Quarantine cinema: Teaching film directing during COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Adapting teaching methods for a digital classroom during COVID-19 presented specific challenges related to the embodied practice of film directing and working with actors. This article will discuss approaches employed by instructors at Toronto Film School in Canada to respond to these challenges. It will also describe examples of the student works produced within the physical and technological constraints of the government-mandated lockdown in Toronto during Spring 2020, a time period marked by generational civil rights activism on an international scale. By examining innovative student works in conversation with historically subversive cinematic movements, such as the French New Wave and Third Cinema, this article argues for curriculum adjustments to incorporate an augmented focus on personal and political filmmaking practices within the study of film directing. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.