 2
Oct. 15
Charlie Chaplin and
the Early Studio
System
Stam, The Cult of the Auteur
and The Americanization of
Auteur Theory
Thompson & Bordwell, The
Hollywood Studio System,
1930-1945
Mast and Kawin, Charlie and
Late Chaplin
City Lights (1931, 87 min)
[Hulu]
Forum Post #1
Week 3
Oct. 22
Fritz Lang and German
Cinema of the 1930s
Truffaut, A Certain Tendency
of the French Cinema
Sarris, Notes on the Auteur
Theory in 1962
Mast and Kawin, The German
Golden Age
M (1931, 100 min) [Hulu]
Forum Post #2
Week 4
Oct. 29
John Ford and the
Classical
Hollywood Studio
System
Wollen, The Auteur Theory
Bernstein, The Classical
Hollywood Western Par
Excellence
Stagecoach (1939, 96 min)
[Hulu]
Forum Post #3
Final Paper Proposal
Week 5
Nov. 5
Douglas Sirk and the
Classical
Hollywood Studio
System
Barthes, The Death of the
Author
Sarris, The Auteur Theory
Revisited
Rentschler, Douglas Sirk
Revisited
Imitation of Life (1959, 124
min) [Netflix]
Forum Post #4
Week 6
Nov. 12
Agns Varda and the
French New Wave
Vertov, Film Directors: A
Revolution
Thompson & Bordwell,
France: New Wave and
New Cinema
Conway, A New Wave of
Spectators
Clo from 5 to 7 (1962, 90 min)
[Hulu]
Forum Post #5
Week 7
Nov. 19
Mike Nichols and New
Hollywood Cinema
King, New Hollywood,
Version I
The Graduate (1967, 105 min)
[Netflix]
Forum Post #6
Week 8
Nov. 26
Thanksgiving Week
No Class

Rough Draft (Submit on
Sakai and email to peer
review partner)
Week 9
Dec. 3
Krzysztof Kie!lowski
and European Art
Cinema
Haltof, The Double Life of
Kie!lowski
Kie!lowski, Pure Emotions
Forum Post #7
Peer Review
5
The Double Life of Vronique
(1991, 98 min) [Hulu]
Week 10
Dec. 10
John Singleton and the
Hollywood Indie
Zavattini, Some Ideas on the
Cinema
Diawara, Black American
Cinema
Boyz n the Hood (1991, 112
min) [Netflix]
Forum Post #8

Absence Policy:
More than two unexcused absences will result in a no credit evaluation. If you are absent, you
will need to make up the work by:
1. Explaining, in writing, the reason for the absence, and
2. Proposing make up work
Accepting the explanation and/or proposed make up work is at the discretion of the instructor.

Academic Integrity Statement:
Plagiarism is the representation of someone else's writing, graphics, research, or ideas as ones
own. Paraphrasing an authors ideas or quoting even limited portions of the work of others
without proper citation are considered plagiarism. Extreme forms of plagiarism include
submitting a paper written by another person or from a commercial source, or turning in a paper
comprising selections from other sources without appropriate acknowledgement of those sources.
Plagiarism is a violation of the principle of intellectual integrity and inquiry and, as such, is taken
seriously when it occurs. If there is any question about the nature of plagiarism, students are
encouraged to meet with their advisors or course instructors for clarification or referral to
resources. Academic integrity is expected of students in all interactions with the university,
including participation in courses and other formal educational activities, interactions and
relationships between students and university personnel, as well as in the use of all university
educational resources. Students are expected to uphold the tenets of academic integrity, and may
not engage in conduct that is in violation of these tenets, which includes plagiarism

Confidentiality Statement:
Classes at Antioch University Santa Barbara are interactive, drawing on the rich experiences of
faculty and student alike. Often in the course of these discussions, information of a personal
nature is shared. It is the expectation of the University that such information will remain
confidential, allowing all to share freely without fear of disclosure outside the classroom.
Breaches of confidentiality damage the building of community and trust.

BA Policy on Incompletes:
Students are encouraged to complete the course on time. In rare circumstances, for justifiable and
documented reasons and when that student has completed at least 75% of the work before the
end of the enrolled quarter, a student may petition to take an incomplete. To do so, the student
must fill out the Incomplete Form and submit it to the instructor for approval. This written
document must contain a list of the work to be completed with a final deadlineboth student
and instructor must sign their agreement to the terms. The completed and signed form must be
turned in to the BA Program no later than the Friday of Week 12. All make-up work must be
submitted to the instructor by the agreed deadline, usually by the end of Week 2 of the following
quarter, or else the incomplete converts to a no credit. Once work is submitted, the instructor
will update the narrative evaluation by no later than the end of the following quarter.

6

IMPORTANT: In Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) review, an Incomplete grade is
counted as attempted but not completed units. If a grade change from an INC to CR occurs
during the following term it does not have a retroactive impact on your Academic Progress status
for the term in which you were awarded the Incomplete. However, the new grade (CR or NC)
will be included in your Cumulative Requirement calculation when the next SAP review takes
place at the end of the following quarter.
For more information please visit: http://aura.antioch.edu/policies_600_1x/9/

Narrative Assessment Statement:
Antioch University Santa Barbara is a non-grading institution and provides a letter grade
equivalent (LGE) only when requested by a student. If you would like a LGE to appear on your
Evaluator Learning Assessment (ELA), in addition to the credit/no credit, you must request one
online by the add/drop deadline using the Letter Grad Equivalent Request Form located here:
https://docs.google.com/a/antioch.edu/forms/d/1lMscQVeY5P8Vb1ETRuXU6qYjs0bvvHv4men
wMbrUbdI/viewform?usp=send_form . Further instructions may be found on the Student Center
site in Sakai. The LGE will not appear on your transcript, even if you request a LGE be assessed
on your ELA. Students may request a LGE formal letter from the Registrars Office. Faculty has
until the last day of the instructional period (Friday of week 12 each quarter) to complete and
submit narrative assessments to the Registrars office.

Reasonable Accommodation for Students with Disabilities:
Antioch University is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified students
with disabilities in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 2008. Students with disabilities may contact the Disability
Support Services office to initiate the process and request accommodations that will enable them
to have an equal opportunity to benefit from and participate in the institution's programs and
services. Students are encouraged to do this as early in the term as possible, since reasonable
accommodations are not retroactive. The Disability Support Services office is available to
address questions regarding reasonable accommodations at any point in the term. For more
information, please contact Donna Mathes, (805) 962-8179, extension 5337, Office #342, email:
dmathes@antioch.edu

Antioch University Policies:
Antioch University is committed to building a vibrant and inclusive educational environment that
promotes learning and the free exchange of ideas. Our academic and learning communities are
based upon the expectation that their members uphold the shared goal of academic excellence
through honesty, integrity, and pride in ones own academic efforts and respectful treatment of
the academic efforts of others. All students are expected to comply with Antioch University
policies, including the Title IX Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence Policy and the Student
Conduct Policy. To access academic, student, and other university policies are available online:
http://aura.antioch.edu/au_policies/