Film Studies

MA One year full-time, two years part-time

Programme description

This MA offers you the opportunity to explore key aspects of film analysis, theory, history and practice. Through a range of different approaches to the study of film, including genre and textual analysis, audience studies, and media archaeology, you will be exposed to some of the most pressing debates about film in the current moment. Questions of ethics and whether we can consider film as a document, of how film works on our bodies as an affective medium, the reasons for film’s close affinity to urban, cosmopolitan and diasporic cultures, and the historical legacy of film as an international, and now transnational medium, are all central to the course. In exploring these questions, you will be introduced to some of the liveliest and most important chapters in the history of cinema.

From the earliest days of British cinema, London was the location of most British studios and it remains the national focal point for studying film. Our provision at Queen Mary is enhanced by our proximity to major cultural centres such as the British Film Institute, which includes the BFI Southbank, National Library and National Archive, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Ciné- Lumière at the French Institute, the Whitechapel Gallery and the film archives at the Imperial War Museum. The MA attracts high numbers of well-qualified applicants from the UK and overseas each year who will be joining a lively postgraduate culture in the School of Arts, involving staff and student-led research seminars, public 'Hitchcock' lecutres and the Living British Cinema Forum. The MA  is both a valuable qualification in its own right and a pathway for applicants wishing to study subsequently for an PhD in Film Studies.

Programme outline

The core module spans two semesters and examines the many ways in which film has, during the course of a century, shaped both time and space. Drawing on an eclectic range of historical moments the module also provides an overview of national and transnational cinemas cultures (incorporating discussion of films from the USA, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia and Latin America).

You can also choose two single-semester module options from a range including:

• 9/11 and American Film
• Auteur Direction (practical filmmaking option) 
• Documentary Film: Theory and Practice
• Films of Powell and Pressburger
• Film Studies Research Project (subject to approval)
• Frame, Space, Time: Approaches to the Experiences of Film
• History, Fiction and Memory in French Cinema
• Hollywood and the Second World War
• Hollywood’s Vietnam
• Introduction to Film Archives
• Married to the Mob?: Mafia representations in Hollywood and Italian Cinema
• Paris on the Screen
• Reading Images: Painting, Photography, Film
• Sighting Gender and Sexuality in Latin American Film

You may be permitted to take one option offered as part of another MA programme in the School or within the Faculty of Arts, provided that the MA convenor agrees that this would be beneficial for your intellectual development and research plans. In the case of options outside the School, admission to such modules requires the further agreement of the module convenor. This arrangement is also extended to include an option offered as part of the MA in History of Film and Visual Media at Birkbeck, the MA in Screen Studies at Goldsmiths, the MA in Film Studies at King's College London, the MA in Global Cinema and the Transcultural at SOAS, or the MA in Film Studies at UCL.

You will be able to pursue your own particular interests in a dissertation on a topic of your choice.

Assessment

You will submit three essays for the core module, one of 2,000 words and two of 3,000 words, and one 4,000-word essay for each of the two options. At the end of August you will submit a dissertation of 10,000 to 12,000 words.

Entry requirements

We normally require an upper second class honours degree or equivalent in film or a relevant subject (such as English, history, media or modern languages).

For international students, please refer to the International Students section. [new window]

Recent graduate destinations

Graduates of the MA in Film Studies have gone on to undertake PhD research and to work in the fields of film production, exhibition, curation, journalism and education.

Further information

Postgraduate admissions
Tel: +44 (0)20 7882 8332
email: sllf-pg@qmul.ac.uk

For informal enquiries, please contact:
Professor Janet Harbord
Programme Convenor
Tel: +44 (0)20 7882 5910
email: j.p.harbord@qmul.ac.uk

For further information, please the Film Studies website.