Overview

This online course explores the intimate, interdependent yet fragile relationship between words and images and their combined potency for the creation of (cinematic) worlds.

Words can often be the starting point for a piece of moving-image, unlocking feelings that gradually evolve into audio-visual experience. It can also work in reverse, that an image or series of images emerge first and through writing we can explore the emotional landscapes they open out onto. From either position, words and images spiral together offering an imaginative starting point that can lead us further into our subjectivity and connect us to our outer social and political environments.

Over 8 weeks we will draw on the work of experimental filmmakers, extracts from key texts and through a combination of writing workshops, exercises and feedback sessions will develop a varied approach to filmmaking practice that moves through personal, autobiographical, documentary, hybrid and fictional forms. This course intends to cultivate a relationship to our own language that will lead us to reflect on and shape our differing and shared experience of the living world through filmmaking practice.

Who this course is for

This course is open to filmmakers, writers, artists and non-fiction enthusiasts who are looking for a new approach towards writing for non-fiction and experimental film.  

Course content

Week 1

Welcome and introductions: A language for return

In our opening session we will explore the elastic space between experience and language, where
thought and motivation arise. This will lead us to an exploration of the somatic, silence and space as a primary location for the flow and sedimentation of experience. How can we follow this line of inquiry into the body to make space for a new sense of relatedness to emerge. We will explore the possibilities for images to arise from this place and practices for responsiveness to them.

We will participate in an in-class writing exercise and an image based exercise will be set.

Week 2

Limitation of the image: Working through memory, materiality and melancholia

In this session we will think about the parameters of the image and the word with particular emphasis on how this pertains to memory. We will begin to explore the alchemical process of writing as emotional formulating – in what ways it retains feeling, and how it might inherently embody loss. We will also begin to unravel the dimensionality of images and their making and reflect on our own position as viewers of cinema – the reciprocal co-animation process taking place between our perception and the presence of images themselves.

An optional guide for writing practice for the week and readings will be provided.

Week 3

Film as Diary

This week we will consider the ways in which writing relates to the unconscious and how structures for autobiographical language emerge through the intimate space of the journal. Through an in-session writing workshop we will navigate a relationship to ‘inner’ images, exploring the manner in which writing can place us in a transitional state of discovery. Reflecting on the films we will explore the fluidity and motion expressed through the production of images, as well as how their arrangement and an approach to sound can contribute to a rhythmic, layered and embodied film language.

We will participate in a practical writing workshop within this session. A proposal for a short film, image series or text based work will be set.

Week 4

We will come together this week to share an aspect of our proposal for group discussion and ideas for moving forward with our projects.

Week 5

Correspondence: Mapping terrains of distance and placemaking

This session will focus on correspondence and letter writing as a means for transmission and reception of feeling. Dating from the 18th Century letter writing creates a space where the psyche can find form and be shared through the hands of the receiver. The letter creates a mobile impression of both emotional and physical landscapes, allowing us to inhabit spaces and feelings beyond our personal realm of experience. We will reflect on how correspondence and the form of the letter is explored through filmic space and consider its invitation for dialogue, friendship and connection.

Practical exercise set and reading for the week provided.

Week 6

Language as action

Language sketches a window into the relationship between the individual and society. In this session we will consider how filmmaking can offer an exploration of agency that connects us more deeply to the collective through the creation of new systems of relating. We will explore our understanding of language, its limitations and (re)-arrangement to include visuality, editing and sound. What are the inherent power dynamics encoded in language? What are the things we care about and worlds that we long for? How do we cultivate our voice to connect with the collective?

In session writing practice, to be refined outside of class and optional readings provided.

Week 7

Writing beyond words, writing the feeling

In this week’s session we will consider writing beyond text. We will explore works that don’t always rely on a linear narrative, are impressionistic and create a subliminal and experiential film language. How can we convey a sensation through writing that moves beyond verbal language and dialogue? How do we write the non-verbal? This session places its focus on the exploration of the atmosphere of particular emotions through an alternative approach to writing.

We will participate in a practical writing exercise within the session, a writing task shall be set and a reading for the week will be provided.

Week 8

Our closing session will be dedicated to sharing work from the programme and feeding back to one another on ideas and the materials produced. It’s an opportunity to gain feedback, consider what methods of practice were beneficial and to plan for development beyond our meetings.

*Please note that the films described are an indication
**The last session in Week 8 will be dedicated to the work of the group, and as such will run for an
extra half an hour, from 7-9.30pm

This course will be delivered via online distance learning, and students will require a computer or other internet connected device.

We offer bursary places for this course. Please see our bursary policy.

Teaching and structure

The course will consist of writing workshops, lectures and group discussions.

This course takes place online.

Cost

General: £325.00 | Student/Concession: £275.00 | UCL Student £255.00

Costs & Bursaries: Please see our Terms & Conditions for information on our rates & concessions.

Learning Outcomes

Within a small group and aided by group and tutor feedback, students will be able to explore the interdependent relationship between words and cinematic images. Inspired by the work of experimental filmmakers, they will be able to brainstorm and develop ideas for their own filmmaking work. This course follows an unique approach by moving between nonfiction and fiction filmmaking and by focusing on how film can be used to unlock emotions on screen.

Course team

Bella Riza

Bella Riza is a filmmaker and teacher based between London and Cyprus. Her work explores the representation of memory, personal histories and landscape, often in connection to ideas of belonging. She graduated from the Royal College of Art with a Masters in moving-image. Her work has been exhibited at John Hansard Gallery, B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Nicoletti Contemporary, LOOP Barcelona, PlatformAsia and videoclub, Tate St Ives, Liverpool Biennial and South London Gallery. Her work has been selected for New Contemporaries, Visions in the Nunnery and the Aesthetica Art Prize. She currently teaches on the Ethnographic and Documentary Film Masters programme at UCL.

Course information last modified: 31 Jul 2025, 17:05