New film course will end with trip to Prague

By Shannon Curley
Collegian Staff
November 8, 2006

Taking a course about films from around the world could be a unique experience for any college student. When the class ends in a trip to Prague, it becomes a semester that no undergrad could forget.

The Communication Department is offering a Global Film course that will begin next semester. When the course wraps up at the end of the semester, students will travel to Prague, where they will stay for a week. The class will meet once a week to study and discuss foreign films.

For the first half of the semester, the class will study films from Germany, Italy, France, Sweden and Russia. After the semester break, the course will switch gears to concentrate exclusively on films made in the Czech Republic.

One of the course objectives is to understand the connection between American and European cinema. While Europe has a thriving film industry, it is rare for European films to make it across the ocean and receive recognition from a mainstream American audience. For this reason, the average American college student is rarely exposed to European films.

Although the course’s main focus is on the film of Europe, students will consequently be exposed to European culture through the movies. Finally, the students will experience that culture first hand in Prague.

“Prague is the hot bed of filmmaking in Eastern Europe,” said Brother Gerry Molyneaux, who is organizing the trip and will be teaching the class.

While admitting that he is “a little biased” because he runs La Salle’s graduate program based in Prague, Molyneaux describes Prague as “the Paris of Eastern Europe.”

The trip will take place in May, when the weather in the Czech Republic will be optimal for tourists, according to Molyneaux. The city is generally very affordable, Molyneaux said, which is good news for a college student who is strapped for cash. Prague’s main attractions and highly acclaimed nightlife are within a comfortable walking distance from the hotel the students will be staying in.

The class will leave May 2 from John F. Kennedy International Airport and will arrive the next day in Prague for orientation and a dinner with La Salle alumni. For the rest of the week, students will tour museums, cathedrals and places of historical importance in Prague.

In addition, students will meet with an American Embassy official who will speak to the class over dinner. They will also attend a special film class with the students of New York University in Prague.

About 15 students will be taking the course this spring. This class is the first travel study to Prague, and according to Molyneaux, there are no plans to instate it as a permanently offered course.

“We’re just going to wait and see how this trip goes,” he said.

curleys1@lasalle.edu