"Getting into Yale Univeristy is difficult and not for everyone," Charles Musser, Director of Undergraduate Film Studies, is quick to point out. But, for the few who can get in, the benefit for filmmakers is twofold: the outstanding faculty and the depth of the interdisciplinary curriculum. Still, if Yale is not the place to matriculate, there is a great summer program that offers a taste of Yale and, better still, a taste of Yale's unique approach to film."

Yale University, always proud to point out that the emphasis is on undergraduate studies, has an extensive major in Film Studies. Though students will not major in production, they may concentrate in one or more aspect of production, and senior projects are largely production based. Given the vast resources of the wealthy school and the access to a seemingly limitless network of alumni in the film industry, Yale can offer opportunities that rival any other film program anywhere.

Undergraduates can major in Film Studies within the College of Liberal Arts. As the website points out, the program is interdisciplinary, "focusing on the history, theory and criticism of cinema and other moving image media." Courses dissect cinema's role as an art form and as an industry over its three-century history and looks at the contributions of the moving image in the cultural and scientific communities. Students choose their courses through the departments of German, French, Comparative Literature, American Studies, English, Anthropology, Italian, Art, Slavic Languages, Theater Studies, Women's Studies and others as designated by the Film Studies Committee.

Musser points out that Yale undergraduates typically double major in film studies and a collaborative department. "One of our outstanding senior projects last year was by Laura Horak, who majored in Film Studies and Women's Studies. She wrote a 60-70 page senior essay addressing the issue of cross-dressing by women in the cinema before 'The Code' of 1935. She also wrote, produced and directed a short film called MAIN STATION, which has played the Bronx Independent Film Festival, the Chicago Independent Film Festival and others."

"If you want studio arts alone, go to NYU; if you want critical studies alone, like it or not, go to Columbia. But if you want it all, we have it."

Faculty is key at Yale. The prestige and location of the school attract the biggest names in all fields. Among the luminaries film students at Yale will work with is Michael Roemer, whose fiction films NOTHING BUT A MAN (1967) and THE PLOT AGAINST HARRY(1969) were revived in the early '90's to great acclaim, and whose documentary work on feature length nonfiction films such as Emmy-winning FACES OF ISRAEL and DYING are classics of the medium. Students will have the opportunity to do a project under the tutelage of legendary documentarian D.A. Pennebaker (DON'T LOOK BACK, MONTEREY POP, ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS, Samuel Beckett's THE WAR ROOM, et al.) or/and his wife, the celebrated cinematographer-turned-director Chris Hegedus. John Andrews, whose first student film at Yale was nominated for an Academy Award and whose second actually won one, is on the faculty along with a host of others.

Though Charles Musser is not likely to toot his own horn, he is himself a well-known documentarian and a leading authority on cinema history. His film BEFORE NICKELODEON: THE CINEMA OF EDWIN S. PORTER is considered a landmark achievement, documenting the origins of American Film as both an art and an industry.

"You come to Yale for its wide range of courses, its rich and diverse faculty and for more access, more depth than any other program of study," Musser asserts. "And you can get at least a small dose of everything we have to offer in our new summer program as well. That IS for everyone, and we're proud of it."

Located in the quintessentially New England enclave of New Haven, Connecticut, Yale is work a visit. And for a virtual tour, check out the website:
www.yale.edu/filmstudiesprogram/