This course will return in February 2026.

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WHAT: This course explores the intimate, interdependent yet fragile relationship between words and images and their combined potency for the creation of (cinematic) worlds.

WHERE: Online distance learning, take part in this class from your home with a computer/tablet.

WHO: Run by artist, filmmaker & lecturer Bella Riza.

WHEN: 9 weeks, Tuesday evenings, 3rd February – 7th April 2026

COMMITMENT: 2 hours per week, plus optional extra reading and watching outside of class.

WHAT YOU GET: Join an international group to engage with films and texts, and take part in creative writing tasks to unlock hidden layers within film.

HOW MUCH: £325.00 | Student/Concession: £275.00 | UCL Student £255.00

DEADLINE TO SIGN UP: TBC

BURSARIES: Please see our Terms & Conditions for information on our rates & concessions.

AGES: 17+

This course explores the intimate, interdependent yet fragile relationship between words and images and their combined potency for the creation of (cinematic) worlds.

Words can often be the starting point for a piece of moving-image, unlocking feelings that gradually evolve into audio-visual experience. It can also work in reverse, that an image or series of images emerge first and through writing we can explore the emotional landscapes they open out onto. From either position, words and images spiral together leading us further into our personal, subjective experiences to then move us outwards, connecting us to our outer social and political environments.

Over 8 weeks we will draw on the work of filmmakers, writers, cultural workers, critical thinkers, and somatic practitioners with the aim of cultivating an experience of presence in the world, reconfiguring ways of relating and re-imagining new narratives and modes of storytelling. Through a combination of presentations, screenings of extracts of works, discussions, writing workshops and sharing sessions we consider why it is that we tell stories and new forms through which to tell them. This course intends to create a space to cultivate a relationship to our own language that will lead us to reflect on and shape our differing and shared experience of the world. References and resources will be shared throughout our sessions and participants are invited to a community channel where they can co-develop a pool of resources and keep up with one another outside of our weekly meetings.

Week 1
Welcome and introductions
A language for return

In our opening session we will explore the elastic space between experience and language, where thought and motivation arise. This will lead us to an exploration of the somatic, silence and space as a primary location for the flow and sedimentation of experience. How can we follow this line of inquiry into the body to make space for a new sense of relatedness to emerge. We will explore the possibilities for images to arise from this place and practices for responsiveness to them.

Week 2
Limitation of the image: Working through memory, materiality and melancholia

In this session we will think about the parameters of the image and the word with particular emphasis on how this relates to memory. We will begin to explore the alchemical process of writing as emotional formulating – in what ways it retains feeling, and how it might inherently embody loss. We will also begin to unravel the dimensionality of images and their making and reflect on our own position as viewers of cinema – the reciprocal co-animation process taking place between our perception and the presence of images themselves.

Week 3
Film as Diary

This week we will consider the ways in which writing relates to the unconscious and how structures for autobiographical language emerge through the intimate space of the journal. Through an in-session writing workshop we will navigate a relationship to ‘inner’ images, exploring the manner in which writing can place us in a transitional state of discovery. Reflecting on the films we will explore the fluidity and motion expressed through the production of images, as well as how their arrangement and an approach to sound can contribute to a rhythmic, layered and embodied film language.

Weeks 4 & 5

We will come together this week to share an aspect of a project/idea we are developing, for group discussion and ideas for moving forward.

~Mid Course Break~

Week 6
Correspondence: Mapping terrains of distance and placemaking

This session will focus on correspondence and letter writing as a means for transmission and reception of feeling. Dating from the 18th Century letter writing creates a space where the psyche can find form and be shared through the hands of the receiver. The letter creates a mobile impression of both emotional and physical landscapes, allowing us to inhabit spaces and feelings beyond our personal realm of experience. We will reflect on how correspondence and the form of the letter is explored through filmic space and consider its invitation for dialogue, friendship and connection.

Week 7
Language as action

Language sketches a window into the relationship between the individual and society. In this session we will consider how storytelling can offer an exploration of agency that connects us more deeply to the collective through the creation of new systems of relating. We will explore our understanding of language, its limitations and (re)-arrangement to include visuality, editing and sound. What are the inherent power dynamics encoded in language? What are the things we care about and worlds that we long for? How do we cultivate our voice to connect with the collective?

Week 8
Writing beyond words, writing the feeling

In this week’s session we will consider writing beyond text. We will explore works that don’t always rely on a linear narrative, are impressionistic and create a subliminal and experiential film language. How can we convey a sensation through writing that moves beyond verbal language and dialogue? How do we write the non-verbal? This session places its focus on the exploration of the atmosphere of particular emotions through an alternative approach to writing.

Week 9

Our closing session will be dedicated to sharing work from the programme and reflecting on the experience. It’s an opportunity to consider what methods of practice were beneficial and to plan for development beyond our meetings.

*Week 4 and 5 are dedicated to the work of the group, and as such may run for an extra half an hour, from 6 – 8.30pm.

**The course will have a midsession break.

Long distance learning, and students will require a computer or other internet connected device.

We offer bursary places for this course. Please see our bursary policy.

Testimonials:

Bella was a great coach during our journey together, each week she prepared poignant presentations that helped frame each session, provided film links and suggestions, and encouraged interesting discussions around the films. I loved that Bella was so engaged throughout, giving recommendations based on interests and ideas, allowing space and time to all the different ideas and approaches that came up. I was a bit stuck with research and writing when I joined, Bella’s thoughtful construction and delivery of this course helped me hurdle a creative block.

Kaylie Kist, previous course participant 

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If you would like to:

• Find out more information about UCL Public Anthropology Short Courses
• Be updated with info such as future course dates and prices
• Be the first to know when  new courses go online

please subscribe to our mailing list.

If you still have other questions relating to a specific course or request, please get in touch with us via emailing shortcourses@opencitylondon.com

If you have a question about course content, please contact Bella, the course tutor directly at b.riza@ucl.ac.uk

(Image: Blue, dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, France, 2018)