The readings for this course have addressed interrelated questions about the fun

The readings for this course have addressed interrelated questions about the fundamental nature of cinema, such as:
What is film? What are the relationships between film and other media? What is the relationship between film and reality? Between film and the mind? Between film and language? How are cinema and photography related, and how are they distinct from one another? What relationships can cinema have to ideology? How can film represent history, and how can it participate in history? How does the two-dimensional image of cinema relate to the three-dimensional spaces of the real world? How does the technology of film contribute to what film is and what it can do? How does film participate in and reflect cultural formations? How do changes in the technology of film impact the nature of cinematic experience?
For this final paper, you will be asked to articulate your own theory of cinema. Focusing on aspects of the ontology, epistemology, aesthetics, and/or ideology of film, present your perspective on the nature and the potential of the cinematic medium.
In describing your perspective, compare your ideas to those of the film theorists we have read and discussed in the class. To whose perspectives are your ideas the most similar? To whose are they least similar? (In thinking about this last question, please feel free to draw upon your work on the midterm paper for the class.)
Be sure to illustrate your theory with examples from films—these can, but need not be, films screened for the course.
One possible format would be to divide your paper into sections (each a few pages long) on ontology, epistemology, etc., framed by an introduction and a conclusion summarizing your views.
Alternatively, you could focus on a particular question or theme related to cinema, and use your discussion to articulate your perspectives on the ontology, epistemology, and aesthetics of film. For example, you might write a paper about themes like the ones listed about above, addressing questions such as:
The relationship between cinema and theater, or between cinema and other forms of live performance such as dance.
The relationship between cinema and reality. (Or between cinema and “realism.”)
Cinema and ideology: how do films articulate ideas about or participate in an audience’s understanding of morality, citizenship, and/or duty?
Cinema and the mind: how does film stimulate, direct, or influence the minds of viewers? How do viewers interpret, perceive, and comprehend film?
Cinema and language: in what ways is film like a language? In what ways is it not?
Cinema and history: how can (and do) films represent historical events? How are films parts of history, and how can we think about the history of film as technology, representation, and convention?
Cinema and representation: how does cinema (or how does cinema not) represent a diversity of identities and experiences via its technological, narrative, and formal characteristics?
The relationship between cinema and photography: how are films fundamentally different from photographs, and what do the media have in common?
How has the medium of film changed in the 120+ years since its inception? What has remained constant, and what is in flux about cinema as a medium?