TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
For as long as I can remember I have experienced film and television as (sometimes unrecognizable) reflections of society, politics and history. They help me make sense of the world. My investment in teaching is an investment in the preservation, survival and evolution of the medium I love - as an art and as a form of communication. I bring a background in interdisciplinary creative work, including music, photography, film and painting.
My hybrid teaching methods offer students particular insight into the relationships between art, craft and technology. In addition, I encourage students to contemplate the full spectrum medium from mainstream Hollywood blockbusters to independent, avant-garde, experimental and underground cinema.
My methodology and style evolves as I continue to research, study and explore; however a few guiding aspects of my pedagogy remain constant:
ENCOURAGING CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT AND EVALUATION
I show students how various types of work across a number film forms (narrative, documentary and experimental) are not mutually exclusive but rather provide a nexus of mutual influence.
I screen films not only to illustrate elements of craft but also to provoke dialectical thinking, discussion and inquiry about the nature of the medium. We discuss, for example, the relationship of film to modernity, capitalism and revolt. Students gain a greater understanding of the social, economic, political and philosophical forces that have shaped storytelling even before Thomas Edison’s introduction of the Kinetograph and Auguste and Louis Lumière’s Cinematograph and continue to shape the making of film.
I cater to various learning styles by incorporating readers, lectures, PowerPoint presentations, guest speakers and moderated open discussions. I also assign both collaborative and solo projects, to prepare students to participate effectively in work groups in the academy and beyond. For example: Students in "Exploring Science Fiction Cinema" write an essay in which they use research to argue about which is the most prophetic of the science fiction films that we cover. Students in "Motion Picture Theory & Style," produce both a group genre presentation and a research paper in which they investigate the signature style of a filmmaker over four films.
LENDING SUPPORT FOR EXPERIMENTATION AND CREATIVE RISK-TAKING
I empower students of all backgrounds with the tools and resources not only to engage critically and theoretically with film but also to make their own works of art.
To achieve this end, I promote an atmosphere that supports experimentation and genuine artistic risk-taking. In my "analog before digital: punk/no wave film & music" course students produce films and music which they present in class for critique and discussion, in many ways deconstructing the traditionally rigid barriers between evaluative writing and creative practice. I draw from the insights of my own background of studying and playing with classical Hollywood narrative cinema and American and European experimental and avant-garde film. I expose students to under-appreciated work from a rich and diverse history, including work produced by underrepresented minorities who have fallen through the cracks.
CULTIVATING ORIGINAL PERCEPTION
I challenge students to discover and articulate their individual responses to artists' works rather than buying into prefabricated attitudes and opinions about media.
I advocate for giving ourselves to a film’s world and ideas, its links to the past and possibilities for moving into the future. My courses are designed to help students get to the real reason(s) we form certain opinions about film and art, to detach from unexamined, habitual responses and relate to, resist or connect with material, the better to explore it. Understanding the effects and implications of audiences' continuous exposure to popular criticism has become a central theme in my own thinking as I explore the reception of work made by underrepresented producers including female filmmakers, amateurs and auteurs.
In summary, my goal as a teacher is to enable students to become receptive and critical viewers, empowered creators and skillful producers of film.
My hybrid teaching methods offer students particular insight into the relationships between art, craft and technology. In addition, I encourage students to contemplate the full spectrum medium from mainstream Hollywood blockbusters to independent, avant-garde, experimental and underground cinema.
My methodology and style evolves as I continue to research, study and explore; however a few guiding aspects of my pedagogy remain constant:
ENCOURAGING CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT AND EVALUATION
I show students how various types of work across a number film forms (narrative, documentary and experimental) are not mutually exclusive but rather provide a nexus of mutual influence.
I screen films not only to illustrate elements of craft but also to provoke dialectical thinking, discussion and inquiry about the nature of the medium. We discuss, for example, the relationship of film to modernity, capitalism and revolt. Students gain a greater understanding of the social, economic, political and philosophical forces that have shaped storytelling even before Thomas Edison’s introduction of the Kinetograph and Auguste and Louis Lumière’s Cinematograph and continue to shape the making of film.
I cater to various learning styles by incorporating readers, lectures, PowerPoint presentations, guest speakers and moderated open discussions. I also assign both collaborative and solo projects, to prepare students to participate effectively in work groups in the academy and beyond. For example: Students in "Exploring Science Fiction Cinema" write an essay in which they use research to argue about which is the most prophetic of the science fiction films that we cover. Students in "Motion Picture Theory & Style," produce both a group genre presentation and a research paper in which they investigate the signature style of a filmmaker over four films.
LENDING SUPPORT FOR EXPERIMENTATION AND CREATIVE RISK-TAKING
I empower students of all backgrounds with the tools and resources not only to engage critically and theoretically with film but also to make their own works of art.
To achieve this end, I promote an atmosphere that supports experimentation and genuine artistic risk-taking. In my "analog before digital: punk/no wave film & music" course students produce films and music which they present in class for critique and discussion, in many ways deconstructing the traditionally rigid barriers between evaluative writing and creative practice. I draw from the insights of my own background of studying and playing with classical Hollywood narrative cinema and American and European experimental and avant-garde film. I expose students to under-appreciated work from a rich and diverse history, including work produced by underrepresented minorities who have fallen through the cracks.
CULTIVATING ORIGINAL PERCEPTION
I challenge students to discover and articulate their individual responses to artists' works rather than buying into prefabricated attitudes and opinions about media.
I advocate for giving ourselves to a film’s world and ideas, its links to the past and possibilities for moving into the future. My courses are designed to help students get to the real reason(s) we form certain opinions about film and art, to detach from unexamined, habitual responses and relate to, resist or connect with material, the better to explore it. Understanding the effects and implications of audiences' continuous exposure to popular criticism has become a central theme in my own thinking as I explore the reception of work made by underrepresented producers including female filmmakers, amateurs and auteurs.
In summary, my goal as a teacher is to enable students to become receptive and critical viewers, empowered creators and skillful producers of film.