Student Initiative: Film/Video Curating

"Film Video Curating" is a class designed to
encourage student initiative, based on a
successful practice associated with the spring
session of "Film Today" that has been in
place- albeit informally- since 2012. Students
will work with the instructor to curate the
first two sessions of "Film Today" (Friday January
18 and Friday January 25) by mining
into CalArts archive or researching contempora1y
work. "Film Today" will not start until
Friday February 1st, of course, but students
registered in "Film Today" will be encouraged to
sit in the first two sessions, therefore providing
the student curators with a welcome audience for
their curatorial effo1is. (It is hoped that the
outreach efforts of the student curators
-announcement, poster, social media-will bring an
audience extending beyond the students registered
in "Film Today"). Having a built-in audience will
give the student curators a chance to introduce
the work they have chosen, to have a discussion
about it afterwards, therefore providing them with
a better understanding/knowledge of how an
audience may react to their personal aesthetic
choices. They will also be taught the basics of
publicity/outreach and will have the opportunity
to write, produce and distribute program notes, to
write an announcement and to make a poster -all of
this under the supervision and with the help of
the instructor. In tum, students enrolled in "Film
Today" will be given the opportunity, as they have
in the past, to write one paper written about one
of the student-curated sessions to make up for one
of the papers required for "Film Today" if they
elect to do so.
The instructor will meet with the students
interested in the class "Film/Video Curating"
by the middle/the last third of the fall semester,
so they can start the discussion amongst
themselves and with the instructor in the last few
weeks of the fall semester and during the winter
break.
As "Film Today," the class is open to students
from all schools, all programs and all
levels, but they need to have a personal
conversation with the instructor prior to
enrollment.