Preservation & Presentation of the Moving Image
Walid El Houri from Lebanon
Film Studies
About the programme
The Film Studies programme does not exist in many other universities in Europe. I was attracted to the city of Amsterdam and its social and cultural atmosphere and I wanted to get a different view of Europe. Since I had never visited northern Europe, Amsterdam seemed a good place to start.
I was satisfied with most of the classes I attended in the programme. In general it is very interesting and enriching, however, one thing that disappointed me was the small number of courses in English we can choose from. We have two mandatory courses and two seminars we can choose ourselves out of four possibilities.
The programme director was ready to give advice in any subject related to the programme. I received enough guidance when I asked for it and I was satisfied with the help I got.
The lectures I attended were mostly well organized and the rooms themselves are well equipped which makes it easier for the professors to illustrate their lectures with multimedia examples. The teaching methods are very relaxing even though the programme is loaded.
About the Universiteit van Amsterdam
The first impression I had was that the university is very well organized compared to my university experiences in Lebanon. However, what caught my attention is that the organization here is very well balanced with a very relaxed atmosphere both on the academic level and on the administrative one. The housing and registration issues went very smoothly and the administration of the university was very helpful especially for the immigration office when we had to apply for the residence permit. I would say that the impression I got and still have of the university is that it is a very pleasant place to study in.
About the city and the Netherlands
I found the city extremely pleasant to live in. It is calm and relaxing, the fact that traffic is based on bikes gives a very charming appeal to the city. It is beautiful aesthetically with all the canals and the old houses. Also, I was impressed by the small size of the city while at the same time it is a very lively cultural centre.
Most of all I like the relaxed atmosphere in the streets, the open markets, the seasonal beers, the numerous used bookshops, reading in the park when the weather is good and walks along the canals to go to the university.
I recommend this MA programme to students who
are looking for an in-depth theoretical understanding of cinema and media in general. The programme is very enriching and students will get in contact with various texts that look at cinema very differently. The programme adopts a considerably liberal look at the subject and students are able to formulate their own opinion about the issues they choose to work on.