University degrees: Postgraduate
Course length: 2 year full-time
Course city: Gothenburg
The two-year master’s programme in Film at Valand Academy is an education focused on developing your research skills and creative tools for enquiry in and with moving images. The programme defines itself in relation to the world. We encourage you, as a student of the programme, to examine social, cultural, and political image-making, and we facilitate your enquiry and exploration of the medium of film—its ethics and aesthetics.
We invite you to embrace an ethos of artistic research which is processes-driven, invites reflection on methods of enquiry, and puts research enquiry at the centre of film practice. You will present your own filmic work in various forms, not least in public contexts. The subject is characterized by the image—the original moving image that humans through technology have mastered the preservation and reproduction of—and its consequence: the powerful influence of film on people’s image of themselves and their world.
Our programme is designed to strengthen the relationship between theory and practice. We actively facilitate situations where practice can present theoretical propositions and encourage enquiry in and through the practices of film. Throughout the programme, you will raise your awareness of ethical and aesthetic reasons for making selections of visual material. Through lectures, seminars, and practical exercises, you will develop and clarify your own interest and theme, identifying artistic enquiries for your filmic work and exploring your own filmic practice with respect to method, process, and visualization. Through group discussions, you will exercise your critical ability in relation to your own and other students’ artistic work. By participating in seminars and activities in our research environment, you will have the opportunity to place your work in the context of artistic research and practical knowledge cultivation.
Through existing exchange programmes with the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Berlin, Germany and the Film and Television Department at The Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, there are possibilities to study part of the programme abroad. We encourage and expect you to take advantage of the many opportunities we provide and to actively participate in events organized in the Film unit, including film festivals, public talks, exhibitions, and conferences.
New opportunities emerge with technological and societal developments in professional film practice. Our aim is to develop methods for your artistic practice, enable new filmic expressions, and discover new public screening opportunities and areas of activity. You will develop methods for artistic enquiries in and through film through exploratory and reflective practical work together with teachers and other students in relation to society and contemporary life. You will explore the range of expressions and possibilities of the camera as an artistic tool and an area for social development.
The programme is designed to encourage expressive possibilities in image-making and has a two-fold approach: 1) prioritizing the education experience by advancing research questions, methods, and theoretical propositions through a series of intensives conducted on focused topics or themes; and 2) supporting individually formulated enquiries. The first provides a foundation for the second, where you will develop an individually formulated research enquiry that progresses over the course of successive semesters and is transformed into performative filmic works. You will be required to engage with written texts, presentations, discussions of films screened, and to contribute actively to the educational environment of the programme. We also encourage peer-learning through structured feedback and discussion sessions fostering a climate for critical thinking while constructively advancing your artistic development—an environment conducive for creativity and constructive engagement.
