CNST 331- Lecture 01

Studies in Canadian Film Culture

Fall 2008
09:00-17:00 TWRFS September 2-6 2008

 

Instructor:	Professor George Melnyk
Office Location:	SS218
Office Phone:	403-220-7562
E-Mail:	gmelnyk
Office Hours:	8:30-9:00 and 17:00-17:30

Additional Information

This is a 5-day Block Week course that runs from September 2-6 inclusive

Course Description

This course is an interdisciplinary examination of the Canadian feature film since 1990. The course explores the major themes of the bilingual, multicultural and regional nature of Canada's contemporary identity in an continental and globalized context. The films are representative of Canadian, Quebec and Inuit films that deal with cultural and social issues of the past two decades. The course will use a postmodernist, cultural studies approach that emphasizes how gender, religion, language, ethnicity, continentalism, globalization and region create Canadian cinematic diversity.

Objectives of the Course

To provide students with an overview of recent Canadian cinema.

To offer students an opportunity to study the cultural grammars of Canadian, Quebec, Aboriginal and Inuit films.

To guide students in developing critical insights into film narrative structure.

To develop an appreciation of the role of the auteur in Canadian film and how authorship expresses the changing character of Canadian identity in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

To have students experience an intensive, immersion-style of learning.

Textbooks and Readings:

Great Canadian Film Directors (2007) ed. George Melnyk

Assignments and Evaluation

There are four in-class assignments (one per day). Each one will be worth 15 per cent of the final grade for a total of 60 per cent. Each of these assignments is to be written during a two-hour break between the morning and afternoon sessions and are due at the commencement of the afternoon session. Should the student not hand in any one or all of these assignments by 12:00 p.m. on day five, that assignment(s) will receive a mark of 0. Otherwise, these assignments will also be penalized for lateness under the Policy for Late Assignments.

The remaining 40 per cent of the final grade will come from a final take-home exam to be handed out at the end of class on day five. This exam will due on Tuesday, September 9, 2007 at 16:00 in SS218. No late submissions of the final exam will be accepted and any such submission will receive a grade of 0. Should a student be unable to submit the final take-home exam on time due to a personal health emergency, the instructor may substitute an alternative assignment after receiving satisfactory documentation of the emergency.

It is the student's responsibility to keep a copy of each submitted assignment.
Note: Please hand in your essays directly to your tutor or instructor if possible. If it is not possible to do so, a daytime drop box is available in SS110; a date stamp is provided for your use. A night drop box is also available for after-hours submission. Assignments will be removed the following morning, stamped with the previous day's date, and placed in the instructor's mailbox.

Registrar-scheduled Final Examination: NO

Please note: If your class is held in the evening, the Registrar's Office will make every attempt to schedule the final exam during the evening; however, there is NO guarantee that the exam will NOT be scheduled during the day.

Policy for Late Assignments

Assignments submitted after the deadline will be penalized with the loss of a grade (e.g.: A- to B+) for each day late.

Writing Skills Statement

Faculty policy directs that all written assignments (including, although to a lesser extent, written exam responses) will be assessed at least partly on writing skills. For details see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/info. Writing skills include not only surface correctness (grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc) but also general clarity and organization. Research papers must be properly documented.

If you need help with your writing, you may use the Writing Centre. Visit the website for more details: www.efwr.ucalgary.ca

Grading System

The following grading system is used in the Faculty of Communication and Culture:

(Revised, effective September 2008)

	Grading Scale
A+	96-100
A	90-95.99
A -	85-89.99
B+	80-84.99
B	75-79.99
B-	70-74.99
C+	65-69.99
C	60-64.99
C-	55-59.99
D+	53-54.99
D	50-52.99
F	0-49

 

Where a grade on a particular assignment is expressed as a letter grade, it will normally be converted to a number using the midpoint of the scale.  That is, A- would be converted to 87.5 for calculation purposes.  F will be converted to zero.

Plagiarism

Using any source whatsoever without clearly documenting it is a serious academic offense. Consequences include failure on the assignment, failure in the course and possibly suspension or expulsion from the university.

You must document not only direct quotations but also paraphrases and ideas where they appear in your text. A reference list at the end is insufficient by itself. Readers must be able to tell exactly where your words and ideas end and other people's words and ideas begin. This includes assignments submitted in non-traditional formats such as Web pages or visual media, and material taken from such sources.

Please consult your instructor or the Writing Centre (SS 106, efwr.ucalgary.ca) if you have any questions regarding how to document sources.

Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a disability who may require academic accommodation, it is your responsibility to register with the Disability Resource Centre (220-8237) and discuss your needs with your instructor no later than fourteen (14) days after the start of the course.

Students' Union

For details about the current Students' Union contacts for the Faculty of Communication and Culture see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/su

"SAFEWALK" Program -- 220-5333

Campus Security will escort individuals day or night -- call 220-5333 for assistance. Use any campus phone, emergency phone or the yellow phone located at most parking lot booths.

Ethics

Whenever you perform research with human participants (i.e. surveys, interviews, observation) as part of your university studies, you are responsible for following university research ethics guidelines. Your instructor must review and approve of your research plans and supervise your research. For more information about your research ethics responsibilities, see

The Faculty of Communication and Culture Research Ethics site: http://www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/ethics

or the University of Calgary Research Ethics site: http://www.ucalgary.ca/research/compliance/ethics/info/undergrad/

Schedule of Lectures and Readings

A detailed course outline listing the films to be viewed and discussed will be handed out at the beginning of the first class.