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Film and New York City, Fall II 2025

Course Description

This course analyzes the various cultural, historical, ethnic, class and artistic dimensions of New York in feature films, such as The Crowd, Midnight Cowboy and Do the Right Thing, as well as in selected documentary and experimental films. The course also situates New York City within the corporate production and exhibition histories of American film. Particular attention is given to films produced in New York over the last two decades and the images of the city they project.

Learning Objectives

In this class, we will aim to master the following skills through our study of film and New York City.

  • analyze a wide variety of cultural, historical, ethnic, class and artistic images of New York in American film.
  • understand New York’s position in the corporate, production and distribution histories of American film.
  • interpret selected film themes, such as immigration and class relations, in the context of New York City history.
  • survey some major film directors who have made films in, and about, New York.
  • develop a typology whereby films about New York can be effectively categorized.
  • discover the relationships among film and other forms of popular entertainment (e.g., the amusement park, minstrelsy, vaudeville, the Broadway stage) that have arisen in New York
  • reinforce your understanding and use of basic cinematic terminology as a means of critical interpretation.

Writing Intensive Class

Philosophy for Writing Intensive Classes:

  • writing is a critical thinking process
  • writing is a tool for learning across disciplines
  • learning is collaborative among students and between students and teachers

The Writing Center at LaGuardia CC offers appointments for in-person and virtual tutoring. In-person tutoring takes place at B 200, and virtual tutoring is available through Zoom. I highly recommend connecting with them at least once this semester.

Hybrid Course

This course will meet in-person each week.

  • Thursdays
  • 1:00–5:30 PM
  • C–443

You will also complete work on your own during the week between our meetings.

All course material, including links to graded assignments, is available on the course website at https://juanmonroy.com/filmandnyc.

Instructor

Juan Monroy

  • Web:https://juanmonroy.com/filmandnyc
  • Email: jmonroy@lagcc.cuny.edu
    • To maintain professional standards, please only use your CUNY email account to contact me
    • Email Hours: Weekdays, 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
    • I usually respond within a day
  • My list of New York films on Letterboxd

Office Hours

Office hours are held both in-person and remotely. Sign up for an appointment at https://fantastical.app/juanmonroy/laguardia-office-hours.

  • In-Person: Thursday, 12:00–1:00 PM, C Building, ground floor lobby
  • Remote via Microsoft Teams: sign up and receive a meeting link for you to join the meeting

CUNY Brightspace

We will be using Brightspace for all graded assignments, including quizzes and exams.

https://brightspace.cuny.edu

Sign in using your CUNY Login, not your college-specific address (the one you use for email).

Chromebooks Available To Borrow

You can borrow a Chromebook for the entire semester. See this page for more information: https://library.laguardia.edu/2022/05/13/can-i-borrow-a-chromebook/.

Campus Resources

LaGuardia CARES (C107): provides resources for daily living expenses, including food, healthcare, rent, utilities, childcare, emergency transportation, medical expense, tuition, books, supplies, legal help, and more! Most these services are free for LaGuardia students and their immediate family members.https://www.laguardia.edu/cares

Office of Accessibility (M 102) provides services for students with a physical disability, learning disability, chronic health issue, temporary injury, difficult pregnancy, or other condition, https://www.laguardia.edu/students/office-of-accessibility/

Wellness Center (C249): provides short-term individual counseling, crisis support, mental health workshops: mental health training, https://www.laguardia.edu/students/the-wellness-center

Women’s Center & LGBTQ+ Hub (MB 08): a space open to all students, providing resources and programs to learn more about women’s & LGBTQ+ rights, equity, and gender & sexuality expressions. https://www.laguardia.edu/students/wchub/

Veteran Services Office (C371): VRC (also known as the Battle Buddy Center) provides a safe haven for quiet study, socializing with fellow veterans, and access to services.

International Student Services Office (B 117): Provides information to help maintain your international student status, https://www.laguardia.edu/students/international-student-services

CUNY is committed to supporting all students, regardless of immigration status.

