This professor was not clear on her thoughts when it came to teaching. She read off the notes a lot and had the entire class half asleep. Her lack of timely responses to emails can cause major issues in marking so beware.

Completely contrived and useless lectures that half of which is copied right off the wiki page of the movie. The essay questions are stupid and really have little to do with the movie and rather just a general ethical topic. This course is only hard through obscurity that she creates.

Most useless onine instructor I have ever had. Tells you specifically not to use school email, and then never responds to email; instead posts comments on the general announcements board not to email at all her despite being told that the TA had not responded to any queries after 5 days. Do not take a course with her; you will be on your own.

this course is an absolute mess! (I'm saying this and i got an A) It is a bird course IF you have a good TA, and there's only 1 easy TA out of 7 TA's, so it's all luck. I had the hardest TA and i still got an A, it was tough. Lectures will put you to sleep, assignments are the same. You're on your own in this course. Wouldn't recommend you to take

While the class is not hard (come on it's on HBO) the assignments are very vague & the ta's are extremely hard markers. I emailed the prof & she was not helpful at all. Would not recommend this class and definately not the prof!

If you are passionate about film don't take her. A perfect example of "those who can't teach" and she takes it out on you if you show a little bit of potential. She's absolutely ridiculously uneducated. Its sad to let her teach cinema. She makes film boring/class claustrophobic/and your GPA s***.

Absolutely disgusting commitment from the prof. and TA's in this class... I received zero feedback and absolutely no replies to any emails i sent concerning assignments, etc. The instructions are vague and lectures are extremely long. Avoid this class- it is definitely NOT a bird course

Depends entirely on your TA. Try for Alex Levant if you are planning to take this course; has online lectures but don't bother listening because they are pointless. Entirely subjective course but, in my opinion, very easy to get an A. Compare movies, talk about interesting things, COMMENT on other's discussion and you should be fine.

AVOID THIS CLASS. This professor is the worst professor, I've ever had in my entire life, and this class was online. That says something. With an online class, it's critical for the professor to respond to students, but she doesn't. The amount of disorganization this class had was unbelievable. Save yourself the headache. AVOID.

This is by far the worst Professor I have ever had. DO NOT take any course with her, especially Film 1701 - online. She was not helpful at all. Very rude and condescending. Seem to not care about students whatsoever. Very hard to get feedback or response via email. Very unclear and confusing, especially the wording of quiz questions. BEWARE.

Stay away from this course. It is not bird course at all! Your expectations of this course will be the complete opposite! Take another online course, because this course is just ridiculous, too much of a mess. Don't waste your money or your time. That's real.

Please do yourself a favor and do not take this course. She is so stuck up and rude, when you are communicating with her, it is like talking to a wall. She is the worst professor I have ever had in my life and I am someone who loves to read, learn, and loves the academic. But my experience in this course was nothing less of a great nightmare.

Disorganized! The quizzes are painful. A lot of "technical" issues. Don't expect any type of direction/ feedback further than what is on the course outline. The movies are decent. Though, not very "new". The course has potential but, not with Helfield as the Professor. On the flip side, my TA has been nice but... it takes her forever to grade.

Horrible for an online 3 credit course. It requires way too much commitment (6-8 hours) weekly between, movies, lectures, and a reading. Her quizzes are hard for no reason as well as the marking on assignments. She unapologetically made a mistake resulting in a changed test date to an earlier day with only 26 hour notice. NOT WORTH THE PAIN! AVOID!

Gillian Helfield does not care about the individual. Just about the money received. One can expect long delays in response to any emails or moodle posts sent. Very indirect when it comes to asking about grade progression in the course, or no response at all. There were no new Hollywood movies, & a lot of what was taught is irrelevant to the course.

If you take this class know that you must post one original discussion post and two responses to two other discussion posts for full marks every week. Its not hard but way too much work every week for a 3 credit course, do not take this class. I seriously regret enrolling in this class.

DONT TAKE THIS CLASS! It's the worst class I have ever taken at York! First off, no 3 credit course should involve this much work! There are two films to watch each week, and most of them are painfully long and painfully boring. Also, her lectures are painfully monotone. Also, hard marker and condescending! AVOID!!!!!

HORRIBLE. The worst most condescending professor I have ever come in contact with. She's disgusting and I hope she sees this. I also have no idea why she treats classes that are not online as an online class, ridiculous.

Loved everything about the course except for the monotone, lengthy lectures and quizzes. This is not a bird course, be ready to do A LOT of work. The work load is too heavy for a 3 credit course to be frank. The quizzes are difficult and GIllian makes the questions too hard & specific. However, the films and insights given were amazing.

