Archives: News

By Christina Ligi, News and Media Studies major, Class of 2019 Dr. Joan McGettigan, a Film, Television, and Digital Media associate professor and movie lover, hosts the Classic Film Series open to all on Thursday evenings. This community has developed over the years and has become something quite special within the Schieffer College. Joan McGettigan arrived at… Read more »

Hosted by Dr. Joan McGettigan, the Spring Class Film Series is held in 164 Moudy Building South (2805 S. University Drive) on the TCU campus and is open to the public. Admission is free and the screenings begin at 7 p.m. For more information, please call the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media at 817-257-7630. SPRING… Read more »

FTDM associate professor Tricia Jenkins delivered a public lecture in November 2016 as part of Texas A&M International University’s Presidential Lecture Series. It focused on the ways the CIA has worked with Hollywood to shape its public perception through film and television. Professor Jenkins also delivered the final lecture of the Lennox Speaker Series on… Read more »

FTDM professor Kylo-Patrick Hart’s article “Minimizing Ethnicity in 1950s Television: The Rapid Rise and (Inevitable) Demise of Life with Luigi” has been published in the academic journal Studies in American Culture. It examines network efforts to reduce the stereotypical narrative strategies and messages pertaining to Italian Americans in the popular but short-lived 1950s CBS situation… Read more »

The Queer Media in the 21st Century Conference will take place at Texas Christian University on Friday, November 4 and Saturday, November 5, 2016. This two-day academic event will feature an opening address, multiple plenary sessions, and a variety of panels on noteworthy queer topics. A sampling of its intriguing presentation titles includes “Found Footage… Read more »

Norman Steinberg, co-writer of such iconic screenplays as Blazing Saddles and My Favorite Year, met with the members of FTDM’s Dramatic Style and Structure class on Tuesday, October 4, 2016. He engaged the class quickly with extremely practical advice about becoming a writer for film, television, or related media in the current industry climate. The… Read more »

This semester, students in FTDM associate professor Tricia Jenkins’ Film Festivals course are organizing four screening events for the Kino Monda film series, sponsored by TCU’s Center for International Services. Please join them Wednesday, September 21, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. in Sid Richardson’s Lecture Hall 4 for the first of these films: Ixcanul (2015, directed… Read more »

From September 1-4, 2016, FTDM associate professor Joan McGettigan will introduce films in “The Art of Espionage” film series at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The series will open with Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent and include a wide variety of films, ranging from classics (such as The Spy Who Came in from the… Read more »

FTDM professor Kylo-Patrick Hart’s new book, the edited collection Queer TV in the 21st Century: Essays on Broadcasting from Taboo to Acceptance, is hot off the press. The contributions to this collection explore queerness in contemporary television during the period from 2000 to the present, in a variety of noteworthy offerings that includes Buffy the… Read more »

FTDM congratulates Rebecca Semik (FTDM alum, ’14), who received the award for Best Feature Screenplay for her feature-length work Baby Steps at the 2016 Hill Country Film Festival. This project began as part of Rebecca’s honors project while she was a student at TCU.  

On Thursday, April 21, 2016, FTDM hosted a test screening of the film A Bad Idea Gone Wrong. Produced by Red Entertainment, this comedy centers on two would-be thieves dealing with double-crosses and an unexpected hostage situation. Notably, several of our department’s alumni, as well as a couple of our current students, worked on this film…. Read more »

Gwen Burgess Throckmorton (RTVF alum, ‘97), Head of Industry for the Global Marketing Solutions division of Facebook, visited with FTDM students on Friday, April 15, 2016. During her time on campus, she spoke about the industry’s use of big data to personalize content, and the effect that has on marketing partnerships.

FTDM students received invaluable career advice at the Exploring Careers in Media Conference, which occurred at TCU on Friday, April 8, 2016. Its various sessions focused on professional opportunities pertaining to the business of acting, film and television festivals, and the sports industry. Nancy Chartier (actress), Dave Evans (Fox Sports Southwest), Emily Gipson (ATX Festival),… Read more »

Jeanine Bartel (TCU ’98) visited with FTDM students March 29-30, 2016. An experienced stage and screen actress, Jeanine’s impressive credits include Law and Order SVU, Law and Order CI, The Carrie Diaries, Nurse Jackie, and a guest starring role on Chicago PD. During her time on campus, Jeanine spoke to several classes about the realities of a… Read more »

FTDM assistant professor R. Colin Tait’s article “The Simpsons as a Blockbuster Transmedia Franchise” has been published in The Projector: A Journal on Film, Media and Culture. It demonstrates how, over the course of its nearly twenty-seven-year run, The Simpsons has not only evolved in tandem with the changes in the television industry but also led the… Read more »

FTDM assistant professor R. Colin Tait’s article “The Screwball Bromance: Regression, Bisexuality, and Reconfigured Masculinity in Step Brothers” has been published in The Journal of Men’s Studies. It argues that the 2008 film Step Brothers subverts screwball comedy’s classical form by presenting a love story involving its two central male characters.

