Film Studies
Bachelor of Arts (also available as a Bachelor of Film Studies)
(Faculty of Arts)
Film Studies is a broadly-based program that examines film as both high art and popular culture, as aesthetic experience and as cultural industry, as an art form and as an innovative and developing technology with cultural, social and political significance. In Film Studies, you will develop a critical understanding of cinema and an awareness of the cultural, historical and social character of film.
You will have the option of taking the program as a regular four-year BA at the University of Calgary, or as the innovative Bachelor of Film Studies (BFS) program offered in partnership with SAIT Polytechnic. BFS students complete a highly defined set of core communications courses in the first two years of their studies, and transfer to the SAIT campus for their third and fourth years to complete a diploma in Film and Video Production as part of their University degree. The BA offers more opportunities for academic breadth and depth while the BFS offers more training in professional skills to complement your academic experience.
The Co-operative Education version of either program will give you the opportunity to gain valuable work experience in up to four paid work terms of three months each. For details go to arts.ucalgary.ca/co-op.
Admission Requirements
To be considered for admission applicants are required to present the appropriate high school subjects and a competitive average.
Application/Document Deadlines
Why take this program?
A deeper understanding of a critically important medium
We all watch films. But how do films achieve their deep hold on our cultural imagination? How does this technology, barely a century old, reflect the changing cultural matrix out of which it is created, and perhaps even more important, how does it produce and reproduce that culture? How will recent sweeping changes in video technologies change our experience of film?
A cultural industry of unprecedented magnitude
The Film Studies program plays a vital part in Alberta's growing reputation as both a destination for film production and as a region with its own expanding industry. At present, Alberta has approximately 3 percent of film and television production in Canada, worth about $150,000,000. The Alberta Film Development Program has established a strategic plan to more than double the amount of film and television produced in the province to nearly $400,000,000. This industry growth will position Southern Alberta as one among the four largest producers of feature films in Canada. Graduates of Film Studies will contribute to the creative and skilled pool of talent required for this expanding industry.
The Film Studies program is closely connected with leaders in the Canadian film industry through its Film Studies advisory board. The advisory board ensures the program stays in touch with new developments in technology and cinematic styles so we can offer you solid knowledge of the film industry in a national and global context. Students also interact with the film industry through experiential and community service learning, by participating in activities such as volunteering with film festivals and arts development agencies - all for course credit.
A wide variety of career paths
You may or may not choose to become a filmmaker. The richly varied experience of the Film Studies program will equip you for work in any of a vast number of related careers including policy analysis, arts administration, government and business. The Co-op Education route will allow you to add relevant work experience to your portfolio without sacrificing the academic rigour of your coursework. An MA and PhD program is available if you wish to continue your studies.
Like all programs in Communication and Culture, Film Studies is founded on the belief that narrow specialization is a recipe for obsolescence. As part of your degree you will become familiar with the deep roots of Western culture, with one or more non-Western cultures, and with the intersections of thought that knit together politics, science, religion, art and philosophy. This broad education can form the basis for a rich and varied range of careers.
What will I study in my first year?
In your first year you will take Film Studies 201, which provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the basics of understanding film and how it works, and provides a foundation for the critical analysis of film as art and film as culture.
You should also explore other introductory courses offered by the Faculty of Arts. The relatively open nature of the Communications Studies first year makes it an ideal time to explore a wide variety of courses in other areas that might interest you: Sociology, Art History, Languages, Philosophy, Literature, Canadian Studies, Development Studies, Law and Society etc. -- try them all!What will I study in later years?
You will take a set of courses that examine different aspects of film as an art form. FILM 301 explores the national cinema of Germany, Japan, Canada, and others. FILM 305 explores a specific genre of film such as the Western, the horror film, or Film Noir. FILM 307 explores topics in Film and Gender. FILM 401 explores the work of a particular director such as Hitchcock, the Cohen brothers or Tarantino. You will also take courses in Film Theory (FILM 331 and 333) and in Film History (FILM 321).
In addition to courses on the aesthetics and techniques of film, you will take courses on film as a cultural industry: the Film Festival (FILM 441), Film as Industry (FILM 451) and audience and reception (FILM 461). These two perspectives on film as art and film as industry weave together to make Film Studies at the University of Calgary a uniquely broad and balanced experience.
You may wish to add courses from complementary programs in the Department, such as Communications Studies and Science, Technology and Society, to achieve a balanced understanding of a wide variety of issues surrounding media, culture and technology.
In addition, you will take a pair of courses that many students describe as life-changing experiences: General Studies 300 and General Studies 500. These courses integrate a breathtaking sweep of knowledge and culture from the Greeks and Romans to present-day thinkers and artists into a personal search for meaning and place in an uncertain world. The courses expose you to the evolution of modern ideas through some of the most influential thinkers of the past.
In your final year, you may wish to take an Honours program. Honours in Communications Studies is excellent preparation for graduate school, but you may also be interested in Honours for the opportunity to explore a topic in depth for eight months in close consultation with a supervisor. For details see http://www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/honours
In later years you may choose to enrich your educational experience through a number of other opportunities such as courses that integrate learning with a community-based service project (GNST 407) or deepen your learning by acting as a peer mentor for junior students while you learn the theoretical background of knowledge building (GNST 507 and 509). See http://comcul.ucalgary.ca/undergraduate/the-student-experience) for a wide variety of ways to enrich your experience in the Department of Communication and Culture.
What can I do with this degree?
The Canadian film industry is a vital and expanding cultural player. It will need graduates with university-level backgrounds to produce, direct, distribute and perform in films.
Graduates of Film Studies work in the following areas:
- filmmaking
- screenwriting
- television production
- film review and criticism
- programming at film repertory cinemas and film festivals
- archiving
- scholarship
- film archives and film libraries
- newspapers and magazines
- universities
- regional, provincial and federal bureaus and agencies
- development offices
- commissions specializing in film and media
- cultural management
Additional Information
Student Finance
