CMS 240 B: Writing in Cinema and Media Studies

CMS 240: Writing in Cinema and Media Studies - Queer Film

Course Information

Course Number: CMS 240
Course Title: Writing in Cinema and Media Studies: Queer Film
Meeting Times/Location: Tuesday/Thursday, 8:30 AM - 10:20 AM, SIG 226
Credit Hours: 5

Instructor Information

Instructor: Cain Miller
Office Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Office Location: Padelford B534
Email: cainmill@uw.edu

Course Description: This course explores the many ways in which a film might be categorized as “queer.” We might be inclined to situate the term “queer” as being synonymous with “gay” or “homosexual” or the acronym LGBTQIA+. But “queer” films also challenge viewers’ assumptions of narrative, genre, and artistic norms. As Teresa de Lauretis states, a queer text is one that “not only works against narrativity, the generic pressure of all narrative toward closure and the fulfillment of meaning, but also pointedly disrupts the referentiality of language and the referentiality of images…” Indeed, queerness raises many ideological implications. This course will explore cinematic queerness through the frameworks of history, aesthetics, audience reception, and censorship, among other topics, to enhance your critical thinking and media literacy skills regarding the relationship between film and gender/sexuality. In addition, this course introduces students to basic concepts of film analysis. No previous knowledge of film theory is required.

Learning Objectives:

• Define the narrative, formal, and thematic elements of film.
• Challenge our understanding and assumptions of queer film.
• Read foundational texts in queer film studies.
• Practice textual analysis of films through discussion and writing.

Assignments/Grade Breakdown:

• In-class writing activities (25%)
  • During certain class meetings, you will be asked to write short responses to lecture content. Each writing activity will have a specific prompt. These activities will ask you to synthesize specific concepts discussed in the lecture.
• Annotated bibliography (25%)
  • As part of the research process for your final project, you will write an annotated bibliography consisting of at least 3 primary and/or initial sources you’re considering incorporated into your final project. Your annotated bibliography should include the appropriate citation for each source, as well as a one-paragraph summary of each source.
• Final project proposal (20%)
  • You will write a short proposal (300-500 words) describing your research project. Your proposal should include a working thesis statement, the scholarship upon which you are building, and the media text(s) you will analyze.
• Final project (30%)
  • For your final project, you have the option to write a research paper (6-7 pages) or make a video essay (8-10 minutes in length). Your project should focus on a specific queer media text and argue what characteristics categorize it as queer. If you opt for the video essay, you must also submit an artistic statement (4-5 pages) that articulates your intentions with the video.

GPA Conversion Scale

Course Policies

Course Delivery: This class is conducted in-person. Students are expected to regularly attend class and participate in discussions of the course materials. While attendance is not monitored, students are expected to consistently attend class meetings should they expect to perform well on assignments.

Late Work Policy: Late assignments will be deducted by 10% for each day they are late. Work submitted late by a student with an excused absence will not receive point deductions.

Disability: Students may request disability accommodations through UW Disability Resources for Students: https://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/current-students/accommodations/

Religious Accommodation: Students may request absences for religious accommodations through the registrar: https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/

Academic Integrity: All work submitted in this class should be original. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to, instances of plagiarism and cheating on exams. Instances of academic misconduct are a violation of the UW Student Conduct Code and may result in an F for the entire course and other possible consequences. Use of AI to write your work is considered plagiarism.

For more information, visit: https://www.washington.edu/cssc/facultystaff/academic-misconduct/

Statement on Mental Health and Wellness: UW recognizes that maintaining mental health and wellness is important for all students. UW encourages all students to utilize campus mental health resources. For more information, visit: https://www.washington.edu/counseling/

Content Warning: Please note that some of the assigned films explore challenging subject matter and may contain potentially upsetting language and imagery. These challenges are inherently connected to the course materials given that we will explore complex topics related to gender and sexuality. I will do my best to warn the class about particularly upsetting materials. With this in mind, I cannot predict what every respective student will find upsetting. You are expected to come to class prepared to communicate with your classmates respectively and listen to diverse viewpoints. If you have questions or concerns about any of the course materials, please communicate with me.

Course Schedule

Week 1: Course Introduction

Tuesday (1/6)

1. Course introduction and syllabus overview.
2. In-class writing activity: What makes a film “queer”?

Thursday (1/8)

1. Lecture on content v. form.
2. Exercise: Eraserhead (1977) sequence analysis/in-class writing.

Reading: “Queer Media Manifestos” - ed. Jennifer Doyle

Week 2: New Queer Cinema

Tuesday (1/13)

1. Lecture on the New Queer Cinema movement.
2. Exercise: My Own Private Idaho image analysis.
3. Discussion of assigned materials.

Reading: “New Queer Cinema” - B. Ruby Rich

Required Film: My Own Private Idaho (1991), dir. Gus Van Sant (104 min.)

Optional Film: Poison (1991), dir. Todd Haynes (85 min.)

Thursday (1/15)

1. Lecture on New Queer Cinema cont.
2. Exercise: Paris is Burning (1990) sequence analysis.
3. Discussion of assigned materials.

