Cine 20A- Film History: Evol of Film Expr-931

                                     Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941)

Cinema Pioneer Oscar Micheaux

Film Class beginning on 2/1/2021, my 4th film history class at CCSF

Dr. Kevin Sherman, Teacher Introduction:

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to CINE 20A.

I was born and raised in the SF Bay Area, and have lived here my entire life except for a brief time in Seattle and four years in Gainesville, FL. I attended a community college in the East Bay before transferring to San Francisco State to complete my BA in Cinema. I stayed at SFSU to complete my MA in Cinema Studies before moving to Gainesville to complete my PhD at the University of Florida in the English department. My dissertation is on autobiographical documentary and grammatology, the history and theory of writing.

My research interests are documentary and ethnographic film/video, microbudget narrative film, and experimental film/video. But I'm interested in all genres of films, especially Classic Hollywood (1930-1960).

I am an editor and producer of mostly feature length experimental documentaries. My films have screened at over 50 international festivals in the last 3 years. I am currently working with directors David de Rozas and Carolina Caycedo in postproduction on The Blessings of the Mystery, a feature length installation/documentary that investigates diverse environmental memories from the Far West Texas region known as Transpecos. The project explores the complex ways that native land(s) and culture(s) have been occupied and spatially planned since the early 1800s. The installation of Blessings premieres as the Spring 2022 Exhibition (Links to an external site.) at Ballroom Marfa before traveling to the Visual Art Center at the University at Texas, Austin.

I'm interested in many social issues. Recently, I have been most interested in how technology increasingly affects how we negotiate and construct our identities (the idea of self or voice).

Looking forward to a great class.

Kevin

My Introduction back: 

My name is Ida Z... Please call me Ida. I was born in Mexico City but raised in the United States and have lived most of my life in San Francisco.  Film is my passion I am an Independent film enthusiast but can appreciate  big budget films from great directors. I don't watch TV instead I stream films almost daily.

This is the fourth film history class. I would like to do the film history certificate and then take a few production classes to see if I can take make a personal story or documentary.

I had a peak film experience when I was in Japan in kind of a Lost in Translation (2003) experience of solitude and cultural confusion. I was getting frustrated with the Japanese language of which I knew just a little. I went to see Night on Earth (1991) it was playing in a theatre, it was my first Jim Jarmusch film. The movies are all subtitled in Japanese of course, but the film was in four different languages, 3 of which I could speak; English, Italian and French. I was so alone and It was such a happy moment for me to hear these languages and to see the brilliant concept of the stories being shown around the earth at the same time. I laughed and cried with the joy of something being familiar and incredible.  

Mystery Train (1989) and Night on Earth (1991) are my favorite Jarmusch films because he uses multiple languages and cultures with great concepts and plays with time. I would love to make a film that uses multiple languages. It is also mind-blowing that he was able to get amazing cinematographers.  Robert Muller who worked with Wim Wenders and Lars von Trier. Also, Frederick Elmes, who worked with David Lynch on Eraserhead and Blue Velvet. These are directors and cinematographers for which I have great respect.

  

Excerpt of Mystery Train Link - Here 

Edited by Ida  on Feb 1 at 5:24pm