Film studies
Enjoy a fresh look at big screen classics, ground-breaking titles and cult favourites featuring a cast of iconic names, former stars and the men and women who called the shots.
Check out our blog post on our new Cultureplex Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 12 weeks (and throughout the academic year in terms 2 and 3), we will watch and discuss film.
Study in-person, or online from the comfort of home, with classes that allow you to participate in discussions with fellow adult students and share your passion for Film as part of a learning community. We offer daytime, evening and weekend courses, both short and long. Our tutors are experts in their fields and experienced educators. Tutors share their knowledge and passion for Film through presentations, screenings, interactive discussion, analysis, and other activities.
Many students return to take more courses, telling us they enjoy being part of our City Lit literary community. Our popular courses often sell out quickly, so we invite you to browse and book your place now.
- The British Horror film beyond HammerCourse start date: Sat 17 May 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyNight of the Demon (1957), The Wicker Man (1973) and Frightmare (1974) form part of a less familiar, though equally striking, horror tradition than that of Hammer, and often in very different terms. Explore chillers from the 1930s and 40s, the proliferation of horror in 1950s, 60s and 70s along with more recent examples, while assessing a range of critical accounts of British horror beyond Hammer.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - "Truth 24 Frames a Second”: Documentary in the 21st CenturyCourse start date: Wed 21 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul KerrGodard’s definition of cinema is particularly apt for documentary. But today, documentary is at a crossroads, with first person, self-shot, iPhone filmmaking at one end of the spectrum and mega budget, celebrity-fronted or focused storytelling at the other. Is documentary up to the challenges of an era where facts themselves are in doubt – or is it the last hope of an otherwise overly massaged media, accused of ‘fake news’? When is factual filmmaking no longer factual? Reality television and co-called ‘constructed reality’ increasingly call into question the veracity of documentary protagonists increasingly cast – and paid – to be entertaining. Through the lens of current and recent releases, we look at animated documentary, activist documentary, archival documentary, and autobiographical documentary among other recent developments - and ask if the form has a future.
Dr Paul Kerr began his career working at the BFI, working in the National Film Archive, and as a freelance film and TV critic and lecturer. He then spent over 20 years as a producer and director, making arts and history programmes, including dozens of documentaries, for the BBC and Channel 4, as well as international broadcasters. More recently he was a Senior Lecturer in Film and Television at Middlesex University until 2024. His books include Hollywood Independent: How the Mirisch Company Changed Cinema (2023); The Hollywood Film Industry; and MTM: Quality Television and two co-authored dossiers, Multiplatforming Public Service Broadcasting and Drama Documentary. He has published articles in journals including Screen, Transnational Cinemas, The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television and Critical Studies in Television as well as The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Observer, Broadcast, NME and The New Statesman.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Reading images: exploring film studiesCourse start date: Wed 28 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Cristina MassaccesiThis comprehensive introductory course provides an overview of the main historical, technical and theoretical aspects of filmmaking and film analysis. In its exploration of aspects of film theory as it relates to film aesthetics and film history, the course develops certain ideas with rigour and depth. - Seminal films of the 1960sCourse start date: Tue 3 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Mick McAloonThe 1960s saw the emergence of multiple “new waves” of international filmmakers and cinema movements. It wasn’t only the French directors of the “nouvelle vague” – Godard, Truffaut et al - but filmmakers from Britain (Lindsay Anderson), Italy (Pasolini), Africa (Sembène), America (Cassavetes), Poland, India, and Japan, all of whom seized on cheaper, lighter equipment to make vital and vibrant films, and whose subjects were compelling as well as contemporary.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00 - Literary Adaptations: From Page to ScreenCourse start date: Thu 5 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Zoe CrombieSince the inception of film, the medium has been borrowing from literature, transforming novels, plays and poems into audio-visual experiences with varying degrees of success. Through a range of classic films, we will examine the techniques and practices available to filmmakers in the adaptation process, as well as the challenges of translating a story or concept from one form to another.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - The blockbuster and indie Star (1980 - 2000)Course start date: Sat 14 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Ann-Marie FlemingAfter the release of Spielberg’s Jaws, Hollywood was transformed once again. In the age of
the blockbuster, stars again found a new type of fame and arguably became one of the key
points of interest for the movie-going audience. However, as blockbusters grew, so did
