Anthropology of home is a documentary film course on the notion of home and belonging. A home can be many different things; an apartment block, a tent, a hotel room, or a memory. In this course we will use ethnographic examples from all over the world to discuss issues surrounding space and place. How does anthropology contribute to the understanding of identity and belonging? Ranging from discussing a film on a communist housing block in Romania, pastoral nomads in Niger, mobile homes in the US and non-places such as a hotel room in Ethiopia as a momentary home, the course will pose and encourage questions on home and exile.

Documentary editing can be a bit like carpentry – shaping a mound of footage into something that tells a story. This practice-based course is aimed at new and emerging directors and editors, with no or little experience of documentary editing. Working on Adobe Premiere Pro, we’ll explore the art and craft of documentary editing, from creating visual narratives to working with sound, music, and graphics. You will need a Premiere Pro account to partake in this course. If you have your own footage to edit, that is great. Otherwise, we will provide you with footage to use for the course. 

Led by Dr. Catalin Brylla, Principal Lecturer in Film and Television at Bournemouth University, this course is targeted towards documentary practitioners who are either preparing, shooting or editing their documentary, scholars who want to analyse or use documentary as a research methodology, and people who are simply passionate about non-fiction films. Keeping the balance between theory of practice and the theory in practice, each session will include discussions of how concepts relate to formal considerations in documentary filmmaking. Participants will also learn how to critically frame their film practice in order to produce thought-provoking films that have social and cultural implications.

The course is aimed at filmmakers, or anyone interested in the field and in particular in theories and applications of visual and public anthropology in the context of experimental multisensory storytelling. Students are encouraged to carry out independent research for a real or hypothetical project and explore methodologies and technologies that can help them with the development of a multisensory film, art installation, or virtual media.

Militant Cinema & Activist Film focuses on the concepts and techniques of filmmaking, film viewing and dissemination as forms of political action. Through an analytical study of key histories, texts and audio-visual material spanning a multitude of militant film movements from around the globe, the course contextualises its programme within a contemporary political reality, preparing you to engage with the global injustices and atrocities of the 21st century.

You will be introduced to the latest manifestos and the most radical concepts of militant moving image praxes of today, spanning movements from Syria to Hong Kong. In addition, the course features essential texts and discussion on the topics of international law, human rights, and contemporary genocide, incorporating reading, discussion and awareness of key legal frameworks to provide students with effective planning and preparation for their own activist endeavours, or simply for a foundational understanding of political movements and their audio-visual manifestations.

The practice of making new films from recycled fragments of old ones opens exciting opportunities for revisiting past events. Crucially, it also allows audiences to reflect critically on the histories of image-making. 

This course will explore the ethical questions that confront makers and audiences alike when recordings are ripped from their original context and re-appropriated to new ends. We consider the problem of archives that contain images that dehumanise their subjects, as well as the creative strategies used by artists and filmmakers to produce ethical reworkings of materials associated with our troubled pasts.

This online course explores the role of sound in challenging the way we remember, archive and exhibit micro-histories. Covering theoretical, ethnographic and arts-based approaches to sonic archiving, participants will develop skills to discuss, record and display alternative archives that challenge colonial forms of knowledge production.