I was lucky enough to catch Yance Ford's gripping documentary, Strong Island, during a brief visit to the Berlin Film Festival last weekend. The film is about his brother, William, who was killed twenty years ago but whose white murderer was never brought to trial, let alone to justice. There was a great review of it in The Guardian last month, … Continue reading Berlinale 2017 highlight

Tight turnaround but Thunderbirds are go!    

  After 3 eventful weeks, my time with the Sharek participants has come to an end. The last sessions were a particular challenge: very, and I mean very, few students had actually done any filming, so the plan (to focus on editing their material) had, as usual, to bend a bit. Yet again, there were new … Continue reading Film Project done!

I really like Nablus and the group of students there.  They like selfies. They really like selfies. They don't stand out in particular in this passion from the other groups, but they are more inventive. This was the first chair-enabled group selfie of the day. Half of the group today were new to the workshops … Continue reading Nablus revisited

Week 2 started with the news that the filmmaker, who was to be working alongside me  to help the participants start translating their stories into films was, again, unavailable. Luckily, I'd spent Monday prepping (perhaps with this eventuality in mind ; ) and was feeling pretty confident by the time the Al Quds students were due at … Continue reading Deep ends

Much of the discussion this first week - to set up the filmmaking for the rest of the project - has focused on what makes a film good and what makes it 'not so good'. This is, for sure, a question of its quality (narrative, aesthetic, production etc) but, more than this, of its power … Continue reading Film and offence

  Well, not quite. Obviously. All of Richard's and my industry from last year - polishing each article and discussion point for the 'Futurelearners' out there - distilled into 2 provocative questions and various group activities. Or not. Obviously.  So each day’s schedule is proving to be a work in progress. Planning is improvised but (quasi) affective. … Continue reading The entire week 1 of MOOC in 2 hours!