FMS8364 - Global Film Cultures and Practices II

• Offered for Year: 2025/26

• Module Leader(s): Dr Dunja Fehimovic and Dr Fernando Beleza Pinto

• Owning School: School of Modern Languages
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

• Capacity limit: 999 student places

Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Aims

The module is designed to work as the second part of a postgraduate-level foundation for students without any training in film studies as well as for those with a first degree in it or a related discipline. It introduces students to further key aspects of film history, theory, and methodologies, as well as key skills required to study film, via case studies of global film cultures and practices that reflect the wealth of expertise from across the HaSS Faculty.

Outline Of Syllabus

Selected case studies of film cultures and practices from around the world and different historical moments are used to introduce key ways of working with film, including methodologies such as audience studies, frameworks such as fan studies, theories such as the cult cinema, and core academic skills such as formulating research questions.

Through recommended preparatory reading and viewing, and seminar discussion students will be encouraged to engage critically with the case studies covered in the module, and to consider both the possibilities and limitations of specific film practices.

An indicative list of topics can be found below (this may vary slightly from year to year depending on which staff members are involved in leading seminars):

• defining originality and designing research questions
• alternative modes of authorship, production, and distribution: the case of Brazilian indigenous cinema
• community filmmaking and decolonial praxis: case study from ‘Decolonial Ecologies research project; Fan cultures and cult cinema: the case of Miyazaki
• audiences and ethics: the case of Argentina in ‘Screening Violence’ research project
• film for outreach and engagement: the case of CIFA
• writing a project proposal

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities: Student-led small group discussion aims to explore each topic in-depth and give students a space in which they can share their ideas and benefit from peer feedback as well as guidance from seminar leader. Key issues will be debated, and examples of different practices and methodologies studied will be analysed.

Structured Guided Learning: online learning materials such as reading tasks, preparation of seminar activities, or guided screenings provide students with an overview and contextualisation of each case study and raise the key issues for debate. Each case study addresses a different set of methodologies and conceptual frameworks in film studies. Within each case study, targeted materials and activities will introduce and allow students to practice key academic skills.

The remainder of the hours assigned to this module will be spent preparing each assessment task and carrying out independent study, during which students are expected to use the learning materials, skills and feedback provided as a springboard from which to develop their own ideas and skills as independent scholars.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The assessment for this module is divided into two separate tasks that ask students to implement and build on some of the scholarly skills and film practices covered throughout this module and its pre-requisite module (Global Film Cultures and Practices I). The inclusion of one summative assessment that is also formative (providing timely feedback throughout the module) addresses the learning objectives more accurately, building students’ confidence in key methods and skills.

An example of what these two assessments may look like is as follows:

Part 1 (40%): students are asked to implement an audience studies/ reception approach to the analysis of a focus group organised within the cohort. They will be assessed on a series of portfolio components, including: ethics, quantitative analysis of data, qualitative analysis of data, critical reflection on the methodology. This serves as a formative assessment, building students’ ability to reflect critically on the merits of particular methodologies, a necessary component of the project proposal.

Part 2 (60%): a 2,500-word project proposal. In this assignment, students are asked to develop a proposal for a dissertation or independent project drawing on one of the methodologies covered in this module and Global Film Cultures and Practices I. They will be evaluated on the clarity and focus of the research questions, the structure of the proposal, their provisional mapping of the area of research or practice and where their proposal fits therein, the proposed methodology/approach and an annotated bibliography. This assessment also functions as a formative assignment for assessed essays and, more specifically, the dissertation or independent project.

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/