Hardest course I have taken at York University and I am a Third year Biomedical Sciences major! If you are taking the course as a mark booster then pls don't! I had to put in 8 to 12 hours of work a week to get the mark I got and it's just not with it. The assignments are graded hard, tests are impossible and the films suck! Overall useless course!

Dr. Helfield is a great and caring person. Unfortunately, she is not very organized, due dates were not clearly stated and changed often. The moodle site was not updated from years ago, links were not working and we had to watch movies from unsecure sites.

This course had way too much to do to be a 1000 level course. Quizzes every single week on lectures that were way too long and densely packed. Forum postings every other week along with five other assignments throughout the 12 week course.

Doesn't give accommodations for most assignments - unfair for students with disabilities. Difficult to communicate with - takes long to respond to e-mails and has an unapproachable, rude attitude. Course was too heavy for a 1st year - long, boring lectures with dense readings, and weekly forum posts with 2 responses, quizzes and 4 assignments.

She is a very tough grader. You can put as much care and effort into your writing but she will always find a fault in it. It is near impossible to get an A because she does not have any specific grading criteria. Her course has A LOT of work in it, and she is probably the worst prof ever when it comes to leniency for due dates. I do not recommend.

I took FILM1701 with Gillian last year and was very excited for the course. Gillian made this course hell on Earth for me. It was an online course, but she managed to give out more than 10 hours of work per week. This included 2 movies you had to watch (sometimes 3 hours each), 2 discussion posts, and a weekly assignment/test. She is also very rude

Probably the worst professor I've had at York. Her lectures were dry, but the issue lays within the way that she grades papers. She outlines a specific criteria for success, and then penalizes you for following it. Going as far as denying things that she said herself in lecture. The countless notes she leaves on the paper are just childish.

Awful.

If you choose this class because you want to "having fun", then RUN AWAY. Do you know that the professor does not leave her or TA's contact information, and only makes it painful to ask questions on the moodle (response is very slow)? Did you know that it only gives you due day is ahead of schedule on the title of dashboard? If u dont, run away.

3 TIMES the assignments as for every other class. The assignments are also difficult to do because theyre essentially repeats of other assignments she has you do (why would you make us do discussion post responses AND journal responses??) Also unclear rubrics so its super hard to know what she wants and get a good grade

I do not recommend taking this course as your elective even though it seems that it is easy. It is challenging, overwhelming and frustrating. You have to write so much for it, like six journals that are like six essays besides the final essay and the discussion forum and highest mark they give you on assignments is 90 which drops your overall mark

Main complaint is for the people who run the course. Professor is extremely disconnected with her students and the course itself. Only posts lectures, opens up discussion posts, and makes announcements. TA especially did not give feedback on discussion posts. Communication with TA takes long via eClass message, not allowed to have TAs email.

Disappointing & inflated course. Gillian does a massive disservice to the film department and students. Unorganized, contradictory and arbitrary marked. TAs lack expertise and professionalism. No accountability. York needs to reevaluate this course & she should not be teaching if this is how she runs her courses. Such a wasting my time and money.

Very disappointing course. Its unorganized, zero of feedback, and missing materials made it very frustrating. This course could have been fun and interesting but it was very phoned in by Dr. Helfield and the TAs were not clear or helpful at all. A real shame but skip this course.

Write your desired mark on a sheet of paper. Walk to your nearest shredder. insert paper. I strongly suggest you buy a thesaurus because the teleprompter essay style lectures are impossible to understand with run-on sentences and supererogatory words (might as well test your thesaurus skills now). Oh did I say clear grading criteria? More like none

Arbitrary marking. Dr. Helfield is the worst prof I've had throughout my time at York. Well done!

Definitely not recommended at all. This is supposedly to be an easy course, but she makes it random and complex. Avoid at all costs.

Worst course and professor I took in my entire York experience. Her lectures were unfocused and boring, with deep dives on irrelevant topics. The course was about New Waves and took 5 weeks to get to this topic. Assignment instructions were unclear and weekly quizzes would open/close at random times without notice. AVOID HER AT ALL COSTS!!

Really unorganized on eClass, making assignments and weekly work hard to navigate. One assignment even had two different due dates until students asked for clarification. The TAs mark hard despite vague instructions, and discussion posts become an automatic zero if late. There's no late penalty for them, and she gives no room for leniency.

Her eclass is very messy and unorganized. I can never find the right thing in a quick and simple manner. Her videos are very boring and doesn't have much energy and she honestly looks like she doesn't even want to teach to begin with. Shes doesn't seem motivated at all and doesn't seem to care much about student well being and stress.

Her eclass is very messy and confusing. I'd have to struggle to find what I need. The TA are not at all helpful or understanding and the lectures are both boring and useless. She doesn't give off and active nor positive energy and doesn't even look like she cares about teaching at all. I genuinely can't say anything positive about her or the TAs.