The project future.film.education brings together three film schools from Cologne, Budapest, and Lisbon working on inventive audiovisual practices of remote teaching and learning. The joint project of the ifs internationale filmschule köln, the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) Budapest, and COFAC/Universidade Lusófona Lisbon seeks to improve the quality and capacity of online teaching in European film schools while promoting diversity in film and media as a response to the educational and social challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to achieve this overall objective, the project identifies and reduces the barriers, which hinder groups of students from accessing quality online higher education. In addition, the project promotes diversity in film and media through the adoption of a diversity curriculum in film schools. The project offers best practices guidelines for creating inventive, inclusive and supportive learning arrangements for students, which sustain film schools’ experimental and practice-based approaches to learning. Fostering educational justice through diversity-aware pedagogies, the project advances gender equity and diversity in film and media production through the implementation of a diversity curriculum. Each partner brings considerable expertise in the creation of audiovisual media and profound knowledge in artistic practice-based teaching. The conviction of the cultural power of film and media for social change and the passion for exploring new technologies drive their cooperation. The project’s interlinked activities move from self-assessment and the design of educational materials to the open source publication of toolkits, and the dissemination of knowledge by means of a MOOC. The theoretical framework of the project draws on concepts from Gender and Queer Studies, Dis/ability Studies, Constructivist Pedagogy, and Artistic Research, while pursuing the problem-based investigation of creative practices and/as learning processes. All intellectual outcomes and reflections on the collaborative work that can serve as best practice guidelines are published as free online resources. The first steps of the project are the development of a methodology guide for self-assessment (for evaluating the particular needs and opportunities of teaching practice-based courses online) and a literature review on resources for online teaching film and media courses (carried out by a research group at ifs). Drawing on the insights from the self-assessment and the research the ifs develops a toolkit for online teaching and blended learning at film schools. The ifs facilitates a trial run of online teaching methods from the toolkit for lecturers from all three film schools. A complementary research group at MOME accomplishes a literature review, which maps best practices of curricula on diversity and inclusion from film and media study programs and surveys strategies on teaching and practicing diversity within film schools, which can be transferred to contemporary production cultures, too. Based on their investigation the research group at MOME issues guidelines for including a “Diversity in Film and Media” curriculum in existing study programs. This information on best practices is published as the “Diversity in Film and Media Toolkit.” Next, an online pilot course on “Diversity in Film and Media” is designed jointly by the two research groups and tested in an online training program for students of the participating HEIs. The pilot course will then be evaluated, re-designed and published as a “Diversity in Film and Media” curriculum. Finally, this curriculum is adapted for a “Diversity in Film and Media”-MOOC, which will be available online as a free resource The project’s broader objective is to create toolkits and a MOOC, which can be used by European film and art schools to address gender (in-)equity in education, to develop strategies for introducing diversity and inclusion as learning outcomes of the study programs and so altogether advocate diversity as a key concept in higher education and the arts.
The mission of the project was to improve the quality and capacity of online teaching while equally facilitating a free and flexible diversity curriculum for film, media and art schools in Europe. In this way, the project contributes to a more inclusive and diverse higher education system in film, media and the arts in Europe. Specifically, by implementing free online resources the project encourages institutions and individuals to make use of digital opportunities to include more diverse and inclusive film and media examples and exercises within existing curricula. Also, inclusive, gender- and diversity-aware practices in both online and offline teaching play a vital role in creating equal opportunities for diverse groups of students within classrooms. So this project wanted to support the creation of more inclusive and diverse practices of film and media production, whereby stakeholders would need to rethink their habitual processes and perhaps teaching practices in general. Therefore, through the results of this project educators, institutions and students are able to self-navigate between various theories and practices to address narratives and audiovisual representations in films and digital media. These are important to examine as this is how individuals are understanding and/or interpreting the social world. Finally, by implementing the project, a reassessment of educational opportunities at European film schools to counteract gender inequality and the lack of diversity in contemporary film and media production has been achieved.
The pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement prompted ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln (D), Moholy Nagy University of Art and Design (HU) and Universidade Lusófona (PT) to hold a mirror up to their institutions. This project addressed the lack of diversity and equity in the media landscape and industry by finding ways to encourage diversity in film and media schools and curricula. Further, the need to shift film and media courses to online lessons amid the pandemic demonstrated that significantly better quality online education is required in this field. Therefore, this project created innovative and responsible curricula for audio-visual film and media institutions, making the most of digital opportunities while addressing and educating on inequalities and discriminatory practices. Through the building of an online teaching tool kit, the project addressed the needs of teachers requiring support in online teaching formats. While the learning goals of the curriculum (MOOC and Diversity Toolkit) addressed the need to spread awareness, provide information on equal opportunities and inclusive practices, and offer tools and exercises aimed at embracing diversity.