Film and Media Courses

Fall 2026 Courses

FMST-1100: Gateway to Film and Media Studies (Benson-Allott)
In our Gateway to the program, students encounter film theory and media history. You will learn the basics of what it means to be a Film and Media scholar and how Film and Media has shaped our society across history. Readings and screenings will complement creative assignments in ARTS 1181 (Intro to Filmmaking) while written work will given students a chance to reflect on their experience as readers and spectators.

FMST-1181: Introduction to Filmmaking (Bruno)
Intro to Filmmaking is designed to develop both technical and artistic skills using Mac computers as a creative tool to create short movies. In every class you will be introduced to new ideas and technical issues. These ideas will be developed in assignments and class critiques.

FMST-3200: Digital Post-Production & Editing (Bruno)
This course introduces students to the techniques and workflows of non-linear digital film editing and post-production. Through class exercises and assignments, students will gain practical experience editing video and audio and performing color correction using the Adobe Creative Suite. Students will participate in regular class screenings of past student and professional work as well as critiques of their own projects and those of their peers.

FMST-3350: Film Festival Studies (Sitney)
Through an immersive learning experience, students will have the opportunity to gain direct, hand-on experience organizing the annual Georgetown Student Film Festival. The former director of AFI DOCS (formerly Silverdocs) and the Newport International Film Festival will lead them through every logistical and theoretical aspect of what it takes to envision, prepare, and execute an ambitious festival event, including areas of focus such as programming, production, and marketing. Additionally, the course will contextualize our own practice through the exploration of the phenomena of film festivals, including their historical and cultural significance, distinct programmatic identities, and their relationships to an ever-evolving film industry and to particular film themes and genres. From its origins in Venice in 1932 where nine nations presented twenty-five feature films against a climate of geopolitical disputes, to the recent proliferation of specialized and thematic festivals world wide (independent, documentary, experimental, shorts, human rights, queer), this course will look at how festivals do more than just exhibit films, but also serve as important market places and sometimes even the springboard for new artistic and/or political climates in world cinema. Industry experts and leading filmmakers will periodically visit the class, and in addition to our own creation of a film festival, there will be opportunities to integrate and support established film festivals in the DC region for additional learning.

FMST-3355: Documentary Film: History & Theory (Sitney)
This course surveys the history of documentary film (technological, stylistic, thematic, etc.), while taking up the theoretical debates around cinematic claims to truth and representations of reality. Students will examine how the documentary genre differs from other kinds of filmmaking, how documentaries make ‘truth claims’, and how these claims influence the ways in which these films are received and circulated. Beginning with the actualities of the Lumière Brothers, students will be exposed to multiple genres (e.g. ethnographic, cinéma vérité, experimental, self-reflexive) and filmmakers (e.g. Robert Flaherty, Frederick Wiseman, Albert Maysles, Errol Morris) while addressing the variety of arenas (e.g. scientific, civic, commercial) in which documentary has appeared.

FMST-4970: Capstone I Film and Media Studies (Sitney)
In the Capstone course, senior FMST students will engage with key ideas and texts in Film and Media Studies through close critical reading and creative theorizing. Together, we will revisit aspects of your learning in the Gateway course and Introduction to Filmmaking, retracing your intellectual genealogies, identifying and returning to questions and approaches that have been important to you. You will develop signature, culminating projects in workshop formats, regularly pitching ideas, providing and receiving feedback, and refining and developing your ideas. By the end of the fall term, you will have engaged important critical questions in Film and Media Studies, connected questions and learning from your FMST curriculum, developed proposals for final projects, and planned effectively to carry out your capstone work during the spring semester. Your learning in FMST-4970 will continue in FMST-4971 in the spring and will conclude with your final presentation of and reflection on your capstone work.

