Course Description

Instructor: Colin Mackey

The Frankenstein story has been told time and again in different guises. In this course, we will be looking at films that share their origins and/or themes with the novel.

Week 1: Direct film interpretations from the 1931 Universal film to Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning film from last year.
Week 2: Man shaping and controlling other people including My Fair Lady and Pygmalion.
Week 3: The fire of the gods as man harnesses atomic and nuclear power including the films Oppenheimer and Dr. Strangelove.
Week 4: The monster is out of control - the problem of generative A.I. including Steven Spielberg’s A.I. and War Games.

There will be films of focus each week, but we will be referencing others along the way, building a viewing list as we go.

This course can be taken as a part 2 to the exploration of the novel or as a standalone course.

Bio: I was a middle school English teacher for 25 years including time at Holy Innocents' Episcopal School and Westminster in Atlanta. In addition to English, I was the technology coordinator of the middle school and taught courses in media literacy, journalism, and screen writing as well as conducting a film club after a sabbatical at the NYU Tisch School for the Arts concentrating on incorporating film into the English classroom.