Nature and Environmental Filmmaking Minor

Combine your love of the environment with your passion for storytelling in the study of environmental filmmaking at Eckerd College! In today’s world, compelling storytelling is one of the most invaluable tools to inspire and empower people to respond to the critical environmental challenges we are facing today. Bridging the sciences and the arts, our minor in Nature and Environmental Filmmaking will provide you with crucial skills to raise environmental awareness, promote solutions to contemporary issues, and mobilize movements through film and other moving image media. You will study and produce moving images that explore scientific principles, ethical considerations, and sustainable practices essential to our relationship with the natural world and its many inhabitants. A versatile choice for all creative and environmentally-conscious minds, the Nature and Environmental Filmmaking minor pairs especially well with Eckerd’s popular majors in Animal Studies, Environmental Studies, and Marine Science.

Uniquely situated on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Eckerd College features the first undergraduate program of study in Nature and Environmental Filmmaking. With a focus on applied knowledge both inside and outside the classroom, students learn the principles and practices of environmental filmmaking, including ecocritical film analysis and hands-on production techniques. In addition, students study the environmental impact of the production, distribution, and exhibition of film and train in methods of sustainable media production.

The minor requires six courses, including four core courses, one elective, and one approved course from another discipline. No more than one transfer course may count towards the minor. No more than one course may come from a Winter Term or other short term. While courses in the minor may satisfy general education requirements, no more than two courses may count towards any major or other minor requirements.

Minor Requirements

  • An introductory film criticism course: FI 200 Elements of Film
  • An introductory film production course: FI 210A Intro to Filmmaking
  • An introductory environmental content course from another discipline from the list below
  • An intermediate film production course: FI 301 Documentary Filmmaking or FI 302 Narrative Filmmaking
  • A nature and environmental filmmaking core course: FI 304E Film, Media and Environment or FI 305 Environmental Filmmaking
  • A nature and environmentally-themed film studies elective such as FI 219E Environmental Film Festival, FI 312H Looking at Animals, Environmental Film Outreach, FI 303 Film Technique: Wildlife Cinematography, or a film history, film genre, or film production elective chosen in consultation with the minor coordinator

Environmental Content Courses (to be updated regularly with discipline approval)

  • AZ 200 Introduction to Animal Studies
  • AZ 217S Animals and Popular Culture
  • AN 210 Sustainable Development
  • BI 111N Ecology, Evolution and Diversity
  • BI 112N Cells and Genes
  • ES 172 Introduction to Environmental Studies
  • ES 214 Green Design
  • ES 216 Introduction to Coastal Management
  • ES 225 Environmental and Climate Justice
  • ES 270N Introduction to Environmental Biology
  • LI 217H The Voice of the Animal
  • MS 101N Geological Oceanography
  • MS 102N Biological Oceanography
  • PL 240H Animal Ethics
  • PL 243E Environmental Ethics