Modules

The learning activities are divided into twelve modules. For each module, there are:

  • work we complete together during our class sessions
    • film screenings
    • lectures about the history and culture of New York contemporaneous to films we’ve studied
    • discussions and occasional group work reinforcing what we’ve learned in the module
  • work you complete on your own outside of class
    • assigned readings, listed in the course schedule on the course website
    • watch films available on Brightspace
    • watch videos introducing films
    • visiting film sites in New York City
    • written responses to the films we studied in class
    • exercises about Writing About Movies
    • written essays on the course material we’ve studied in class

Attendance and Attention

Attendance is required.

We will be trekking to each week to LaGuardia Community College for this class. Let’s make it worth the effort and be present during the class session:

  • attend each class
  • arrive on time
  • put away the smartphone
  • silence the notifications on your computer
  • pay attention and contribute your own thoughts and insights about what you read in the textbook, what you heard the professor share, and what you saw in a film.

In other words, participate in the classroom experience.

Attendance and participation in class is a requirement and will be considered in the evaluation of student performance. The maximum number of unexcused absences is limited to 15% of the number of class hours. Absences are counted from the first day of class even if they are a result of late registration or change of program.

Readings

Each module will have at least one assigned reading. Complete the readings before our live discussions session. Most readings will be available in digital form from LaGuardia Library or on Brightspace. Sign in using your CUNY Login username and password. Your username ends in @login.cuny.edu and is how you access CUNYFirst.

We will be using a print textbook throughout the semester.

Films

As this is a film class, we will be watching films each week with New York City at its core but may be of different films forms, including narrative fiction, documentary and experimental/avant-garde films.

The films are linked below under each module in the course schedule. Some films will be screened in class and others you will watch on your own from the following sources:

  • Brightspace listed under each module
  • Kanopy. Sign up for an account and add “CUNY LaGuardia Community College” as your library. Contact the Library for information if you’re having trouble accessing Kanopy using your LaGuardia account.
  • Hoopla. You will need to get a library card from Queens Library.
  • JustWatch lists commercial streaming services where films are available.

All the films screened in class are available on Brightspace for further study.

The content presented in the films reflects the original language, context, and perspectives as they were created. It may contain stereotypes, outdated representations, or negative portrayals that are not aligned with our contemporary values.

Refer to my list of New York films on Letterboxd for other relevant films that I couldn’t include for this course.

Film Responses

As we progress throughout the semester, there are film responses on Brightspace that investigate a set of themes listed in the course schedule.

The questions are open-ended and are meant to regularly practice writing. There are no correct answers, but your response should be thoughtful, relevant to our studies, and demonstrate a proficiency in spelling and grammar.

Five of six responses are required: I will drop your lowest response grade.

No assignments will be accepted after they close on Brightspace.

Writing About Movies Assignments

We will be developing our writing skills through a series of in-class assignments throughout the semester.

  1. Summarize and Evaluate an assigned film
  2. Shot Analysis Chart of a film sequence
  3. Formal Analysis of a film sequence
  4. Cultural Analysis of a film sequence
  5. Researching Movies
  6. Organizing and Outlining

Submit your responses for these assignments on Brightspace. No assignments will be accepted after they close on Brightspace.

Film Research and Analysis

A 1200-word film research and analysis essay that analyzes the formal and cultural elements of a “New York” film, produced after 1920, that is listed in my “Film and NYC” list on Letterboxd. Your research should include the film itself and primary and secondary historical sources.

No essays will be accepted after they close on Brightspace.

Field Trips

On your own time during the semester, you are required to visit two film sites in New York City, and write a 500- to 1000-word report for each field trip that describe your experience at each site. Read the guidelines for this assignment. If you do not live in the New York City metropolitan area, contact me for alternate arrangements. No assignments will be accepted after they close on Brightspace, one week after the deadline.

Grading

All assignments are weighted as follows:

Assignment Weight
Attendance and Attention 10%
Writing About Movies Assignments 30%
Film Research and Analysis, Essay 10%
Film Responses 30%
Field Trip 1 10%
Field Trip 2 10%

All assignments must be turned in on time in order to receive full credit. In addition, assignments will not be accepted after the assignment closes on Brightspace. Please plan accordingly.

Course Schedule

Complete all the readings and screenings before each week’s class. All other assignments should be completed by the date noted below.

