Dean's introduction

Steve Anker

The School of Film/Video is one of the nation's premiere colleges for studying the art of the moving image. It is singularly devoted to filmmaking as a personal, independent art form. The School is especially unique in that it promotes the studies of all major types of filmmaking: dramatic narrative, documentary, experimental live-action, character-based animation, experimental animation, multimedia, and installation. We offer four challenging programs, each one with its own specialized curriculum focusing on specific areas in filmmaking. At the same time, all four share an ethos in combining rigorous practical training with theoretical inquiry, hands-on production with aesthetic reflection.

The Program in Film & Video provides artists with a dynamic laboratory for producing new forms of narrative, documentary and experimental work in both film and video. Our internationally renowned Programs in Experimental Animation and Character Animation give students an excellent foundation in both technique and creative thinking and prepare them to produce work at the very forefront of animated filmmaking. The Film Directing Program focuses on the fundamentals of dramatic storytelling and theater practice but also calls for innovative approaches to staging drama for the screen. In each program, we emphasize artistic and intellectual boldness and encourage all students to push the boundaries of their chosen media. As a result, graduates of the School of Film/Video have distinguished themselves in every area of independent and commercial filmmaking. Their work has been represented extensively at major festivals and museums around the world as much as it has been in the film, television and animation industries.

The richness of the educational experience at the school is based on four elements. The first is a body of self-motivated, intellectually curious students who are ready to break new ground. The second is an outstanding faculty of professional artists and technicians who share their knowledge and experience with passion and generosity. Third is an extensive and constantly upgraded inventory of facilities and equipment, while fourth is the unique cross-pollination of the different art disciplines at CalArts. This generates a lively and stimulating creative environment—one that allows every student to expand the scope of his or her cultural experience and, in the process, become a better artist.

In 2006, CalArts became the first American film school to be honored with a major retrospective exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. This unprecedented survey, TOMORROWLAND: CalArts in Moving Pictures, consisted of 39 separate programs of student film, video and animation made at CalArts over the course of four decades. The MoMA exhibition ran for more than three months and included a remarkably diverse array of work by some 250 CalArts students and alumni—each one an artist who exemplifies the independent vision that is the hallmark of this school.