Film education and age(ing): A case study of a university course on FilmBildung

Abstract

This paper elaborates on a practical film education project conducted in universities, schools and retirement homes, which we have been working on for several years. We describe the approach to teaching and research that we have been following, as well as the basis of our vision for a project on collage, life writing and film education with elderly people. Based on several MA modules on film education that we have taught at various universities during the past few years, as well as on a number of seminars on ageing studies (BA and MA) and on our experience as trained writing coaches, we draw together different strands of our experiences in order to sketch a film education workshop that instructs students to, in turn, instruct elderly people in a retirement home to work on their film experience by means of collage and life writing. The background in teaching and research upon which we draw is based on participatory action research, a constructivist teaching philosophy, a heterarchic organization of university modules and an intersectional understanding of age(ing).