Module 1: Filming the City, January 8

  • Read Writing About Movies, Chapter 1, “The Challenges About Movies”
  • Read Murray Pomerance, “Prelude: To Wake Up in the City That Never Sleeps,” in City That Never Sleeps New York and the Filmic Imagination, edited by Murray Pomerance (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007)
  • Read Miriam Hansen, “Ambivalences of the ‘Mass Ornament’: King Vidor’s The Crowd.” Qui Parle 5, no. 2 (1992): 102–19
  • Watch New York: Broadway at Union Square (Alexandre Promio, Lumière Brothers, 1896, 1 min.) in class
  • Watch Demolishing and Building Up the Star Theatre (Frederick S. Armitage, American Mutoscope and Biograph, 1901, 3 min.) in class
  • Watch Manhatta (Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler, USA, 1921, 12 min.) in class
  • Watch Skyscraper Symphony (Robert Florey, USA, 1929, 12 min.) in class
  • Watch The Wonder Ring (Stan Brakhage, USA, 1955, 6 min.) in class
  • Watch Bridges Go Round (Shirley Clarke, USA, 1957, 4 min.) in class
  • Watch The Crowd (King Vidor, USA, 1928, 98 min.) in class
  • Watch Stations of the Elevated (Manfred Kirchheimer, USA, 1980, 44 min.) on your own
  • Watch On the Bowery (Lionel Rogosin, USA, 1956, 65 min.) on your own
  • Complete Writing About Movies assignment: Summarize and Evaluate on Brightspace
    • Slides
  • Complete Film Response 1 on Brightspace
  • Review Slides (PDF) from this module’s presentation

Module 2: World War II and Fun City, Jan 15

  • Read Writing About Movies, Chapter 2, “Looking at Movies”
  • Read Bosley Crowther, “‘On the Town,’ Yuletide Picture at Radio City, Is Musical to Please the Family,” The New York Times, December 9, 1949, 37
  • Read Scott Bukatman, “A Day in New York: On the Town and The Clock,” in City That Never Sleeps New York and the Filmic Imagination, edited by Murray Pomerance (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007)
  • Read Jason Bailey, “Fun City, John Linsday, and Midnight Cowboy” in Fun City Cinema: New York City and the Movies that Made It (New York: Abrams, 2021)
  • Watch On the Town (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, USA 1949, 98 min.) in class
  • Watch The Clock (Vincente Minnelli, USA, 1945, 90 min.) in class
  • Watch excerpt from American Experience: New York, “The City and the World, 1945–2000” (Ric Burns and James Sanders, USA, 2003, 78 min.) on your own
  • Watch Square Times (Rudy Burkhardt, USA, 1967, 6 min.) in class
  • Watch Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, USA, 1969, 113 min.) on your own
  • Complete Writing About Movies assignment: Shot Analysis on Brightspace
    • Slides (PDF) about this assignment
  • Complete Film Response 2 on Brightspace
  • Review Slides (PDF) from this module’s presentation

Module 3: Fear City, Jan 22

  • Read Writing About Movies, Chapter 3, “Formal Analysis”
  • Read Writing About Movies, “Cultural Analysis,” 55–100
  • Read James Sanders, “Nighttown: The Dark Side of the City,” in Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001)
  • Read Jason Bailey, “Fear City, Blackouts, and Taxi Driver” in Fun City Cinema: New York City and the Movies that Made It (New York: Abrams, 2021)
  • Read David Desser, “When We See the Ocean, We Figure We’re Home: From Ritual to Romance in The Warriors,” in City That Never Sleeps New York and the Filmic Imagination, edited by Murray Pomerance (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007)
  • Read Eric Ducker, “New York Mythology: An Oral History of The Warriors” Fader October 3, 2005
  • Read Lizzie Borden, “Born in Flames,” Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Arts & Politics no. 16 (1983): 10–16
  • Read Karen Jahne, “Review: Born in Flames,” Film Quarterly 37, no. 4 (Summer 1984): 22–24
    • Available from LaGuardia Library on JSTOR
  • Read Sophie Mayer, “Downtown Renegade,” Sight & Sound 26, no. 10 (October 2016): 50–51
  • Watch Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, USA, 1976, 114 min.) in class
  • Watch The Warriors (Walter Hill, USA, 1979, 92 min.) on your own
  • Watch Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden, USA, 1983, 90 min.) on your own
  • Complete Writing About Movies assignment: Formal Analysis on Brightspace
  • Complete Writing About Movies assignment: Cultural Analysis on Brightspace
  • Complete Film Response 3 on Brightspace
  • Review Slides (PDF) from this module’s presentation
    • Part 1: Fear City
    • Part 2: Sometime in the Future. These slides also contain information about the following writing assignments, due Wednesday, January 28
      • Select a Film and NYC Film for the Film Research and Analysis Assignment
      • Formal Analysis
      • Culture Analysis
      • Film Response #3
  • The upcoming Film Forum series of over 50 films about New York City: Tenement Stories: From Immigrants to Bohemians, runs from February 6–26.

