Students from film and dance came together for an interdisciplinary workshop exploring how movement, space, and attention can shape the way we experience and create film. Inspired by Karen Pearlman’s Cutting Rhythms: Shaping the Film Edit, the workshop examined the relationship between physical movement and the rhythms of film editing.
Led by Paula Higa and organized by Deborah Ellis, the workshop invited students to step outside of traditional technical approaches to filmmaking and engage with movement through improvisation, observation, and perception. Students participated in warm-up exercises, partner-based movement and observation activities, and creative exercises inspired by Mary Starks Whitehouse’s Authentic Movement: a form of expressive movement therapy, and Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed: interactive, community-based theatrical methodology designed to transform passive spectators into active participants who rehearse social change.
One exercise challenged students to create a “still life” representing an event, then explore how that event could unfold through a series of images and movements. Using their phones to observe and document movement, students considered how framing, space, and perspective can influence the way a story is seen.
The workshop offered students a chance to think about filmmaking from a different perspective—one that values intuition and artistic exploration alongside technical skill. By bringing together students and ideas from different disciplines, the afternoon demonstrated how the arts at UVM can intersect in unexpected ways and inspire new ways of creating, seeing, and telling stories.