First- Person Cinema – Narratives of the Self

Course Description:
Who hasn’t recorded themselves doing some activity, or talking to a camera? Or has been filmed by others, like friends and family in all sorts of everyday situations? Recording ourselves—whether through selfies, TikToks, or voice messages—has become such a natural reflex for many of us, something we do daily without even thinking. But the art of filming and staging oneself (what we understand here onwards as "self-representation") can also be an organic and fun way to get acquainted cinematic language and its possibilities, while also
learning more about who we are and our place in the world.
This course will have both theoretical and practical components. We will explore Self-Portrait as a genre, learning to observe and reflect on how we see ourselves and how others see us. We will dive into Home Movies using footage of our friends and relatives to explore our personal identity. Finally, we will look into Film Diaries, finding ways to give cinematic meaning to the images that fill our everyday lives.
On the practical side, students will create three small projects—one for each genre we explore—and we will watch and analyze both classic and contemporary works that can inspire and guide the students' works.

Learning Objectives:
1. To observe and understand the poetics of everyday life and learn what it takes to turn them into a cinematic experience.
2. To gain and/or solidify knowledge about cinematic language trough a very specific survey of films. Thanks to its specificity, learning curve, and hands-on exercises, this course caters to both complete beginners (those students that will often say 'I don’t know anything about cinema') as well as filmmaking students, including those from overseas.
3. To learn how to engage in dialogue with the works, filmmakers, and artists who came before us in order to find one's own voice: especially attractive to younger generations who grew up taking selfies, we start from a mundane gesture and we trace it back to a respected, well-stablished tradition, from where we see repetitions (conventions) and variations (departures and innovative approaches).
4. To develop a sense of introspection while also cultivating co-creation and class discussion skills. Because of the emotional vulnerability involved in the class topic, we will practice how to talk about others' work in an effective but sensible way, growing not only as artists and creative agents in the process, but also on a personal level.

Course Contents:

WEEK 1: Introduction & Film Letters
SESSION 1 (Mon, Jun. 30)
Tools and stylistic choices in self-representation: depth of field, framing, lighting and shot duration.
Viewing and exercise: Tarachime (Birth/Mother, 2006) by Naomi Kawase; Santiago (2005) by João Moreira Salles.
SESSION 2 (Tue, Jul. 1)
Understanding genres and motivations before starting self-referential work.
Viewing and exercise: Sans soleil (1983) by Chris Marker; Petjades (1976) by Fina Miralles.
SESSION 3 (Wed, Jul. 2)
Perceiving and interpreting reality. Depths and layers of self-representation.
The referential and performative value of a recording. The camera as a tool that encourages confession. Confession in front of and behind the camera.
Viewing and exercise: Love Tapes (8 Tapes, 1977-2011) by Wendy Clarke; Chronique d’un été (Chronicle of a summer, 1961) by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin.
SESSION 4 (Thu, Jul. 3)
Film letters: intimate, not private. A format that translates thoughts and suggests presence. The multiple personalities that shape us. Viewing and exercise: The film letters between José Luis Guerín and Jonas Mekas — Correspondencias (2011).
SESSION 5 (Fri, Jul. 4)
Viewing, analysis and debate of the film letters made by students.

WEEK 2: Self Portrait
SESSION 6 (Mo, Jul. 7)
Instances of off-screen presence of the author. Revisiting a personal experience.
Viewing and practice: Analysis and comparison between Pain and Glory by Pedro Almodóvar and Aftersun by Charlotte Wells.
SESSION 7 (Tue, Jul. 8)
Cinema of memory and memories on-screen. Voice-over and other techniques to mask the authorship.
Viewing and practice: Drafting an outline for a potential script based on our own lives.
SESSION 8 (Wed, Jul. 9)
Presence and essence in self-referential cinema. Bodies in front of a camera: embodying oneself in front of the camera. Filming from a first-person POV.
Viewing and exercise: The corporeality of Joaquim Jordà; a director's life commitment with cinema.
SESSION 9 (Thu, Jul. 10)
The role of physicality and embodiment on a film set, specially when filming from a third-person POV.
Viewing and exercise: The self-reflexive poetics in the films of Agnès Varda.
Create a film based on objects and obsessions that represent us.
SESSION 10 (Fri, Jul. 11)
Viewing, analysis and debate of the self-portrait made by students.