Module 4: Lions, Scarecrows, Sharks, and Jets, Jan 29

  • Read Writing About Movies, “Researching Movies”
  • Read Alfred L. Martin, “Blackbusting Hollywood: Racialized Media Reception, Failure, and The Wiz as Black Blockbuster,” JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 2021, Vol.60 (2), p.56–79
  • Read John Skow, “Cinema: Nowhere Over the Rainbow,” Time October 30, 1978
  • Watch “The Wiz (1978) movie review”, Sneak Previews with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel in class
  • Read Lillian Jimenez, “Moving from the Margin to the Center,” in The Ethnic Eye: Latino Media Arts, ed. Chon A. Noriega and Ana M. Lopez (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996)
  • Read Joan Turner, “Review: Hell’s Kitchen Chronicle by Maren Erskine, Reed Erskine; Los Sures by Diego Echeverria; The Heart of Loisaida by Marci Reaven and Bienvenidas Matias” American Anthropologist 87, no. 4 (1985): 985–87.
  • Read Megan Woller, “‘This Is Our Turf!’: Puerto Rican Youths in the 1961 Film Adaptation of West Side Story,” Studies in Musical Theatre 8, no. 1 (March 2014): 27–41.
  • Watch The Wiz (Sidney Lumet, USA, 1978, 134 min.) in class
  • Watch West Side Story (Robert Wise, USA, 1961, 151 min.) on your own
  • Watch Los Sures (Diego Echevarria, USA, 1984, 57 min.) on your own
  • Complete Writing About Movies assignment: Understanding Primary and Secondary Sources on Brightspace
  • Complete Film Response 4 on Brightspace
  • Review Slides (PDF) from this module’s presentation
    1. Part 1: There’s No Place Like New York!
    2. Part 2: Nuyroicans
    3. Writing About Movies, Researching Movies

Module 5: If I Can Make It There, Feb 5

Module 6: Boroughs and Neighborhoods, Feb 19

  • Read Vincent Canby, “Spike Lee Stirs Things Up at Cannes,” New York Times, May 20, 1989
  • Read Casarae L. Gibson, “‘Fight the Power’: Hip Hop and Civil Unrest in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.” Black Camera 8, no. 2 (2017): 183–207
  • Read Seth A. Williams, “Review: My Brooklyn,” in Teaching Sociology, vol. 43, no. 4, 2015, pp. 321–24
  • Read Jeannette Catsoulis, “Branding in Brooklyn: A World of Change,” New York Times, January 3, 2013
  • Read Vojislave Filipcevic, “Maria Full of Grace,” Cineaste 30.1 (2004): 44–46
  • Read Juanita Heredia, “From the New Heights: The City and Migrating Latinas in Real Women Have Curves and María Full of Grace,” Mester 42.1 (2013): 3–24.
  • Read Stephen Holden, “Film Review: A Mule’s Long Trek in Search of the North American Dream,” New York Times, July 16, 2004
  • Read Cynthia Sorrensen, “Maria Full of Grace” Journal of Latin American Geography 4.2 (2005): 120–23
  • Watch Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, USA, 1989, 120 min.) in class
  • Watch My Brooklyn (Kelly Anderson, USA, 2013, 76 min.) on your own
  • Watch Maria Full of Grace (Joshua Marston, Colombia/USA, 2004, 100 min.) on your own
  • Complete Film Response 6 on Brightspace
  • Review Slides (PDF) from this module’s presentation

Finals Week Meeting, Feb 26

We will be meeting today for our final meeting of the semester.