Required Film: The Watermelon Woman (1996), dir. Cheryl Dunye (90 min.)

Optional Film: Go Fish (1994), dir. Rose Troche (84 min.)

Week 3: The Limitations of "Queer"/Queerness and Race

Tuesday (1/20)

1. Lecture on mainstream LGBTQ films of the 2000s/2010s.
2. Discussion of assigned materials.

Reading: “Elio’s Education” - D.A. Miller

Required Film: Call Me by Your Name (2017), dir. Luca Guadgino (132 min.)

Optional Film: Brokeback Mountain (2005), dir. Ang Lee (134 min.)

Thursday (1/22)

1. Lecture on queer studies and race.
2. In-class viewing: Tongues Untied (1989), dir. Marlon Riggs (55 min)

Reading: “Punks, Buldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” - Cathy J. Cohen

Optional Film: Tangerine (2015), dir. Sean Baker (88 min.)

Week 4: Queer Reading Practices

Tuesday (1/27)

1. Lecture on explicit v. implicit meaning.
2. In-class screening: Rope (1948), dir. Alfred Hitchcock (80 min.)

Reading: “There’s Something Queer Here” - Alexander Doty

Optional Film: Rebecca (1940), dir. Alfred Hitchcock (130 min.)

Thursday (1/29)

1. Lecture on camp.
2. Discussion of assigned materials.

Reading: “Notes on ‘Camp’” - Susan Sontag

Required Film: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) dir. Robert Aldrich (130 min.)

Optional Film: Mommie Dearest (1981) dir. Frank Perry (130 min.)

Week 5: Genre

Tuesday (2/3)

1. Lecture on genre.
2. Discussion of assigned materials.

Reading: “The Monster and the Homosexual” - Harry M. Benshoff

Required Film: Hellraiser (1987), dir. Clive Barker (90 min.)

Optional Film: Videodrome  (1983), dir. David Cronenberg (87 min.)

Thursday (2/5)

1. Lecture on musicals.
2. Discussion of assigned materials.
3. Lecture on finding sources.
4. In-Class activity: Discussion board response.

Required Film: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), dir. John Cameron Mitchell (90 min.)

Optional Film: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), dir. Howard Hawkes (90 min.)

*Monday (2/9): Annotated bibliography due by 8:00 PM.*

Week 6: Experimental/Underground Film 

Tuesday (2/10)

1. Lecture on avant-garde conventions and 1940s experimental film movement.
2. In-class viewing: Fireworks (1947), dir. Kenneth Anger (14 min.), Fragment of Seeking (1946), dir. Curtis Harrington (14 min.)

Thursday (2/12) 

1. Lecture on underground film of the ‘60s/’70s.
2. In-class viewing: sequence from Scorpio Rising (1963), dir. Kenneth Anger, select Andy Warhol films.

Reading: “Face Value” - Douglas Crimp

Week 7: Queer Global Cinema

Tuesday (2/17)

1. Lecture on global underground cinema and the Japanese New Wave.
2. Discussion of assigned materials

Required Film: Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), dir. Toshio Matsumoto (105 min.)

Thursday (2/19) 

1. Lecture on arthouse cinema.
2. Discussion of assigned materials.

Reading: “Ingmar Bergman and the Foreign Self” - Daniel Humphrey

Required Film: Persona (1966), dir. Ingmar Bergman (85 min.)

Optional Film: In a Year of 13 Moons (1978), dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder (120 min.)

Monday (2/23): Final project proposals due by 8:00 PM

Week 8: Queering Time and Space

Tuesday (2/24)

No class meeting. In place of class meeting, please watch this video on Queer Time: https://youtu.be/DJzfyMsm0ns?si=6vXc3-zr3CztbHi7 

Thursday (2/26)

1. Lecture on Queer Time
2. Discussion of assigned materials

Reading: Introduction to In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives (2005) - Jack Halberstam

Required Film: All of Us Strangers (2023), dir. Andrew Haigh (105 min.)

Optional Film: The Hours (2002), dir. Stephen Daldry (114 min.)

Week 9: 

Tuesday (3/3)

1. Lecture on Queer Time and post-cinema.
2. Discussion of assigned materials.

Required Film: I Saw the TV Glow (2024), dir. Jane Schoenbrun (100 min.)

Optional Film: We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021), dir. Jane Schoenbrun (85 min.)

Thursday (3/5)

1. Lecture on Queer Futures.
2. In-class viewing: Dirty Computer (2018), dir. Andrew Donoho, Lacey Duke, Alan Ferguson, Chuck Lighting, and Emma Westenberg (50 min.)
3. Discussion of assigned materials.

Optional Film: Born in Flames (1983), dir. Lizzy Borden (85 min.)

Week 10: Digital Queerness?

Monday (3/10)

1. Lecture on digitization.
2. In-class viewing: Corporate Cannibal music video.
3. Discussion of Assigned materials.

Reading: “Corporate Cannibal” (2010) - Steven Shaviro

Wednesday (3/12)

1. Last day of class discussion.
2. Class-activity: Work on final projects.

Monday (3/16): Final projects due by 5:00 PM.

*The instructor has the right to make adjustments to the syllabus if needed.