Talks & Classes
Cinema education, discussions, and workshops for the public.
Many of the films we screen at SIFF start a conversation, inspire an action, or pose a question. These film appreciation classes provide a forum for cinema audiences to discuss the history and culturally relevant contemporary issues across the art of film, deepening audience understanding and desire for quality cinematic experiences. Classes run the range from single-session conversations to multi-session series.
cINeDIGENOUS: From Conception to Impact - Virtual Class
November 18, 2021
Emiliano Mazza de Luca and Martha Orozco breakdown the filmmaking process from conception to impact campaign, highlighting how filmmaking is more accessible than ever and that low budgets aren’t a barrier to telling your story.
cINeDIGENOUS: Writing Collaborative Stories - Virtual Class
September 23, 2021
Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio (Retablo, SIFF 2019) surveys the process of crafting his first feature in collaboration with Peruvian Indigenous communities.
Stoner Cinema - Virtual Class
September 29, 2021
We will look at the origins of the “stoner film”—from early cinema through modern cannabis-infused comedies—and the impact of marijuana on visual storytelling. Taught by John Trafton.
Cinema DNA: The Shining - Hybrid Class
October 13, 2021
What makes The Shining one of the greatest horror films of all time? Explore the influences on Kubrick’s horror masterpiece with instructor John Trafton.
Reel Black: Candyman & Urban Hauntings - Virtual Class
October 14, 2021
Investigate the original Candyman and the 2021 remake, especially ways the original suffers from a lack of Black voices behind the camera and how the ghetto functions as a haunted house. Taught by Isabella Price.
John Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy and After - Hybrid Class
October 19, 2021
Carpenter scholar Robert C. Cumbow illuminates the thematic connections within the Apocalypse Trilogy and a pair of underseen 2000s gems from Carpenter's later Masters of Horror filmography.
cINeDIGENOUS: Crafting Stories with Documentary Subjects - Virtual Class
October 21, 2021
Núria Frigola Torrent presents a comparative analysis of her two films, displaying how she identifies a subject and works alongside them to identify a story through a documentary lens.
Queer Horror: The Ifs, Ands, and Butts - Virtual Class
October 26, 2021
Drag clown Carla Rossi presents a one-of-a-kind evening surveying the subgenre of queer horror in film and pop culture from Nosferatu to Child's Play and more.
What The Femme: Our Bodies, Our Spells - Hybrid Class
October 28, 2021
Explore how witches use their bodies, and in some cases how their bodies are used against them, throughout the history of film. Taught by Thea Sabin.
Not Gonna Take It: Punk Rock Cinema - Hybrid Class
November 3, 2021
This class looks at the punk rock films that emerged from the changing film landscape of the late 1970s. Taught by John Trafton.
From Heartthrob to Movie Star - Virtual Class
November 4, 2021
Instructor Faridah Gbadamosi dissects how the female gaze has been a career-maker for many actors and how the recent lack of movie stars is in part due to a misunderstanding of the value of content made specifically with the female gaze in mind.
All Aboard: The Tracks of Cinema - Hybrid Class
November 9, 2021
Venture along the tracks of cinema history, from the very first Lumiere Bros. film to modern train-based stories, and their evolving symbolism with instructor Aniello De Angelis.