Openings, Tone

Productions from around the world ranging from 1943 to 2013 reveal varied ways to open a film to set the tone.

Believability, Character, Meet Cute

Directors discuss how to create believably in characters and interactions while telling simple human stories.

Conversation, Framing, Tracking

Directors detail filming a conversation; Angela Schanelec focuses on body language in Places in Cities; Cecile Tang uses the zoom as a guide through the emotional shifts in The Arch.

Staging, Journey, Discovery

Scene staging originates from cinema's roots in theater; Kinuyo Tanaka uses staging to shape a scene's invisible geometry and accentuate tension between characters in The Moon Has Risen.

Adult-Child, Economy, Editing

Directors including Jocelyn Moorhouse, Ida Lupino, Sofia Coppola, Kelly Reichart, Jennifer Kent, and others demonstrate the art of point of view, perspective, and editing.

Point of View, Close Ups, Surrealism and Dreams

India's great film star Sharmila Tagore talks about dreams in movies, with examples ranging from Wayne's World through experimental film to Sally Potter. Jane Fonda continues to talk about bodies.

Bodies, Sex

Directors including Agnes Varda, Andrea Arnold, Marva Nabili, Pirjo Honkasalo, Marta Meszaros, and Wanda Jakubows discuss bodies and sex in cinema.

Home, Religion, Work

Sharmila Tagore narrates the story of home, religion, and work in movies by Edith Carlmar, Lynne Ramsay, Mai Zetterling, Liu Jiay-in, Antonia Bird, and others.

Politics, Gear Change, Comedy

From silent movies to cinema of the twenty-first century, some films gain energy from politics such as The Enchanted Desna, Divorce Iranian Style, Strange Days.

Melodrama, Sci-Fi, Horror & Hell

Sharmila Tagore reveals some of the secrets of melodrama from Kira Muratova's Chekhov's Motifs to Binka Zhelyazkova's We Were Young.

Tension, Stasis, Leave Out

Directors explore gripping scenes in thrillers and other types, including Kathryn Bigelow's Blue Steel, Carol Morley's Dreams of a Life, and Mimi Leder's Peacemaker.

Reveal, Memory, Time

Cinema as a kind of time machine as shown in the films by Lynne Ramsay, Kinuyo Tanaka, Sarah Polley, and Alice Rohrwacher.

Life Inside, the Meaning of Life, Love

Directors talk about how films in France, Ukraine, Britain, America, New Zealand, and Algeria reflect the meaning of life and love.

Death, Endings, Song and Dance

Various female filmmakers such as Kinuyo Tanaka, Caroline Leaf, Ana Mariscal, Paula Van der Oest, and others talk about how they deal with the universal subject of death.