Faculty

BS South Dakota State University
MS South Dakota State University

FILM314 - 01
Classic American Film Comedy

Office Hours:
Wednesdays; 10am to 2:00 through the lunch hour, First Come, First Served Rm 152, Center for Film Studies

Jeanine Basinger is the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, founder and curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives, Chair of the Film Studies Department, and a 1996 recipient of Wesleyan's Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Her book, Silent Stars, won the National Board of Review's William K. Everson Prize, and her most recent book, The Star Machine, published by Knopf, 2007 won the Theatre Library Association Award. She is the author of numerous articles and book reviews in such publications as The New York Times, American Film, Film Quarterly, and Opera News, as well as ten books on film including A Woman's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women 1930-1960; The World War II Combat Film: Anatomy of a Genre, and Anthony Mann: A Critical Study. Her new book, also to be published by Knopf is in the works. Professor Basinger is a trustee of the National Board of Review, a trustee emeritus of the Americal Film Institute, and a former member of the Board of Advisors of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers. She served as advisor to Martin Scorsese's film foundation project, The Story of Movies; co-produced and American Masters episode on Clint Eastwood, and was head consultant on the PBS special "American Cinema: 100 year of Filmmaking" for which she also wrote the companion book. A nationally recognized expert on various aspects of American film she has consulted on numerous film documentaries and projects funded by both NEA and NEH. Professor Basinger was the recipient of the Connecticut Governor's Award for her contribution to Film and the Arts in November 2006. She was also awarded an honorary degree by the American Film Institute in June of 2006 - the first time it was awarded to an academic - for her contribution to film studies and for the number of her students who work in the field. As curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archive, Basinger is responsible for the care of papers from some of film history's most significant names, both then and now; Frank Capra, Clint Eastwood, Elia Kazan, Ingrid Bergman, Martin Scorsese, John Waters, Raoul Walsh, and Jonathan Demme. Her former students include such directors as Miquel Arteta, Paul Weitz, Michael Bay and Jon Turteltaub; writers Joss Whedon, Steven Schiff, Akiva Goldsman and Bruce Eric Kaplan; actors Dana Delany, and Brad Whitford; producers Laurence Mark, Paul Schiff, Matt Greenfield, Alex Kurtzman, Matt Weiner, Marc Shmuger, and many more. Professor Basinger spearheaded the planning and fundraising for Wesleyan's new Center for Film Studies which will be named in her honor on the date of of her retirement.

BA Wesleyan University
MFA American Film Institute

FILM451 - 01
Intro to Digital Filmmaking

FILM451 - 02
Intro to Digital Filmmaking

Personal Homepage:
http://jbricca.blogs.wesleyan.edu/

Office Hours:
Center for Film Studies Rm 158 Office Hours tHURSDAYS, 12:30-2:00pm and by appointment

Jacob Bricca is a documentary editor and director whose feature editing credits include the international theatrical hit LOST IN LA MANCHA, the Independent Lens Audience Award winner JIMMY SCOTT: IF ONLY YOU KNEW, and the recent New Yorker Films release CON ARTIST. Among his directing credits are the award-winning feature INDIES UNDER FIRE: THE BATTLE FOR THE AMERICAN BOOKSTORE and PURE, which was one of only four American shorts invited to the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival. PRECIOUS KNOWLEDGE, a feature he edited about the controversial ban on Ethnic Studies courses in Arizona, will premiere on PBS in May, 2012.

BA Wesleyan University
MFA University of Texas Austin

FILM450 - 01
Sight and Sound

FILM456 - 01
Advanced Filmmaking

FILM450 - 01
Sight and Sound

FILM457 - 01
Advanced Filmmaking

Office Hours:
Center for Film Studies Rm 160 Office Hours Thursday 1:00-2:30PM

Steve Collins is a writer/director specializing in his own brand of melancholy comedy. He has made several award winning shorts that have played the Tribeca, Seattle, SXSW, Clermont-Ferrand, New York Short film Expo and Boston Independent film festivals. His film GRETCHEN won the $50,000 Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival and can be seen on the Sundance Channel. he is presently finishing his second feature, a love-story about adult children called "YOU HURT MY FEELINGS".