independent American cinema. The indie stars represented a very different version of
stardom, and in particular, drew attention to the appreciation of an actor’s performance.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Strange tales and dark dreams: Fantasy, Horror and Surrealism in European cinemaCourse start date: Sat 14 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyExplore a selection of European films that draw on cinematic traditions of fantasy, horror and surrealism, but which have also acquired significant critical reputations, with their striking visual styles, dreamlike narratives and dark themes lending them an enduring place in both film and popular culture in general. Strange tales and dark dreams to fascinate, horrify and astound you. - Film studies tasterCourse start date: Sat 13 Sep 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Paul SuttonLearn how to evaluate and discuss films while enjoying a working example of a City Lit Film Studies class. In this class we will view and explore clips from a number of films, including popular remakes, enabling us to consider and compare themes and techniques from differing filmmaking countries. There will be a chance to review – in brief – film courses at City Lit (September - December 2025).Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - A Taste of Film StudiesCourse start date: Mon 15 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John WischmeyerWhat does film studies involve? Learn how to enjoy, discuss and criticise films while being part of a real-time working example of a City Lit film studies class. We will view clips from a wide variety of films, exploring themes and technique in current City Lit courses 25/26.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - Tolkien on ScreenCourse start date: Mon 15 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
In his literary essay On Fairy Stories, J.R.R. Tolkien famously wrote that “in human art, fantasy is a thing best left to words”. Despite this claim, The Lord of the Rings is arguably one of the most profitable media franchises of the 21st century. It has inspired academy-award winning films and record-breaking TV series, and continues to generate material that resonates with new generations of fans to explore. This course will explore the history of adapting Tolkien to the cinema, considering not only what was altered or left behind in attempts to turn Tolkien’s vast mythology into the stuff of popular cinema, but what might also have been enhanced as a result.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - Art history and cinemaCourse start date: Tue 16 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Gillian McIverSince cinema's earliest days, literature has provided movies with stories. But there is another way of looking at film: through its relationship with painting, the oldest of the art forms.
We’ll look at paintings by Friedrich, Titian, Hopper, Bacon, Delaroche and many more. We’ll view Red Desert, Pan’s Labyrinth, Easy Rider – looking at realism, surrealism and more.
As you can see, all of these are quite different! Let’s see how movies connect us to art history.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - How to read a film: a beginners' guide to cinemaCourse start date: Tue 16 Sep 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonThis course will develop your critical appreciation of the cinema by teaching you how to read and understand film texts. We will look at the elements that underpin film form – narrative, mise en scène, cinematography, editing and sound – alongside its historical development. We will consider film style by exploring classical, post-classical and art cinema and we will examine influential critical modes of analysis, such as genre, authorship and spectatorship.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - Exploring British cinemaCourse start date: Wed 17 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyDefining itself around themes such as realism, class and national identity, and differentiating itself from Hollywood and other national cinemas, British cinema has found critical and popular acclaim both domestically and internationally. This course explores key themes and developments in British cinema, past and present, through a range of films, filmmakers and critical concepts and responses.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - Hitchcock's Horror Thrillers 1: Psycho, scene by sceneCourse start date: Sat 20 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyHitchcock's most successful film, and, arguably, the horror thriller, Psycho (1960) has enthralled audiences and critics ever since its release sixty-five years ago. Through an in-depth, scene by scene analysis of the film, we will explore its structure, one designed to challenge both audiences and the conventions of narrative filmmaking, its critical and cultural impact, and its enduring appeal.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - British Cinema: The Whole StoryCourse start date: Mon 22 Sep 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John WischmeyerThis course will take you on a journey through the development of British Cinema from its earliest films through to some of its most recent. We will explore some of the most significant periods of British filmmaking creativity and commercial enterprise and consider some of the famous names associated with it. Join me in City Lit’s Cultureplex as I tell – through image and sound – the whole story of British Cinema.Full fee £309.00 Senior fee £247.00 Concession £201.00
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