Courses 2008-2009

The Education Department offers annual courses for adults that focus on cinema as a fulcrum for understanding society, history and self as well as the medium of film. These courses emphasize discourse and delight as well as the cultivation of expertise. Courses range from cinema technique and history to comparing styles of the great directors to an overview of cinema classics to topics such as psychology, cultural diversity, and other art forms.

This year's courses will go from the far north in "Scandinavia: Journey to the Northern Lands" course, to the great Sahara desert in Black & White in Color: A Cinematic Journey to Sub-Saharan Africa. We will examine questions related to determinism and free will in Psychology and Film, and meet noted Israeli documentary filmmakers.

Before you is a list of the courses offered. Please click the title for further details on the course.

The Art of Film—Basic Elements: Historical Overview and a Glimpse Behind the Scenes

The course consists of two parts: a historical survey of the development of the art of film and a series of meetings with filmmakers of different genres, who share the secrets of their craft with the audience.

The Muses in Dialogue

An interdisciplinary course that examines the relation between film and the other arts: painting, theater, opera, music and literature

Psychology and Film: From Determinism to Free Will

This course will examine questions related to determinism and free will; from the individual's choices and the choices of the therapist to the questions dealing with the degree of freedom enjoyed by the filmmaker and by the viewer.

Scandinavia: Journey to the Northern Lands

A journey that begins with a historical survey of the Scandinavian countries and ends in an examination of the illustrious films of these cultures

Black & White in Color: A Cinematic Journey to Sub-Saharan Africa

A lengthy journey through Sub-Saharan Africa: From local ancient cultures through the colonial era to the present age of de-colonization

Preview Club

Every month the Cinematheque will hold guided screenings of new films prior to their release for screening to the general public. The film selected will be suitable for guided viewing and the lecture will focus upon the artistic messages and cinematic references to earlier cinematic classics.

Meetings with documentary filmmakers moderated by director Ran Tal

A joint project of the Sam Spiegel School for Film and Television, Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Cinematheque

The project includes a series of 12 sessions during which documentary filmmaker Ran Tal (Children of the Sun) will host noteworthy documentary filmmakers of the past two years. At each session a full-length film will be screened and there will be a discussion with the filmmaker.

Scriptwriting Workshop

Moderated by the scriptwriter and director Omri Levi, whose films include Sand, Kinneret's Secrets and Miss Entebe

A series of weekly encounters (each session will be 3 hours long), during which the foundations of the scriptwriting idiom will be learned and practiced: concept development, synopsis writing, research, character development, selection of protagonist, selection of storytelling viewpoint, various cinematic genres, concrete writing, dialogue writing, etc. During the course, participants will write personal exercises at home each week, will develop and improve their writing ability toward writing a full script for a short film as a final workshop project. The course will be accompanied by presentations of segments of a wide variety of films. No prior experience is required, but curiosity and love of writing and film are essential.

History as Film

This course will examine the question: "How did film create our present reality?" while observing different historical periods during which film had a decisive influence in shaping its viewers' reality and awareness.