<p>I agree with suggestions for Wesleyan for film studies. Initial impressions are not significant if a student has a particular goal in mind. Wesleyan is superior to Vassar for film studies, too.</p>
<p>However, I second Momrath’s championing of Williams as a school with a very strong showing in the arts. There are two orchestras, a wind ensemble, a very successful choir with a Grammy-awarded choir conductor, a Grammy awarded Music Department composer-chair, a National Book Award winning novelist on the faculty, a very reputable theater program, and great art facilities, bot for studio art and Art History. The '62 Center is a very state-of-the-art prize winning theater (for architecture). In addition, there is a Fall International Film Festival and a the summer Williamstown Theater Festival, and Williams has a Summer theater program for its students that allows it to benefit from the festival.</p>
<p>It is a shame that Williams has not created a film program because I think it needs one, and the students would really benefit from it. Wesleyan not only has a film program it now has a significant presence in Hollywood (sniff, sniff, two last episodes of How I Met Your Mother.)</p>
<p>For the other arts, Williams offers professional opportunities. One of the orchestras, the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra, is not a student orchestra but a semi-professional orchestra. The Film and Theater Festivals bring big-name professionals into the town on a regular basis and students do have opportunities to be involved. </p>
<p>As for the suggestion that the Art History Program is traditional, not progressive, MassMoCa, the largest museum of contemporary art in the US, was started by grads of the program, and is located five miles away in North Adams. In addition to WCMA (the college art museum) the town is home of the The Clark Museum, a world-class institution.</p>
<p>My son worked at the Clark as an undergraduate while the Museum hosted two major international exhibitions. HIs time there launched a career in Art History.</p>
<p>The “jock-culture” does not cancel out the arts culture. Williams in not a click school and the two coexist happily as significant expressions of the human spirit, as do the sciences and social sciences (development economics also being a strong-suit of Williams.)</p>
<p>However, I think Wesleyan is the go-to school for those interested in film, especially film production, film acting, film writing and film directing. There is enough at Williams for an in-depth film history interest (S had two courses) but not enough for someone who wants to create film.</p>