Columbia University Film School
American Independent Cinema
Dr. Emanuel Levy
Fall 2018
Guidelines for the Research Outline and Paper
The chief requirement for this course is a research paper of about 12-15 pages (including appendices, graphs, footnotes, and bibliography). The goal is for each student to work steadily throughout the semester; it’s not the kind of paper to be written in a week or two before the end of the term. This is the reason why you’re asked to submit an outline of 2-3 pages in late September.
You should choose a topic that deals with any aspect of the New American Independent Cinema. You’re welcome to select one of the problem areas enlisted in the syllabus.
For the research outline, please include the following:
- Research Problem and Specific Questions
You should distinguish between a research topic and a research problem. For example, “Women in Film” is an interesting topic, but it’s not a specific problem to be explored. A broad topic should be “translated” or “broken down” into more specific questions. For example, the point of departure, or main question, can be: “The Dominant Screen Images of Women in Hollywood Films of the 1940s,” or “Discrimination Against Ethnic Minorities in Mainstream and Independent Cinema.”
This should follow with a list of interrelated questions, or hypotheses, such as:
What specific screen roles women played in films of the 1940s? Were these screen roles limited in their range and scope? Were they stereotypical? How did women’s roles in 1940s films differ from men’s roles in the same genre and/or in the same decade? How did women’s roles in 1940s films differ from genre to genre (musicals, crime-gangster, Westerns, melodramas, war films)?
- Rationale for Choosing the Problem
Obviously, most of you will choose problems out of personal interest and intellectual curiosity. But you should go beyond subjective feelings (which admittedly are important) and speculate about the social, political and cinematic relevance/significance of your problem. Who will benefit from your study’s conclusions? Why is it important to know what kinds of roles women played in films of the 1940s? Women’s screen roles as potential role models for actual behavior? Impact of dominant images on perpetuating male patriarchy and the status quo.
- Methods and Data–How Will You Study Your Research Problem?
This is not a course in research methods, so I don’t expect your analysis to be comprehensive or your choice of films to be statistically representative. Still, within the limitation of time (about two months, you should consider such issues as:
- Theory or perspective (feminism, sociology, psychology, structuralism, semiology, psychoanalysis, anthropological, political-ideological) to be used. This is important, as each theory suggests key concepts that guide our perception of the film. Every film can be looked at and analyzed from a multiplicity of perspectives. For instance, if you take a feminist approach, you will focus on issue of gender, sexuality, and sexual politics. If you take a political and ideological perspective, you will examine the values and messages transmitted by these films to their audiences. As an historian, you will pay greater attention to the historical context and conditions under which these films were made. Why, for example, the new African American and Gay-Lesbian Cinema emerged and flourished in the early 1990s?
Other issues: How many films are you going to include in your analysis? What kinds of films? What are the reasons for choosing these and not others? Is your paper based on analysis of screen roles in one particular decade or is it comparative? For example, comparison of women’s role in the 1940s versus the 1980s (or another decade).
- Survey of the Literature (Selected Bibliography)
Once you choose a specific research problem, you should go to the library and conduct a preliminary investigation of the sources available to you. There have been many books, scholarly publications, and popular discussions about women’s roles in Hollywood films. Though the paper is not based on library work, the “library component” is crucial and an on-going process. For the outline, I suggest that you enlist 4-5 items (books, articles) that are relevant to your research.
The paper is meant to be a stimulating and provocative exercise of critical and effective thinking about the New American Independent Cinema. If you have further questions about this assignment, please do not hesitate to contact the assistants or me.
