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Wesleyan Home → Film Studies → Faculty
Faculty
Faculty
Jeanine Basinger
Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film StudiesShow BioCorwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies
Center for Film Studies 152
860-685-2220
Professor of Film Studies
Center for Film Studies 152
860-685-2220
Curator, Cinema Archives
860-685-2220
BS South Dakota St University
MS South Dakota St University
FILM309 - 01
Film Noir
FILM414 - 01
Senior Seminar
FILM414 - 02
Senior Seminar
FILM414 - 03
Senior Seminar
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 American 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.
Jacob Bricca
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Film StudiesShow BioAdjunct Assistant Professor of Film Studies
Center for Film Studies Room 158
860-685-3083
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: Sabbatical - Spring 2013
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.
Joe Cacaci
Visiting Writer in Film StudiesShow BioVisiting Writer in Film Studies
BA Manhattan College
MA Emerson College
FILM460 - 01
Scripting Series Small Screen
Office Hours: Spring Semester 2013 - Office Hours Mondays 4:00-5:30pm.
Stephen Collins
Assistant Professor of Film StudiesShow BioAssistant Professor of Film Studies
160
860-685-3492
BA Wesleyan University
MFA University of Texas Austin
FILM450 - 01
Sight and Sound
FILM456 - 01
Advanced Filmmaking
Office Hours: Center for Film Studies Rm 160 Office Hours Tuesday 11:00am-1:00pm
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".
Lisa Dombrowski
Associate Professor of Film StudiesShow BioAssociate Professor of Film Studies
Center for Film Studies 154
860-685-3236
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
FILM348 - 01
Hist of Am Indep Cinema
FILM343 - 01
American Film Industry
FILM346 - 01
Contemporary East Asian Cinema
Personal Homepage:
http://www.lisadombrowski.com
Office Hours: Center for Film Studies Rm 154 Spring 2013 SEMESTER: Tues. 4:30-6:00pm; Wed. 4:30-6:00pm
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.
Scott Higgins
Associate Professor of Film StudiesShow Bio and PhotoBA Oakland University
MA Univ of Wisconsin Madison
PHD Univ of Wisconsin Madison
FILM307 - 01
The Language of Hollywood
FILM342 - 01
Cinema of Adventure and Action
Personal Homepage:
http://shiggins.blogs.wesleyan.edu/
Office Hours: Spring Semester 2013 - Monday 10:30am-12:30pm, Tuesday 1:00pm-2:30pm, and by appointment.
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.
Leo Lensing
Professor of German StudiesShow Bio and Photo
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
BA University of Notre Dame
MA Cornell University
MAA Wesleyan University
PHD Cornell University
GRST253 - 01
The New German Cinema
GRST255 - 01
Newest German Cinema
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.
Marc Longenecker
Technical and Programming ManagerShow BioBA Wesleyan University
MA Wesleyan University
FILM367 - 01
Frank Capra's Films & Archives
Katja Straub
Visiting Assistant Professor of Film StudiesShow BioVisiting Assistant Professor of Film Studies
860-685-3432
MA University of Arts in Berlin
MFA University of Texas Austin
FILM451 - 01
Intro to Digital Filmmaking
FILM456 - 02
Advanced Filmmaking
FILM456 - 03
Advanced Filmmaking
Personal Homepage:
http://www.rocketfilm.de/
Office Hours: OFFICE HOURS - Thursdays 12:00 - 2:00pm and by appointment.
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.


