Feature-Length Animation: Aesthetic Form, Authorship, & Global Context (FILM 2100 L)
Term: 2026-27 Academic Year Fall
Schedule
Wed, 9:00 AM - 9:55 AM (9/7/2026 - 12/16/2026) Location: SLC PAC 206
Wed, 10:00 AM - 10:55 AM (9/7/2026 - 12/16/2026) Location: SLC PAC 206
Wed, 11:00 AM - 11:55 AM (9/7/2026 - 12/16/2026) Location: SLC PAC 206
Thu, 9:05 AM - 12:05 PM (9/7/2026 - 12/16/2026) Location: SLC HEIM 135
Description
This course will examine feature-length animation as a site of aesthetic experimentation, cultural expression, and authorial practice. Focusing on independent and international works rather than large-scale commercial studio productions, we will explore how artist-driven animated features challenge dominant narrative conventions, production models, and visual languages. Through weekly screenings and writing in a private notebook, students will analyze the relationship between form and content in animated cinema. Particular attention will be given to how animation constructs time, space, memory, and subjectivity, and how different material processes—hand-drawn, cutout, stop-motion, puppet animation, and independent Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI)—shape meaning. The course will situate these works within broader theoretical conversations about global modernisms, spectatorship, alternative narratives, documentary practice, and the politics of representation. Spanning films produced from 1970 to the present, the syllabus will highlight works that operate outside dominant commercial systems and foregrounds alternative narrative structures, hybrid documentary forms, autobiographical modes, and experimental storytelling. We will consider how conditions of independent production—often characterized by concentrated artistic control—generate distinct aesthetic and structural outcomes. Readings will introduce key frameworks from animation studies providing tools for aesthetic analysis and critical interpretation. The course does not include animation production. As a semester project, students will be expected to present in a small group one lecture on the thematic concerns and formal strategies of an assigned film. Students will also be required to maintain a weekly research/creative practice notebook that integrates theoretical reflection with personal inquiry. May be counted for either creative arts or humanities credit. Students must designate the area of study (creative arts or humanities) with the Registrar’s Office at course registration. Same as FLMH 2100.