This course surveys key events, representative films, influential filmmakers, major film movements, and defining modes of film exhibition that mark the history of motion pictures from 1945 into the early 21st century. The emphasis is on feature-length narrative, but films in other styles are occasionally presented. In addition to providing access to major works of film art, the course facilitates historical and geographical understanding of vital contexts – industrial, social, cultural, political, national, aesthetic, and technological – that have shaped the medium’s development since World War II. Students gain specialized understanding of cinema history as well as general knowledge of broad patterns in U.S. and world history. (Photograph: "Twi-Lite Cinema Center, Great Falls, Montana" by John Margolies, 1987, Library of Congress Free to Use and Reuse Collection, https://www.loc.gov/item/2017708007/)