2024/25 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue

COMM5370M International Film Industries

30 creditsClass Size: 48

Module manager: Rafe Clayton
Email: R.M.Clayton@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

Module replaces

COMM5345M International Film Industries: East Asian Cinema

This module is not approved as an Elective

Module summary

This module introduces students to the relationship between ‘international cinema/world cinemas’ and Hollywood. Using a selection of country-specific case-studies, the module draws on the theoretical and empirical literature to examine various film industries, how they work, as well as the opportunities and challenges the process of internationalisation brings.

Objectives

On completion of this module, students should be able to ...
The module aims to provide students with an informed understanding of the history, organisation, and challenges facing film production throughout the world since the rise of Hollywood to a position of global hegemony. Students will gain an understanding of film production as an industry and business on the one hand and as an essential ingredient of national culture and history on the other. The module will enable students to contribute to the ongoing intellectual debates about whether there is such a thing as ‘international cinema’ and whether it can exist beyond or in spite of Hollywood’s ‘hegemony’. The module uses a range of country-specific case studies to explore transnational connections on film and in film industries.

Learning outcomes
On completion of this module, students will have:
- critically engaged with key concepts concerning the film industry as a whole
- interrogated cinema and its internationalisation
- explored and investigated the issues raised by the perceived incompatibility between ‘film as business’ and ‘film as culture’ and the numerous attempts various nations have made at reconciling these tensions
- evaluated competing theoretical explanations of ‘national cinema’, ‘international cinema’ and ‘world cinema’
- critically engaged with the main methodological instruments in film studies and examined their contributions and limitations

Skills outcomes
- design and conduct powerpoint presentations
- discuss key texts of the field in small groups and give oral presentations of the discussion outcome

Syllabus

Topics will include: Approaches to film and film industries; How does Hollywood work? International film industry/World cinemas versus Hollywood; What is national cinema?; Counter cultural flow on Hollywood; Cinema and Politics; Cinema and Cultural Industry; The Auteur and Tradition. Topics will be explored through specific case studies from a range of countries, such as India, China, Ireland, Mexico, Iran and Nigeria.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Film Screenings	11	3.00	33.00
Seminar	11	2.00	22.00
Private study hours			245.00
Total Contact hours			55.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			300.00

Private study

Students are required to prepare for each lecture (est. 12 hours reading per lecture), prepare for film discussion (est. 10 hours) and rehearse for group presentation (est. 20 hours). The remaining private study time should be dedicated researching, preparing and writing the essay.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

The module leader will have regular office hours to meet students without appointment. When necessary, students are also encouraged to make an appointment for further meetings with the module leader. Moreover, the group presentations and seminar discussions each week will provide the module leader with valuable opportunities to observe the progress of individual students and offer feedback on the content and delivery of their presentations. Although group presentations are not assessed, students will need to interact with their classmates outside the classroom. This is an important mechanism for the module leader to informally monitor student progress and to discover potential problem areas before it may be too late.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	1 x 5,500-6,500words	70.00
Literature Review	1 x 2000 - 2,500 words	30.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 30/05/2024 09:20:42

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