An introduction to the evolution of cinema from the earliest technological leaps though the rise of an art form and global industry. This survey is intended to give students the analytical tools and emotional vocabulary to “read” motion pictures and engage with their own filmmaking with an awareness of the history and the evolution of film ideas and technologies in both time and space. We will look at how films are shaped by their context and by each other — and at how, in their turn, films shape us. By the end of the class you will have a good overview of the history and elements of cinema, as well as the capacity to engage with cinema as a specific, if protean, art form. You will also have seen films from eras and places you would have never picked, and grow to love most of them and know precisely why you hate some of the others.