School of Creative Arts, Film and Media (SCAFM)

Film Studies

Cinema was the dominant international medium of mass visual culture for the first half of the twentieth century.  Our histories of that period have been profoundly influenced by film.  The movies became not only a habitual part of the lives of millions; film spawned some remarkable creative innovation, and cinema was established as an industrial and technological process in many countries.  

Since then, film has enjoyed a new lease of life as one of a range of global media leisure pursuits, enjoyed and celebrated in different kinds of spaces: in the cinema, at home on tv, video and dvd, and now via the internet.  It remains a popular entertainment, yet is also an experimental art form viewed in galleries.  Cinema is now widely studied and written about in a variety of guises: by film fans in weblogs, by journalists and critics in the media, and by teachers and students across the education system. 

At Portsmouth you will study the history of film as mass entertainment.  You consider its pioneers and innovators, its production regimes and audience markets.  You explore cinema’s changing roles in shaping and expressing national identities and cultures. You will employ a range of critical approaches to reading film texts.  And you debate the dynamic relationship between film theory and video production as film practice.  From its beginnings in the 1970s, Film Studies in higher education has come a long way. 

This is an exciting and innovative course offering you the opportunity to study critical and theoretical approaches to a wide range of films. You will not only explore a number of key moments in the history of Hollywood, European and non-Western film-making, but you will also look critically at the changing nature of the international film industry and film audiences in Britain and around the world. You will also have the opportunity to take practical units in production, using the latest digital video technology, and to develop skills in screenwriting. If your passion for film exceeds the shelves of Blockbuster or HMV, and if your desire to pursue cinema goes beyond your local multiplex, why not join us on our journey?