Fine Arts Department

Michael Civille

fine arts department

Adjunct Faculty

civille@bc.edu
617-552-4935

Candidate for Ph.D. in American Studies, Boston University
MFA, Boston University, 2007
Vancouver Film School, 1996
B.A., Boston College, 1994

Fields of Interest

Narrative film production and film history (The New Hollywood, 1966-1976; Hollywood History; Postwar Eastern European Cinema); 20th Century American Cultural Studies; Baseball and American Culture and History (1845-present)

Academic Profile

Professor Civille has been teaching at Boston College since January, 1999. He teaches Filmmaking I (introductory film production), and Filmmaking II (advanced filmmaking and directing techniques) every semester. In addition, he has taught studies courses on American Film Noir, Independent American Film, Eastern European Film, Hong Kong Cinema, and Maverick Hollywood Directors. In his production classes, students produce their own films and study technical and theoretical aspects of film direction, production, and editing. In studies classes, students analyze contemporary and historical films, discussing filmmakers' techniques and recurring themes, while applying semiotic, gender, and genre theories to selected works.


Conference/Retrospective/Seminar Presentations
  • "Double Indemnity and the Production Code"
    Film Noir and the Production Code
    Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA)
    June, 2009
  • "A Simple Plan: A.G. Spalding's America's National Game as an Allegory for the Reordering of
    American Hierarchies in 1911"
    The 21st Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture
    National Baseball Hall of Fame (Cooperstown, NY)
    June, 2009
  • "Hospitality and Hostility: Racial Stereotypes of African Americans as Strangers in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation"
    Hosting The Stranger: An interdisciplinary seminar on hospitality and embodied imagination
    Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA)
    March, 2009
  • "The Brave Departure: How the Boston Braves’ 1953 Migration to Milwaukee Reflected the City of Boston and a Changing American Landscape"
    The 20th Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture
    National Baseball Hall of Fame (Cooperstown, NY)
    June, 2008
  • "Poker Faced and Gorgeous: The Early Performances of Meryl Streep"
    The Coolidge Award for Meryl Streep
    Coolidge Corner Theatre (Brookline, MA)
    March, 2006
Host
  • The American New Wave, 1966-1975: A Five Week Retrospective on the New Hollywood
    Coolidge Corner Theatre (Brookline, MA)
    March/April, 2003
Publications
  • "The Brave Departure," The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2007-2008, ed. William M. Simons (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, 2009).
Filmography
  • Producer/Assistant Director, Carapace (2007)
  • Director/Producer, After June (2005) (Official Selection, 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, 2006 Palm Spring International Festival of Short Films, 2005 St. Louis International Film Festival)
  • Director/Producer/Writer, The Deer & The Cheetah (2000)