Course Description

Instructor: Colin Mackey

Alfred Hitchcock is known to many as the Master of Suspense, but this sells his importance as a filmmaker short. Starting his film career in the silent era and working through the 1970’s, Alfred Hitchcock was a groundbreaking innovator who helped develop the language of film and the narrative techniques that are standard today.

In this four-part course, we will trace the career of Alfred Hitchcock by discussing one or two films a week. We will examine each film in the context of other films of the time, the growth of Hitchcock as a filmmaker, and the influence each film had on future directors.

In Part 1, we will begin at the early stages of Hitchcock’s career in which he was a self-described “talented amateur” to his emergence as one of the biggest names in cinema.

As we will be watching key clips in class, it is not essential to view each film in its entirety.

Bio: I was a middle and high school English teacher at Holy Innocents' Episcopal School and Westminster. I have a bachelor's degree in Linguistics from the University of Georgia and a Masters in English Education from Agnes Scott College where I was the first male graduate. I also completed a program in Film Education from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.