From: Dinorah de Jesús Rodriguez (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Mar 19 2009 - 19:46:02 PDT
i love to get input from other educators. i don't normally teach at
the university level, except when invited as a guest lecturer or
artist, so input from that community is always vital to me, since as
i am unfamiliar with what is taught in college-level film production
programs these days. my formal education happened at Boston
University in the late 70s and San Francisco State in the mid 80s
when the technology was entirely different from today. basically all
of my training was in 16mm film piled with lots of history and theory.
what i often see in emerging video art these days is a lot of
concentration on stretching form and technology (which was definitely
less the fashion at BU in those social documentary days, but much
more popular at SF State with Trinh Minh-ha on the faculty) but far
less development of time-based content than what one would have seen
25 years ago. i often feel that the distinction between experimental
film and video art lies somewhere in this subtle disparity. in
short: are they (you?) teaching much theory these days?
my sense is that in some programs, yes, and i suspect it happens
particularly outside of the US with a few select exceptions. but
that perhaps it may not be the norm for most programs. i am curious
to hear from those who are currently studying as well as those who
are teaching in academia. which programs have which types of focus in
what cities? what are the major differences between academic
production environments and "art schools"? what distinguishes "media
studies" from "media art" from "new media" from "film production"
from "time-based media" etc. in terms of curriculum and teaching
modalities?
how much of today's education is learning how to "look" vs learning
how to use software and technology? i am curious as to how this is
broken down nowadays.
it is always helpful to know how to direct the adolescents that i
teach and mentor as they prepare to march off to universities...
enjoy today...
Dinorah de Jesús Rodríguez
Film/Video Artist and Freelance Writer
www.solislandmediaworks.com
www.artcinematic.blogspot.com
http://cinesthesia.blip.tv
On Mar 19, 2009, at 8:08 PM, JEFFREY PAULL wrote:
> Hi, Francisco,
>
> In my earlier email had made a suggested teaching list,
> "If these are elementary school-middle school age kids, they
> need to learn stuff like..." . . (the rest of the email listed
> ideas of things to teach)
>>
>> And, Francisco, you answered, "That's the stuff they don't teach
>> in film school."
>
> I'm greatly intrigued by your comment, as I taught variations of
> that list in my Film Production classes at Art school - as part of
> art-experimental film -,
> and at community college - as embellishment at job training -, and
> at university.
> It seemed to work well. (Happenstance: last November I reconnected
> with a student from 1970, who gave me feedback.)
>
> So, regarding, "That's the stuff they don't teach in film school."
> I have QUESTIONS: Do you mean they don't teach it in film
> school because its unnecessary?
> Because there are other more
> important things to teach?
> Might there still be some sort
> of place for at least some of it? Or not.
> How were you taught? Did you go
> to Film school?
> Since I was a teacher - and you know how we can get stuck in ruts
> and time warps - time may have passed me by without me looking out
> the windows of my faux ivory tower.
> I need to emphasize that I was passing along to my students, my
> version of how I was taught at Boston University from 1964 - 1969.
> Maybe change takes longer to get here in Toronto and, as happens,
> sometimes, "I am the last to know.".
>
> If you care to comment on any of this, I'm very interested in what
> you'd have to say.
>
>
> Do you think anybody on FRAMEWORKS might be interested in dicussing
> issues around what's taught in Film programmes and what was missing?
>
>
> Jeffrey Paull
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.