Notes from the Chair

A heart-felt welcome to the Yale Film and Media Studies Program!

The beginning of a term is always a time full of excitement and possibility. This is how I feel going into fall as the new chair of the Film and Media Studies Program. I look forward to working with colleagues and students to continue—indeed, to expand—the array of course offerings and events we host. For example, this September we are kicking off a multi-year series on “New Voices in Cinema” with a visit by Berlin director Julian Radlmaier. The series is aimed at showcasing emerging filmmakers who are making unusual, genre-bending films. The inaugural event of “Cinécritures: Women in Film” brings Shirin Neshat and co-director Shoja Azari to campus in early November; in spring, we hope Alice Diop will follow. A Partisan Film Series curated by Prof. John MacKay explores films from Eastern Europe that deal with guerrilla struggles against fascism from the 1950s through the 1970s. Directors Christian Delage, Sandra Schulberg, Sarah Small, and Wade McCollum also visit campus with recent works. Finally, media studies will launch with a symposium on “Chronopolitics” with Professors Lutz Koepnick and Geoff Winthrop-Young on Nov. 10 and a talk by Silke Roesler-Keilholz on “Subveillance” on Dec. 5. A conference devoted to the Bengali filmmaker Mrinal Sen (1923-2018) is planned for spring 2024.

Please join the FMS faculty for these events and any other of our many convivial gatherings such as our Tuesday Teas and our Thursday Rough Cut-talks. Peruse our course offerings online and find the faculty during office hours or via email. We are an open and diverse group of scholars and practitioners committed to studying media in all forms as well as to making moving images—and to doing so together. In this interface-dominated age, FMS wants to supplement our virtual existence with in-person dialogue. There is much to which we look forward!

Fatima Naqvi, Chair