This is a one semester course which is meant to give students a general history of American cinema and the Hollywood film industry. It starts in the early 1900s with the Silent Film era and then continues into the “Golden Age” of the studio system in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, followed by the New Wave era of the 1960s and 70s, and finally the Blockbuster from the late 1970s to the present day. Throughout the course we will look at films of various genres and analyze them in terms of style and content. We will also study the evolution of the film industry itself and how that influenced the movies that got made. Although the course focuses on American movies, we will study how they were influenced by films from other countries.  To take this elective, students require ESL Level 3 or higher.