BART 97A89 - Everybody's Autobiography-Creative Screenwriting Workshop

Though the terms “autobiography” and “autofiction” are considered mostly as literary genres, contemporary

cinema offers many ways of working with one’s autobiographical materials in fiction. Starting form Chantal

Akerman’s I, You, He, She and Bill Douglas’s My Childhood – the workshop will first try to define what is an

autobiographical work in cinema, what are its limits and possibilities. Mixing practical exercise, critical

viewing and reading, students will have the opportunity to write their own autofiction screenplay and

experiment with different ways of personal storytelling for the screen.

Academic expectations

• Familiarizing with basic language of screenwriting
• Developing creative writing skills
• Developing critical viewing skills
• Experiment with narrative and storytelling

Session 1 : Reality vs. fiction?

Introduction to screenwriting, basic terms and concepts. Looking at hybrid films, mixing documentary and fiction.

Session 2 : The self-portrait

How to create a self-portrait in film? Watching and discussing the film I, You, He, She by Chantal Akerman.

Session 3 :  The self-portrait cont’

Individual work: following the first part of Akerman’s film, writing one “self-portrait” scene, a character alone in their room.

Session 4: Filming memory

Comparing between My Childhood, and Aftersun: approaches to visual narration of childhood memories.

Session 5 : Filming memory cont’

Individual work: choosing one of the two films (My Childhood, Aftersun) as inspiration for writing one’s own scene, transposing a memory onto the screen.

Session 6 : First person narration

Watching and discussing I Killed my Mother by Xavier Dolan.

Session 7 : Third person narration

Comparing between Fanny and Alexandre, Syndromes and a Century and The Novelist’s Film: three (very)

different approaches of fictionalizing of the self and others.

Session 8: Multiple perspectives

Individual work: rewriting one’s memory scene from another character’s point of view.

Session 9: The personal and the political

Watching and discussing The Time that Remains, Elia Suleiman and The Headless Woman, Lucretia Martel

: the autobiography contextualized.

Session 10: The personal and the political cont’

Individual work: contextualizing one’s own self-portrait. Bringing the outside world into one’s room.

Session 11: The autobiography of another

Watching and discussing Little Sister and Sugar Cane Alley. Comparing the autobiographical novel to the

screenplay.

Session 12: Presentations

Reading presentations of personal work from the semester.

• Participation in class discussion 10%
• Submission of written exercises during the semester: 45% total
• Final assignment, “self-portrait” screenplay 45%

Late work policy

Late submissions will result in a reduction of the assignment grade.

Late arrival policy

Once the workshop has started, late arrival only with justification.