Films are not just for watching at Lyndon State College.
David Johnston, professor of philosophy, is currently teaching a number of classes in Film Studies right here at Lyndon State. As an English major at LSC one can select the concentration Film Studies, or major in any department but have a minor in Film Studies. Not film production, that is, not the art of making movies, but rather the study of film. History, theory, criticism, looking at films as works of art, looking at films as products of their culture.
As Johnston puts it, “Understanding what goes into making a movie and the critical judgments behind what’s a good movie and what’s a bad movie… Which may be different than a movie I like and a movie I don’t like. I like some really bad movies and I don’t like some really good ones.”
Johnston is currently teaching a course on none other than Walt Disney, studying the films Disney made in his lifetime. There is also a film studies seminar, taken from a topical standpoint. Previous topics included foreign films remade in the USA and war films focused on films about wars that occurred since the invention of cinema.
The film studies concentration is more for the student who aspires to be the next Bob Mondello or Gene Siskel than the next Martin Scorsese or say John Waters. However, there are options for that budding Catherine Hardwicke here at LSC. A New Media Studies major could minor in Film Studies and work on editing and camera work. LSC has a Visual Arts Department and an Electronic Journalism major with its own TV News cast. An aspiring film maker could certainly get the foundation they need.