Three practitioners -- a film-maker, a photographer and a film curator, all working in higher education, teaching film production, photography and film studies -- discuss their reflections on co-convening a decolonising pedagogy workshop-conference hosted in May 2019 at HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. They draw from their unique…

Background: Given the high levels of homophobia that exist in South Africa, including in its schools and universities, it is imperative that university lecturers develop integrated and transdisciplinary curriculums to educate pre-service teachers about sexuality and to empower them to incorporate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex…

The teaching of documentary film faces particular ethical and practical challenges in intercultural environments when working with marginalized groups. The author of the paper was one of the acting teachers for an intercultural group of film students making documentaries on sex workers in rural South African communities in 2015. The paper explores…

As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns across the world, digital access has become paramount, as most aspects of education have moved online. Drawing together five case studies located in South Africa, Argentina, the Netherlands, India and Ethiopia, this article assesses the role of film education during the COVID-19…

This paper reports on the process of understanding myself and my pre-service teacher education students better through my lecture reflections and deliberations with critical friends as I taught a South African film entitled Tsotsi. Conversations with colleagues deepened my analysis as I was challenged to revisit my musings on lecture reflections,…

Twenty years after South Africa's first democratic elections, what is the state of film and media studies education at the country's higher education institutions? The article examines several key debates, from calls for the decolonisation of curricula to the tension between internationalisation and local research in local media industries. Is…

Elite schools around the world aspire to produce perfect students and yet there are always obstacles to this perfection being achieved. In this paper, we suggest that this process of perfectionism and obstruction can best be understood using a methodology that looks to the creative arts, rather than the usual social science orthodoxies. Our focus…

This study interrogated the central theoretical statement that understanding and learning to apply the abstract concept of classical dramatic narrative structure can be addressed effectively through a useful audiovisual teaching method. The purpose of the study was to design an effective DVD teaching and learning aid, to justify the design through…

Describes a course that addresses and relocates questions of representation and reconstruction in the context of reflexive explanations for ethnographic films. Examines questions of power/power relations; anthropological and media construction of the Other; and trends in visual anthropology. Contextualizes the course within the human experience of…

Examines the way cinema and television studies are taught in South African universities, especially at Pretoria Technikon Film School and Rhodes University. (PD)

This paper outlines the fourth-year film appreciation course at Rand College of Education in Johannesburg, South Africa, designed to develop a greater critical awareness in students so they are able to distinguish between good and mediocre film and video material. Some attempt is made to establish what qualifies material to be regarded as…

This report contains a selection of contributed papers and presentations from a conference attended by 270 educators and media workers committed to formulate a vision for media education in South Africa. Pointing out that media education has been variously described in South Africa as visual literacy, mass media studies, teleliteracy, and film…