Workshop Tin Dirdamal

Display Schedule

Code Completion Credits Range Language Instruction Semester
303MWTDI credit 2 10 seminar hours (45 min) of instruction per semester, 43 to 53 hours of self-study English summer

Subject guarantor

Alice RŮŽIČKOVÁ

Name of lecturer(s)

Alice RŮŽIČKOVÁ

Department

The subject provides Department of Documentary Film

Contents

AN UPSTREAM RIVER BETWEEN FICTION AND NONFICTION is a film workshop that moves away from both fiction and nonfiction. Far away from formulas, scripts and film crews. It uses the multiplication of mistakes as the driving force, the fragile state of not knowing as the compass.

The starting point is identifying a current creative pursuit to then find its contrary; so that the participants can allow themselves to conceive or further an idea from an opposing position. The reason behind this is to be able to reinvent one’s own creative approach- to find new ways, to become free of one's own methods in pursuit of reinvention.

The raw material from which we will pull from will be circumstantial reality. An important part of this workshop is finding new ways to perceive. To find different ways to create ‘narrative tension’ by using desire, unpredictability and deconstruction.

AN UPSTREAM RIVER… is a space to harness one's ability to surprise one’s self; and apply this new motion into a filmmaking pursuit.

  1. Far and in Between: finding new structures in between fiction and nonfiction (theoretical / philosophical)
  2. Expanding Perceptions: observation as a narrative tool (practical)
  3. Editing like Weaving: editing as a construction that comes from within (theoretical)
  4. Contradicting Oneself: reinventing one’s own filmmaking (practical / philosophical)
  5. Deconstruction: participants are encouraged to bring their current projects in development and discuss them

Learning outcomes

The students will hopefully learn:

•New narrative structures

•Editing as a long lost friend

•Mathematical Editing 

•Question one’s own filmmaking practice in pursuit of authenticity and reinvention

Prerequisites and other requirements

Having had shown prior or current interest in one or several, but not all of the following:

•Finding underground water with obscure methods

•Rare breathing techniques

•Seeing without seeing

•Anti-meditation

•Documenting the future

•Befriending the AI mind

•The smallest movement

Literature

Tin Dirdamal Bio

Self-taught filmmaker and unorthodox editor- known for being able to edit “impossible films.” Born 165 kilometers south of the US-Mexico border with formal studies in engineering. He measures the success of his films by how much of himself he’s able to abandon in the process. Also self-taught in psychology and architecture, his most useful tools are doubt and contradiction.

An advocate of plagiarism and a great ignorant of world affairs. He believes that lies can be an instrument to approach truth. It takes him on average 5.5555 years to complete his own films. He knows how to find underground water and until recently he had never read a book in his life. He is convinced he can document the future and has attempted this numerous times, failing thus far.

He directs, produces, acts, writes, does camera and sound, composes music, edits, and designs the sound for his own films. At 22 years old he grabbed a camera for the first time in his life and made his first accidental and feature length film that won him the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Films he’s edited and directed have been shown and awarded at some of the most

important art venues and film festivals around the world, including: Venice Biennale, Sundance, Visions du Reél, IDFA, DOCNY, FICUNAM, Ji.hlava, Ann Arbor, DokuFest… He has received grants from Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute and Rockefeller Media Artists.

A mentor at heart, he seeks that which is authentic and raw. He has been invited several times to mentor and advise projects at UnionDocs' (New York) summer program. He is a returning mentor of the DocuLab program at the Guadalajara Film Festival in Mexico. He held an experimental film program and was one of the creators of the ‘Hanoi Dogma’ at DocLab Hanoi in Vietnam. He was invited to open a film school and design a curriculum at the Rwandan School of Creative

Arts and Music. He has been invited to give workshops and masterclasses at UCLA, YALE, NYU, and UMASS. He’s been part of the dok.incubator program as an editor. He has advised and edited films from praiseworthy filmmakers such as Eva Valiño, Laura Haby, Ben Guez, Efthymia Zymvragaki and Việt Vũ.

He lives in places with the understanding he will soon abandon them. He has lived for prolonged periods of his life in Arizona, Bolivia, the South and North of Mexico, Vietnam, Turkey, Albania, Rwanda and currently in Nepal. If he had to choose between becoming more or becoming less; between being someone or becoming no one, he would choose the latter in both cases.

Evaluation methods and criteria

100% active participation in the workshop on 5-6 April 2025 (signatures on attendance lists)

Note

Modular teaching of KDT

Lecturer: Tin Dirdamal (gurantors Alice Růžičková, Andrea Petrovičová)

Date and time: Saturday and Sunday 5-6 April 2025, 10am-3pm, KDT 217 classroom

Assignement: zá/2 – 100% participation throughout + activity at the seminar

Capacity: 15

Optional for: KDT until 23 March, then if capacity is not met, the module will be opened to other interested parties from FAMU (accredited study programs)

Jazyk výuky/Language of teaching: english

AN UPSTREAM RIVER BETWEEN FICTION AND NONFICTION

advanced, practical and philosophical film workshop that seeks to further the act of filmmaking through the idea of the pursuit of contraries and expanding circumstantial reality.

Further information

This course is an elective for all students of this school

Schedule for winter semester 2024/2025:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

Schedule for summer semester 2024/2025:

Date Day Time Tutor Location Notes No. of paralel
05.04.2025 10:00–15:00 Alice RŮŽIČKOVÁ Room No. 217
Lažanský palác		 for KDT until 23 March, then if capacity is not met, the module will be opened to other interested parties from FAMU (accredited study programs) lecture parallel1
06.04.2025 10:00–15:00 Alice RŮŽIČKOVÁ Room No. 217
Lažanský palác		 for KDT until 23 March, then if capacity is not met, the module will be opened to other interested parties from FAMU (accredited study programs) lecture parallel1

The subject is a part of the following study plans