Film

Vassar was one of the first liberal arts colleges to create a broad and substantive film major.

The Film Department is international in its screen studies scope, stressing a diverse canon ranging from silent films to television to online streaming content. The film major grounds our students in film history and theory and offers seminar courses in fiction and non-fiction production, as well as screenwriting for shorts or feature films. We specialize in integration: integrating film studies and filmmaking; teaching film and television; and offering interdisciplinary approaches to cinema’s wide-ranging cultural influence.

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Pictured: Carl Elsaesser. Person holding an old fashion camera to their eye while standing outside.

Carl Elsaesser, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Film, Receives 2026 Creative Capital Award

Carl Elsaesser, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Film, was awarded a 2026 Creative Capital Award for his feature-length, untitled film project that uses footage from the past decade to shape a coming-of-age narrative. Blending video diaries, ethnography and fiction, Carl’s film follows Ellis, a queer boy documenting his family’s frustrations and emerging sense of self.

Pictured: Carl Elsaesser. Person holding an old fashion camera to their eye while standing outside.

Carl Elsaesser Selected for 2026 Creative Capital Award

Carl Elsaesser, a member of Vassar’s Film Department faculty, has been named a 2026 Creative Capital Award recipient, part of Creative Capital’s national awards supporting new, ambitious work across artistic disciplines.

Several individuals gather closely in a small room with plain white walls and a fluorescent ceiling light. Some are seated while others stand, holding or reviewing stacks of typed pages, with one person in the center crossing their arms and another writing on a pad near the doorway. Attentive expressions are visible throughout the group, with a mix of seated and leaning postures. A tall shelf filled with papers stands to the left, and a small framed portrait hangs on the back wall.

Women’s Work: Organizing New York Independent Film & Video

Women’s Work (Feb 24–May 24, 2026) celebrates the behind-the-scenes organizing labor that powered New York independent film and video collectives from the 1960s–1990s, featuring media clips and archival materials that show how activist media was made and shared outside the mainstream.