College of Film and the Moving Image

Since his filmmaking debut at the age of 11, Ishan Modi '22 has directed more than 20 short films. And the prospective film and history major has yet to call his creative talent "a wrap." On Sept. 22, Modi's short film Just Stories (2017) was shown at the LA Film Festival's 2018 Future Filmmakers Showcase, a special screening of films made by talented high school students from across the globe. The film features a senior couple who—after a lively visit with their grandchildren—experience the isolation and uncertainty of old age. In addition to screening at the LA Film Festival, Just Stories also…

Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, “Academic rigor, journalistic flair.” Ahead of the 2018 Oscars ceremony that celebrates the best in film, The Conversation explores some of the worst film innovations of years past. Scott Higgins, director of the College of Film and the Moving Image, writes about Interfilm, a "choose your own adventure" theater technology that flopped in the early 1990s. Higgins is also the Charles W. Fries Professor of Film Studies, chair of Film Studies, and curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives. Read his bio on The Conversation.…

How did summer get to be such a make-or-break season for Hollywood? It wasn't always this way, Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies Jeanine Basinger recently told Marketplace, from American Public Media. “In the old days, the studio system rolled out movies,” she said. “I mean, let’s take MGM. In 1952 [it] put out a feature film every week, so for 52 weeks they rolled out 52 features.” In the 1940s, 80 percent of Americans went to the movies once a week. But with television gaining popularity, attendance had plummeted by the 1970s. Until 1975, when Jaws was released around the July 4th weekend. It…

Ákos Östör, professor of anthropology and film, emeritus, lectured and presented his latest film, In My Mother's House, at more than a dozen universities in India, Turkey and throughout Europe in 2016. On a random Thursday in 2005, Östör's wife, Lina Fruzzetti, opened a a startling email that read, “If this is your father, we are cousins.” In My Mother's House follows a decade-long quest to learn more about Fruzzetti's Italian father who died young in Italian-ruled Eritrea, and her Eritrean mother who does not dwell on the past. Above all, Fruzzetti strives to understand her far-flung African, European, and…

Scott Higgins, professor of film and chair of the College of Film and the Moving Image, is the author of a new book titled, Matinee Melodrama: Playing with Formula in the Sound Serial, published in February 2016 by Rutgers University Press. Higgins newest work delves into the genre of adventure serials as a distinct art form, unwrapping its different elements and what makes adventure serials so successful. Intrigued by the active, dedicated fan culture, Higgins suggests that serial’s incoherent plotting and reliance on formula, as well as, the use of other cinematic elements such as, stock characters and cliffhangers, are…

WNPR's The Colin McEnroe Show featured a conversation between Joss Whedon '87, Hon. '13; Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, Curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives; and David Lavery, author of Joss Whedon, A Creative Portrait: From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to The Avengers and co-founder of the Whedon Studies Association. Basinger described her experience with Whedon while he was a student at Wesleyan. "When I encountered Joss at Wesleyan, he was my superhero because he was a really fabulous student, an original thinker and somebody who you just knew was born to be a storyteller. Those things were very, very clearly in…

Jeanine Basinger, Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, was recently featured in a Hollywood Reporter article “The Professor of Hollywood,” by film historian and best-selling author Sam Wasson ’03, who studied with Basinger at Wesleyan. The magazine brought together 33 of her former pupils who work prominently in the film industry for “an A-list class reunion” photo—and several of them talk about how Basinger inspired them, encouraging their self-expression while also sharing with them her love for the medium. In the article, Basinger discusses how and why she came to devote her life to the study of film and how working…

This July, Wesleyan's 2015 Summer Film Series presents "Hollywood Icons: Jimmy Stewart," a four-film series sponsored by Wesleyan's College of Film and the Moving Image (CFILM). Films will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays in July at the Center for Film Studies. All films are free and open to the public and will be preceded by an introduction by Marc Longenecker, CFILM's programming and technical director. The "Hollywood Icons: Jimmy Stewart" film series includes Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (July 7), Harvey (July 14), Rear Window (July 21), and Winchester '73 (July 28). See Wesleyan's Summer Film Series website for more information.

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"Hollywood Icons: Audrey Hepburn" is the theme of Wesleyan's Summer Film Series, sponsored by the College of Film and the Moving Image (CFILM). All four films, featuring Oscar-award winning actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), take place at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays in July. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for the accompanying "Posters From the Collection" exhibition in the Rick Nicita Gallery. All films will begin with an introduction by Marc Longenecker, CFILM programming and technical director. All films are open to the public and are free of charge. The films include: Roman Holiday on July 8; Sabrina on July 15; Breakfast…

This month, the College of Film and the Moving Image (CFMI) secured a $2 million challenge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. If Wesleyan is able to raise $4 million for the College over the next four years, the Mellon Foundation will offer an additional $2 million gift. In 2011, Wesleyan's Center for the Humanities received a similar challenge grant from the Mellon Foundation. Through support from generous donors, Wesleyan completed that match in 2013, establishing an endowment for the Center for the Humanities for the first time in its 50-year history. The CFMI is dedicated to advancing understandings of the…

Wesleyan has announced the establishment of a new College of Film and the Moving Image, which includes the Film Studies Department, the Center for Film Studies, the Cinema Archives and the Wesleyan Film Series. "We're excited to bring together all the great things we've been doing around film—the Film Studies major and minor, the Cinema Archives and the Wesleyan Film Series—under the umbrella of the College of Film and the Moving Image,” said President Michael Roth. “The film curriculum is already so very strong, anchored in liberal learning and connected with the making of new work for cinema, television, and…

Film by Modi ’22 Screened at LA Film Festival’s Future Filmmakers Showcase

Higgins in The Conversation: Letting Audiences Twist the Plot

Basinger Discusses the History of the Summer Blockbuster

Östör Debuts New Film to International Audiences

Higgins’ Matinee Melodrama Delves into the Genre of Adventure Serials

Whedon ’87, Hon. ’13 Talks with Basinger on WNPR

Basinger Praised as Iconic Film Professor in The Hollywood Reporter

Jimmy Stewart Stars in Free Summer Film Series

A. O. Scott Moderates Talk on Arts Criticism

Audrey Hepburn Stars in July’s Summer Film Series

College of Film and the Moving Image Secures Challenge Grant with Mellon Foundation

Wesleyan Creating New College of Film and the Moving Image