Cinema Studies welcomed award-winning Director Chloé Zhao as the third annual visiting filmmaker in the Harlan J. Strauss Visiting Filmmaker Endowment.
Zhao engaged in a two-week university residency during spring term 2018 and was involved in a variety of campus activities, including teaching workshops and mentoring students in the CINE 408 “Art of Directing" course, as well as hosting a number of public and private events.
CINE 408: “The Art of Directing”
This course focused on the building blocks to develop a narrative director’s voice. Students explored how to create compelling characters and use the power of cinematic language to affect audiences. The award-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao guest taught four classes, sharing her approach to directing and providing feedback on a specific film exercise. The class viewed and discussed films that have influenced Zhao’s work, investigated narrative tools and aesthetics, and critiqued classmates’ work as a way to integrate theory into practice. By the end, students were empowered to generate strategies to create personal, original films.
Visiting Filmmaker Series Talk and Reception
Faculty, students, and the community were invited to join Chloé Zhao for a discussion on making a living as a film director. Zhao is a writer, director, and producer who won the Bonnie Award at the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards and was named one of Variety's 10 Directors to Watch for 2018. Her feature debut, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, screened at the Cannes Film Festival Directors’ Fortnight, and was nominated for three 2016 Independent Spirit Awards. Her most recent film, The Rider (2017), won the top prize at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes and is nominated for multiple Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Feature and Best Director. The Rider also received the Werner Herzog Foundation Award for its courage and vision. Zhao studied Political Science at Mount Holyoke College and Film Production at NYU. She was born in Beijing and currently resides in the United States.
Screenings of Zhao's Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) and The Rider (2017) followed by “Question and Answer” Sessions with the Director
The Strauss endowment included two free screenings of Zhao's films during spring term 2018 for University of Oregon students, faculty, staff, and the community. The first screening in the series featured Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which was screened at the Bijou Art Cinemas and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, screened at the Cannes Film Festival Directors’ Fortnight, and was nominated for three 2016 Independent Spirit Awards. The second screening on campus featured The Rider, which won the top prize at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes and is nominated for multiple Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Feature and Best Director. Both events included introductions of the films by Zhao as well as an opportunity for the audience to ask questions of the director after the screening.