Message From the Chair

Welcome to our vibrant film community at Brooklyn College. As part of a college located in the heart of Brooklyn, our Film Department looks and feels like this great borough—diverse, vibrant, sophisticated, and creative.

Since 1974, the Film Department has been one of the most popular and highly enrolled departments at Brooklyn College. The number of courses in both cinema studies and production has continued to expand, as has the size, professional experience, and academic rigor of the faculty. We are proud of our history of intellectual freedom and academic excellence as well as the synergy from our location in a borough known for innovation, culture, and the arts.

Our undergraduate program is designed for students who are passionate about filmmaking and film studies. As part of Brooklyn College, our undergraduates get a first-class liberal arts education while engaging in filmmaking from their first semester onward. Through a rigorous curriculum, using state-of-the-art gear and facilities, our department advances “learning by doing” while grounding our students in the fundamentals of storytelling. Collaborative, hands-on exercises and projects are complemented by courses in film studies. These film study courses range widely, covering a spectrum of important genres, directors, movements, and topics drawn from American, as well as international, film history.

Many of our faculty have worked extensively in more than one of our areas of concentration. We’ve learned that our careers can branch into unexpected regions, so we want our students to be prepared for an evolving media landscape that is constantly shifting. We want filmmakers who are adaptable, ambitious, and take risks.

Our community is made up of students, faculty, and scholars from around the world and across the nation. We have a special commitment to educate immigrants and first-generation college students from the diverse communities that make up our city and state.

The Film Department provides students with both in-person and online classes. We continue to prioritize hands-on, craft-based learning while maintaining health and safety for our community of students, staff, and faculty.

For 40 years we have celebrated out students’ accomplishments at our end-of-semester Film Festival. Annually we screen on average of 70 thesis films—narrative and documentary. Many of the films go on to win honors and awards at national and international film festivals. We are proud of our alumni, many of whom are well established and successful in the film and television industries. Our 41st Annual Brooklyn College Undergraduate Film Festival will be held at the Buchwald Theater in the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, May 31. The event is free and open to the public. We celebrate the accomplishments of all our students, many of whom have struggled valiantly over the past few years to complete their films during the challenging pandemic period.

Our students are resilient, creative, and determined. We welcome you to the Department of Film and invite you to join our community!

Annette Danto
Chair, Department of Film