Film Studies: Our feature presentation
The first rule of Film Studies is: you don’t talk about Film Studies. At least, not on its own. At the University of Leicester, students in our Department of the History of Art and Film learn to consider cinema in its wider social and cultural context.
- Zulu (1964) set at Rorke's Drift in 1879. The film says as much about attitudes to class, social change and empire in 1960s Britain as 19th century imperial wars. [BFI source image; (c) Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures]
Films are a product of a time and place, subject to both artistic and commercial pressures and influences. We believe that effective study of film requires a broad, multi-disciplinary approach which can encompass history, politics, sociology, visual art, literature or any other relevant subject.
At Leicester, this approach to film scholarship is not only central to the teaching of Film Studies, it also underpins the Department’s research, which feeds into that teaching. And it keeps the subject current and topical, whether examining the latest blockbuster or a silent classic.
A remarkable 96 per cent of our Film Studies graduates are employed or in postgraduate study within six months of graduation. Why? Because our courses give students a grounding in the real world as well as the reel world.