The inaugural issue of Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, the new academic journal launched by founding co-editor (and FTDM professor) Kylo-Patrick Hart and published by Intellect Ltd., is hot off the press. It contains Professor Hart’s discussion of a handful of the most intriguing queer media offerings of all time along with a… Read more »

The Reexamining the 1960s: Media, Politics, Culture Conference will take place at TCU on Friday, November 6 and Saturday, November 7, 2015. Emily Newman of Texas A&M University-Commerce will deliver the conference keynote address, “From That Girl to Girls: Rethinking Ann Marie/Marlo Thomas as a Feminist Icon,” and approximately two dozen additional research presentations are scheduled to occur…. Read more »

FTDM professor Kylo-Patrick Hart’s new book, the edited collection Living in the Limelight: Dynamics of the Celebrity Experience, has just been published. To enable readers to grasp the cumulative complexity of contemporary celebrity culture, its sixteen chapters explore noteworthy dynamics of the celebrity experience in recent centuries and up to the present day. In doing… Read more »

FTDM associate professor Joan McGettigan will introduce three films — Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, and Touch of Evil — as part of “Happy Birthday, Orson!”, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth/Lone Star Film Society’s upcoming celebration of the 100th birthday of cinema legend Orson Welles (September 3-6, 2015). Additional information can be found… Read more »

In late June 2015, FTDM associate professor Tricia Jenkins visited Australia to deliver the keynote address at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre’s conference “The State and U.S. Cultural Production.” While there, she was also featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s national radio program The List. To listen to the interview, click here.    

This summer’s FTDM in London Program concluded officially with a farewell meal gathering on Thursday, June 25 (see photo, below). Over the course of the preceding four weeks, the program’s student participants took part in two FTDM courses being offered on location in London, England: Film in a Global Society (co-taught by Professors Kylo-Patrick Hart… Read more »

FTDM professor Kylo-Patrick Hart’s chapter “Queerness and Bullying in Popular Culture” has been published in Bullying in Popular Culture: Essays on Film, Television and Novels, edited by Abigail Scheg. It explores the topic of queerness in relation to the phenomenon of bullying as it is represented in the feature film The Mudge Boy and the… Read more »

FTDM professor Kylo-Patrick Hart’s article “Supernatural Potentialities and Household Technologies: Communication Devices Gone Wild in Tales of Tomorrow and The Twilight Zone” has been published in the themed issue of the academic journal Supernatural Studies pertaining to television and the supernatural. It explores dystopian fears that technological advancements may potentially be supernatural creations that are somehow out of… Read more »

The Department of Film, Television and Digital Media hosted its special Friday Night Lights Screening and Reunion Event on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 in the Brown-Lupton University Union Auditorium. Anyone who was unable to attend, or who wishes to revisit the evening’s discussion as it unfolded, should click here. The event began officially with the screening of the… Read more »

Ride TV CEO Michael Fletcher met with FTDM students on April 6, 2015 to discuss the introduction of a niche cable network in today’s media environment. While doing so, he detailed the process of acquiring cable and satellite distribution for the network in the United States and globally. He also discussed the opportunities and challenges… Read more »

On Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at 6 p.m., the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, the Department of Social Work, ACH Child and Family Services, and the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition are co-hosting a community screening of The Homestretch. We invite all members of the TCU community to attend this free event, which is… Read more »

In conjunction with Theatre TCU’s production of Guys and Dolls at the W.E. Scott Theatre (April 8-12, 2015), the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, collaboratively with the Department of Theatre in the College of Fine Arts, presents “From Stage to Screen: Original Posters of Beloved Musicals from Broadway and Hollywood,” making its inaugural U.S. appearance… Read more »

On February 10, 2015, casting director Beth Sepko met with FTDM students to discuss the craft of casting and her work on the television series Friday Night Lights and the Academy Award-nominated film Boyhood. In addition to speaking in classes, she visited with students informally to share with them the intricacies of the industry. While doing so, Sepko spoke about… Read more »

