Film and media-making have relied on systems of oppressive power since their inception. I believe that one of the first places where we can start deconstructing these systems is in the classroom. Education and learning is a lifelong practice that requires a strong commitment to oneself and one’s community. My pedagogical approach to filmmaking centers these commitments in order to create an accessible and engaging environment for students to approach content with a critical lens. Coming from a background in commercial and freelance production, I have worked in environments where these systems of power and oppression evolve into toxic and abusive work spaces. In order to actively combat this unbalanced mode of art-making, my classroom and teaching style relies on a focus on intentional community building, trauma-informed approaches to learning and creation, and upsetting traditional power structures.

Community is an essential pillar of any classroom, but more importantly it is the foundation of art-making. While not every project is a collaborative endeavor; behind every great film or piece of art is a community that helped bring that concept to life through critique, inspiration, education, or a sharing of resources. While it is important to build community while building your practice, it is not always evident how these connections can be created. By structuring an engaged and intentional community, students gain community-building skills that they can carry beyond the bounds of the classroom.

A key element to community building in an arts-centered classroom is the way in which critique is handled and how students are expected to engage with each others’ work. At the outset of each class, there is an initial discussion regarding the protocol and procedure for critiques in-class and online. I believe that every class will have different approaches that will be most helpful and effective and that a collective conversation regarding the guidelines will promote engagement with the practice of critique, while also giving the students their first exercise in building a creative community. As the teacher, my role is to provide frameworks and guidance during this process; as well as ensure that there are always multiple modes of engagement in the critique to keep the practice inclusive and accessible. This may manifest in allowing for written feedback to be submitted to students rather than requiring in-class discussion, as the time-constraints that the class provides can make it difficult for students to form thoughtful and productive responses.

While offering alternative modes of engagement is a productive tool in building community, it also is essential in allowing for there to be space for the building of a trauma-informed practice. The art and film world have a long and sordid history of proliferating trauma and encouraging an unhealthy relationship with previously formed trauma. Ending this cycle is incredibly important to me in both my pedagogical and art practice. Taking a trauma-informed approach to teaching not only takes account for the trauma that occurs in the educational process, but for the trauma that students are bringing to the learning environment that may affect the way they engage with the content and their work. The classrooms I facilitate are not a space for the mining and exploitation of these memories and feelings, but they allow space for them in the work that we do as they emerge and impact students organically.

Upsetting the power balance in my classroom is incredibly important to my teaching practice. Allowing for voices beyond the assigned teacher to be heard, especially when it relates to a subject or material that is outside of their area of direct study; is a simple and effective way to upset the dictatorial relation that a teacher can take on. In my courses, working artists and practitioners will be invited to speak on their experiences in the industry and engage in discussion with the class to allow for a free exchange of knowledge and ideas. I have used this in the past in workshops I taught about “outside” art where I invited artists from more fringe disciplines to come and speak with my students to give context to art practice that exists outside of the mainstream examples we tend to focus on. Allowing for the decentering of my position, gives space to students to develop their voices and reinforces the idea that, while I do hold a position of power in the classroom, that power is not absolute.

While I cannot break down every barrier of entry to the film and art world, nor eliminate systems of oppression inherent to the industries through my pedagogy, I can begin to create more accessible and intentional openings through my practice. It is imperative that my students are given the space and time to create meaningful relationships with the work they’re shown, their own work, and their fellow students; while also continuing to engage with all of this critically. Fostering these relationships with community and critical thought allows for the classroom to shift and grow as the class does, providing us with the critical reminder that learning is an ongoing and evolving process.

In 2013, as a bright-eyed freshman film major, I entered the world of video and film production. While I felt prepared for how difficult this path could be, I was not prepared for the very people that were supposed to foster my growth for this medium to be the people creating and encouraging barriers to entry. While studying film history with a wonderfully progressive professor taught me that this level of exclusion was, in fact, the modus operandi for the film industry; it was a tough realization that many of the people who were educating the next generation of filmmakers were participating in the discriminatory practices that have kept the film world very white, very male, and very straight for a very long time. While these hurdles prepared me for the treatment I would face working in the industry, they did not support the kind of future we should be collectively working towards as educators and artists.

The art world and film industry has a long and sordid history of exclusion, but this history does not have to be our future. Intentional, inclusive, and open approaches to how we learn about the history of filmmaking and the techniques that make up the practice is a small but powerful step in changing the community and culture of this industry. Trauma-informed pedagogy and Universal Design for Learning are important tools that I engage with when designing my courses and running my classroom. Creating spaces that create access, rather than limit access, is essential in dismantling the gate-keeping that can often exist not only in the film industry, but in the world of academia as well.

While I love telling stories and creating art, one of my main drives for entering the world of film education is that I believe that we can start to make tangible changes in access to this field starting in the classroom. With this in mind, my perspective and point of view as an educator, admittedly, comes from a place of privilege. While I am committed to creating a classroom that consistently works to raise up voices outside of my own, there are always going to be gaps and spaces for growth in this process.

My positionality of being a queer woman in this field has given me insight to some of the challenges my peers and students face, but I believe it is vital to understand that this insight is often not enough. There is consistent work to be done, learning and unlearning, listening and taking steps back, and intentional dismantling of the systems that foster the bias and violence that the film industry has been built upon. This is why multivocality in the classroom is so important. Not only can this be achieved through more diverse and inclusive content being shared in the classroom, but also through bringing in visiting artists into the class, and disrupting the strict hierarchy of the classroom. I am not always the expert and the exchange of knowledge, in order to be more accessible and equitable, should be fluid.

Storytelling is essential to our experience as humans and my goal as an educator is to honor the unique experiences and perspectives that students, collaborators, and fellow artists bring to the table as they share these stories. I cannot be the only voice my students hear from as my voice cannot possibly be representative of the diversity that is necessary to start making the changes the worlds of film, art, and academia so desperately need. It is important to me, as an educator and a student, to cultivate a space where there is an open exchange of ideas, experiences, and practice that both acknowledges our past and present failures, while working towards more inclusive and productive futures.

Digital Materiality Syllabus

Producing Syllabus

Presentation w/o Notes

Presentation w/ Notes