BA Wesleyan University
MA University of Wisconsin
PHD University of Wisconsin

FILM310 - 01
Introduction to Film Analysis

FILM310 - 02
Introduction to Film Analysis

FILM310 - 03
Introduction to Film Analysis

FILM310 - 04
Introduction to Film Analysis

FILM310 - 05
Introduction to Film Analysis

FILM347 - 01
Melodrama and Woman's Picture

FILM343 - 01
American Film Industry

FILM350 - 01
International Art Cinema

Personal Homepage:
http://www.lisadombrowski.com

Office Hours:
Center for Film Studies Rm 154 SPRING 2012 SEMESTER - ON SABBATICAL

Lisa Dombrowski is the author of The Films of Samuel Fuller: If You Die, I'll Kill You! (2008) and the editor of Kazan Revisited (2010). She specializes in the art and industry of motion pictures, and teaches courses in film aesthetics and analysis, the American film industry, independent cinema, art cinema, melodrama, and contemporary East Asian cinema. She is currently writing a book on the industrial infrastructure supporting independent and art cinema in the United States.

Associate Professor of Film Studies
Center for Film Studies 156
860-685-3176

shiggins@wesleyan.edu

BA Oakland University
MA Univ of Wisconsin Madison
PHD Univ of Wisconsin Madison

FILM307 - 01
The Language of Hollywood

FILM304 - 01
History of World Cinema

FILM341 - 01
The Cinema of Horror

Personal Homepage:
http://shiggins.blogs.wesleyan.edu/

Office Hours:
<p>Spring Semester 2012 - Tuesday 1:00-3:00pm</p>

Scott Higgins has published two books: Harnessing the Rainbow: Technicolor Aesthetics in the 1930s , He is working on a third book about film serials from the 1930s and 1940s. His areas of specialization include aesthetics, silent and classical cinema, narrative theory, genre, and technology.

Professor of German Studies
Fisk Hall 405
860-685-3379

Professor, Film Studies
860-685-3379

Chair, German Studies
Fisk Hall 405
860-685-3379

llensing@wesleyan.edu

BA University of Notre Dame
MA Cornell University
PHD Cornell University
MAA Wesleyan University

GRST252 - 01
Weimar Cinema in Context

GRST273 - 01
Freud's Vienna

GRST253 - 01
The New German Cinema

GRST381 - 01
Viennese Modernism

Office Hours:
By appointment Office: Fisk Hall, Rm 405 X3379

Leo Lensing is the editor of the Anarchy of the Imagination (1992), The American collection of the essays and interviews of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. His other work includes articles on the relationship between film and literature during the 1920s and 1930s and lexicon essays on Fassbinder, Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders. He occasionally writes on film for the Times Literary Supplement, mostly recently an essay on Fassbinder the writer. "Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wunderkind," and a review of Werner Herszog's Rescue Dawn. He regularly teaches courses on the new German Cinema and on the films of the Weimar Republic.

BA Wesleyan University
MA Wesleyan University

FILM366 - 01
Elia Kazan's Films & Archives

BA Wesleyan University
MA Wesleyan University

MA University of Arts in Berlin
MFA University of Texas Austin

FILM456 - 02
Advanced Filmmaking

FILM456 - 03
Advanced Filmmaking

FILM457 - 02
Advanced Filmmaking

FILM457 - 03
Advanced Filmmaking

Personal Homepage:
www.rocketfilm.de

Office Hours:
OFFICE HOURS -Thursdays 11:00am - 1:00PM

Katja Straub's work explores the invisible line between reality and the world of dream and imagination. Her films have screened internationally at venues like the Museum of Modern Art, Ann Arbor, Viper Basel, Sehsuchte Berlin, Int. Short Fest Munich, DC Independent. Her first film ALL WHITE PEOPLE ARE FRENCH received the Special Jury Award at SXSW and her magic realist short MARTHA won the the Golden Palm at the Mexico International Film Festival and made it in the sem-finals of the Student Academy Awards.