FTDM professor Kylo-Patrick Hart is the founding co-editor (with Bruce Drushel of Miami University) of Intellect Ltd.’s new academic journal Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture. International and interdisciplinary in scope and embracing a range of research approaches, this refereed academic journal publishes cutting-edge scholarship on topics at the intersection of media/popular culture and… Read more »

FTDM associate professor Joel Timmer has been appointed editor of the Texas Entertainment and Sports Law Journal. Its mission is to provide current practical and scholarly literature to Texas lawyers who practice sports or entertainment law. Published biannually, this publication is provided to all members of the Texas State Bar Entertainment and Sports Law Section; many… Read more »

Ten TCU undergraduates who are majoring or minoring in offerings of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media — Jena Fornof, Will Forsythe, Stephanie Fricker, Ainsley Hapeman, Catie Kosiba, Jordan Miller, Stephen Patino, Abel Perez-Arita, Sarah Sampson, and Megan Tholen — presented impressive research findings of their own, alongside professors and graduate students from across… Read more »

FTDM assistant professor R. Colin Tait’s chapter “When Marty Met Bobby: Collaborative Authorship in Mean Streets and Taxi Driver” has been published in A Companion to Martin Scorsese, edited by Aaron Baker. In it, Professor Tait examines the unique contributions that actor Robert De Niro brought to director Martin Scorsese’s quintessential films Mean Streets and… Read more »

FTDM professor Kylo-Patrick Hart’s chapter “Looking at Complicated Desires: Gay Male Youth and Cinematic Representations of Age-Different Relationships” has been published in Queer Youth and Media Cultures, edited by Christopher Pullen. In it, Professor Hart examines a handful of noteworthy films representing the complicated desires that surface when gay male youths find themselves in age-different… Read more »

Michele Mitchell, the award-winning producer and director of the acclaimed documentary “Haiti: Where Did the Money Go?,” will be visiting FTDM on Thursday, October 16, 2014. She will be speaking at 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. in Room 164 Moudy South Bldg., for approximately 45 minutes each session, to be followed by questions from and… Read more »

“Alternative Visions in Media,” a special issue of the academic journal The Communication Review guest edited by FTDM professor Kylo-Patrick Hart, has been published by Routledge. Its topics include class-inflected masculinities in FX crime dramas, eating disorders as humorous entertainment, otherness in the video game Assassin’s Creed III, and female submission in feminist kink porn. The articles in… Read more »

“Absurd Masculinity: Will Ferrell’s Time-Bending Comic Persona,” an article by FTDM assistant professor R. Colin Tait, has been published in The Communication Review. In it, he challenges critical assessments that are dismissive of actor Will Ferrell’s various performances in his comedy films and identifies complex messages that are typically overlooked by viewers in order to reveal… Read more »

  Recently, TCU students had the privilege of talking to director Peter Weir about his 1975 film Picnic at Hanging Rock while visiting that landmark near Melbourne, Australia. By chance, the students visited Hanging Rock on the same day as Weir, who had not been back to that location since he originally made the film… Read more »

Associate professor Joan McGettigan will introduce Alfred Hitchcock’s 1929 film Blackmail at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth on Thursday, August 28, 2014. The screening is the first in the series “Scare Tactics: Six by Hitchcock,” which covers the director’s career from the 1920s through the 1960s. Live musical accompaniment for this silent version… Read more »

TCU’s Department of Film, Television and Digital Media will be hosting the daylong Analyzing the 1950s: Media, Politics, Culture Conference on Saturday, November 15, 2014. The conference organizers are seeking historically and theoretically intriguing presentations that explore any noteworthy aspect(s) of media, politics, and/or culture during the 1950s, whether in the United States or elsewhere…. Read more »

Associate Professor of Professional Practice Greg Mansur was recently invited into the Adobe Campus Leader Program. As an Adobe Campus Leader, Mansur will be a part of a growing global network of professional users of Adobe’s cutting edge digital software. Professor Mansur teaches three classes that incorporate Adobe software into his curriculum: Motion Graphics, Post… Read more »

Madeline Horne, Vice President of Current Programming at Warner Bros. Television, visited FTDM classes and held a luncheon with FTDM students on Friday, April 4. In her present position, Ms. Horne oversees the creative aspects of prime-time comedy and drama series. Prior to joining Warner Bros., she held various positions at CBS (including Vice President,… Read more »

On March 19th and 20th, Trevor Walton spoke to several FTDM classes and hosted one-on-one mentoring sessions with students as part of the FTDM Speaker Series. Walton has spent most of his career as a Senior Commissioning Editor at four major North American television networks. He was Senior Vice President of Movies for CBS, Senior… Read more »