Film Studies

Course summary

A Level film studies focuses on the analysis and deconstruction of film over a wide historical time frame. It allows pupils to engage with films from early silent cinema, 1930s Hollywood films to contemporary and experimental cinema and documentary. Film studies A Level involves studying at least 11 different films in detail. These are separated into set categories, such as; American, British, Independent, Global, Documentary, Experimental and Silent Film. Films are analysed via a number of different study area frameworks, including: film form, meaning and response, context, spectatorship, narrative, ideology, authorship, critical debates and theoretical debates. Pupils work with their classmates to debate and investigate the set film texts and to develop a sophisticated contextual understanding of the world at the time these films were made. Film studies requires the pupils to develop an inquisitive mind and consider the deeper social, political and economic contexts of those films.