UNCP 4608 Filming Life: Self, Other, and the Good

This course, designed for Boston College seniors, combines an intellectually challenging interdisciplinary study of a group of twelve diverse films with a semester-long formative discussion of each films relationship both to fundamental life questions and to your individual lives. What does it mean to be human? What does my human condition allow me to do, what does it oblige me to do? What does it mean to be a self? Who is that other sitting next to me, or ten thousand miles away from me, or the other/stranger in myself? What choices can I make to have a purposeful and good life? All the films chosen for this course ask/frame these questions in sometimes clear and obvious, sometimes in latent and subtle ways.

Course overview

Department
Capstone
School
MCAS
Credits
3
Level
Undergraduate
Offered
Annually

Course evaluations

Response-weighted averages from Boston College’s official course evaluations (Avalanche/Blue).

Course rating
4.29 / 5 · Very Good
7 responses
Instructor rating
4.43 / 5 · Very Good
7 responses
Terms evaluated
1
Most recent: Fall 2025

Scales: overall ratings run from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent); agreement questions from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree); weekly effort from 1 (up to 1 hour) to 5 (10 or more hours).

Evaluations by term and instructor
TermInstructorCourse overallInstructor overallWell organizedClear learning objectivesIntellectually challengingHelpful assignmentsApplicable beyond courseAttendance necessaryWeekly effortResponses
Fall 2025Thomas Epstein4.34.44.44.04.74.34.64.71–3 hrs/week7 of 10

Data freshness

Course and evaluation data last updated 2026-10-09. Source details and limitations are documented in Data Sources and Methodology.

Instructors

Sections

  • Section 01
    Spring 2027 · Thomas Epstein · Devlin Hall 218 M 06:00PM-08:00PM;Devlin Hall 218 W 04:00PM-06:45PM · Offered