Course Description

Instructor: Robin Bernat

In this five-week course, participants will explore the directorial styles and subjects of some of the most unique and renown (and some little known) filmmakers. Participants will watch the films in their free time and we’ll come together to discuss elements of filmmaking on Tuesdays at 2pm. Some of the filmmakers were explored in earlier classes, Viva la Revolución and Twisted Love and Other Curiosities but for this class offering, we’ll look at the special qualities that designate these directors, “auteur.” (It is not necessary to have taken the prior classes)

Join this class and re-familiarize yourself with directors Steve McQueen, Sarah Polley, Michael Haneke, Julian Schnabel in addition to some new directors and women directors who don’t always get their due.

Film rental on Amazon might be required. Some films can be found on DVD at your local library.

1 Steve McQueen: Small Axe (we’ll select which of the Five films we want to discuss).

(Twelve Years a Slave)

Barry Jenkins: Moonlight

2. Sarah Polley: Away from Her

Michael Haneke: Amour

3. Julian Schnabel: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

 Sofia Coppola: Marie Antoinette

4.  Jane Campion: Bright Star

 Susanne Bier: After the Wedding

5. Lars von Trier: Dogville

 The Five Obstructions, available on Kino

Bio: Robin Bernat is an artist and writer, and, since 2010,  the owner and curator of Poem 88 gallery in Atlanta, Georgia. Her work has been exhibited locally, regionally, and nationally and has been collected by many important institutions including The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Kemper Museum of Art, the Library of the Art Institute of Chicago, The High Museum of Art, MOCA-GA, and The Weatherspoon Museum. Working primarily in film and video, Bernat’s work explores the fleeting and the provisional. From 1992-2001, she was the proprietor of Circle B Press, a cooperative printmaking studio and publisher. From 2000-2005, Bernat was an instructor in the Atlanta Film Festival (formerly IMAGE Film and Video) Media program teaching filmmaking to under-served teens, and facilitating a discussion group on films of the avant-garde. From 2004-2006, she was the Manager of Youth and Family programs at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University creating educational programs, workshops, and publications focused on the museum's collections of antiquities.