WEEK 3: Family albums, home movies
SESSION 11 (Mo, Jul. 14)
The historical value and artistic interest of home movies. A survey of different formats: photography, celluloid, and digital images.
Viewing and practice: Un instante en la vida ajena ('A Glimpse of Other People's Lives') by López Linares, an example of an amateur (La Madronita Andreu) becoming a filmmaker by capturing family life. Photography as an emotional armor in The Family Imprint by Nancy Borowick. Presentation and brainstorming of ideas for a video montage with voice-over about a family member.
SESSION 12 (Tue, Jul. 15)
Direct cinema with our close ones. Access to family and ethic implications.
Family archive: restoring and interpreting the past.
Viewing and practice: Alan Berliner, the images and sounds collector. Núria Giménez and Carla Simón, interpreting and recreating the past. Sharing and discussing photographs and recordings from our past.
SESSION 13 (Wed, Jul. 16)
The mirror effect in family cinema. The search for one's own identity. Emotional well-being and navigating emotional states during filming. Collective memory: pushing beyond the strictly familial.
Viewing and practice: The feeling of guilt in 51 Birch Street by Doug Block.
The political discourse and universality in Haciendo Memoria by Sandra Ruesga. In-class representation of a scene from the script focused on a family character.
SESSION 14 (Thu, Jul. 17)
The origin of everything: when the mother figure is the protagonist. Filming as an act of love and reconciliation. Techniques to connect with the audience on an emotional level. Instances of the father figure as the protagonist. Viewing and practice: The generational gap and the value of silence in O Futebol by Sergio Oksman. Students prepare a set of interview questions for a family member through a video call.
SESSION 15 (Fri, Jul. 18)
Screening and analysis of the video montage with voice-over about a family member.

WEEK 4: Film diaries
SESSION 16 (Mo, Jul. 21)
The construction of identity in everyday life: from Repas de bébé ('Baby’s Meal') by the Lumière brothers to Instagram and TikTok.
Viewing and practice: David Perlov's diaries, the conception of a new cinematic language. Jonas Mekas' cinema: instant reaction and the poetics of imperfection. Presentation and discussion of potential ideas for filming a video diary.
SESSION 17 (Tue, Jul. 22)
Fusion of the film diary with other subgenres: Diary plus staging; diary plus identity and identity politics and gender studies. Diary plus home movie.
Viewing and practice: Diario Argentino by Lupe Pérez García and Best Day of My Life (in LA), a short film by Irene Gil-Ramon. No Home Movie by Chantal Akerman, a study of presence and absence. Write a outline to portray an event in the life of a historical figure in the form of a series of Instagram stories.
SESSION 18 (Wed, Jul. 23)
The symbiosis between our life experience and cinematic experience.
Temporality and spatial frameworks. Learning to set boundaries. Meaning and intentionality behind everyday recordings. Spaces as metaphor.
Viewing and practice: Guest by José Luís Guerín: a film diary on tour.
Observing and filming spaces of Barcelona where our daily live and routine unfolds.
SESSION 19 (Thu, Jul. 24)
Found footage. Decontextualization and re-signification of images: editing through repetition and analogy; editing through contrast. Sound treatment: re-dimensioning the image through sound.
Viewing and practice: Comparisons and metaphors in the cinema of Jean-Gabriel Périot. Audiovisual activism and the critical gaze in María Cañas's filmography.
SESSION 20 (Fri, Jul. 18)
Closing presentation: Screening, analysis and debate of the filming of students' video diary exercise.