Spring 2026 Courses

FMST-2215: Italian Americans on Screen (Orsitto)
This course surveys the representation of Italian Americans in films and TV series from the silent era to the present. During the first half of the semester students will be exploring the use of stereotypes and film genres commonly used to depict Italian Americans, During the second half of the semester, students will focus on the Italian American experience at large, analyzing films that deal with a wide variety of topics (from domesticity, family, and food to emigration). This course will help students reflect upon the concept of Italian Americanness, and question the very existence of Italian American cinema. Indeed, during the semester, students will appreciate how Italian Americans progressively moved from being represented by others, to finally acquiring their own authorial voice. Nonetheless, this voice will be problematized, along with the ever-recurrence of stereotypes and labels that continue to plague the Italian American identity and community. Offered at the Villa Le Balze.

FMST-2281: Intermediate Filmmaking (Bruno)
In this course, students will continue to work on the fundamentals of filmmaking with an emphasis on directing and screenwriting in the short, fiction format. Some of the goals of the course will be to further develop general production skills and hone students’ critical eye towards film narrative. Classes include workshops and lectures along with screenings and discussions of seminal film works. Students will create short film projects from idea to end product through individual and collaborative exercises and critique of their works-in-progress.

FMST-3100: International Horror of Cinema (Benson-Allott)
Many scholars, filmmakers, and skeptics have asked why people want their movies to scare them, which is an interesting but perhaps unanswerable question. This course accepts the enduring popularity of horror movies and asks instead what horror is and how movies horrify us. We often think of horror as a genre, but what is the effect—or field of sensation—that this genre names? What do we feel while watching horror movies, and how do different film traditions seek to elicit those responses in us? To answer such questions, we will examine some of the most effective scary movies from around the world, studying the history of film technology and film theory to unpack the various mechanical and cultural components that contribute to horror in films.

FMST-3349: CURE: Reframing Doc Impact (Sitney)
This is a designated CAS CURE (Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience) class. Reframing Impact: Documentary, Change, and the Impact Imperative explores how the idea of “impact” has reshaped the documentary world—transforming approaches to filmmaking, funding, and audience engagement since An Inconvenient Truth (2006). Students will conduct original research and interviews with filmmakers, funders, and impact producers to examine how “impact” is defined, achieved, and debated. The course also interrogates how the pressure to demonstrate measurable change can affect artistic freedom and creative vision. It culminates in a collaborative project designing a new Impact Lab for the DC/DOX Documentary Festival, connecting student scholarship to real-world efforts that use film as a catalyst for reflection, advocacy, and democratic dialogue.

FMST-3399: Social Justice Documentary (Cook)
Students in Social Justice Documentary will work in small teams to produce short documentary videos about social justice issues as related to the work of Washington, DC-based Community Organizations. At the end of the course students should be able to define, summarize, and interpret documentary theories; have a working knowledge of pre-production, production, and post-production processes that are part of making a documentary video; and be able to formulate and demonstrate ways through which documentary video can be used to meet social justice ends. In addition, students will have gained experience in working as members of video production team—as successful video production heavily depends on cooperation, collaboration, and respect among team members. This is a 4-credit course and will require substantial time outside of scheduled class meetings. This course will include hands-on workshops on camera, lighting, sound, and editing scheduled in additional to regular course meetings.

FMST-4971: Capstone II Film and Media Studies (Sitney)
The Capstone is an opportunity for students to explore their own interests in the field of Film and Media Studies. In FMST 4971: Film and Media Studies Capstone, students work individually or on groups to actualize their research. The topic and format of the capstone is chosen by the student in FMST 4970: Capstone Preparation. Projects may take a number of forms (a scholarly essay, a documentary short, an experimental short, a screenplay, audio documentary, or short narrative film, e.t.c.). All projects must be critically engaging and clearly contextualized in the field of Film and Media Studies. Students who undertake a time-based media project must work in a group (of their choosing) no smaller than 2 and no bigger than 4 members. Students who chose to produce written capstones may work individually. Students may choose any topic and form within the field of Film and Media Studies provided that the student has previous experience with the research area and methodology, for example, someone who has not taken any documentary classes may not make a documentary.

Film and Media Courses

Fall 2026 Courses

Spring 2026 Courses

Summer 2026 Courses