Movie Madness University is a film & television appreciation program of the Hollywood Theatre. Our class offerings range from in-depth four-week seminars to casual curated film series along with special presentations. The goal of all of our programming is to help people learn more about movies; explore Movie Madness' world-class collection; and meet like-minded film lovers.

Scroll down to explore our May 2024 classes.

Catching Up With International Classics: Grand Illusion

Friday afternoon, May 3rd at 1pm

Cost: $22 ($18 members)

REGISTER HERE

Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion is a humanistic masterpiece about life, war, and social classes. It was the first foreign film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. We’ll learn why this film was banned in Germany upon its release and why it’s a favorite of Kurosawa, Billy Wilder, and Orson Welles.

This course will be taught by Jenny Lee whose previous MMU Friday afternoon classes include Stagecoach, The Earrings of Madame De, and the Maysles documentary Salesman. Jenny Lee is a 2024 Oregon Literary Arts Fellow in Drama.

Class size will be limited to 18.

Catching Up With International Classics: Ugetsu

Friday afternoon, May 24th at 1pm

Cost: $22 ($18 members)

CLASS FULL - ADD YOUR NAME TO THE WAITLIST

Film historian Donald Richie called the visually stunning Ugetsu “one of the most perfect movies in the history of Japanese cinema.” It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design and Martin Scorsese named it one of his favorite films of all-time. We’ll learn and discuss why this Japanese masterpiece by Kenji Mizoguchi has inspired filmmakers worldwide.

This course will be taught by Jenny Lee whose previous MMU Friday afternoon classes include Stagecoach, The Earrings of Madame De, and the Maysles documentary Salesman. Jenny Lee is a 2024 Oregon Literary Arts Fellow in Drama.

Class size will be limited to 18.

Catching Up With International Classics: I Know Where I'm Going

Friday afternoon, May 31st at 1pm

Cost: $22 ($18 members)

REGISTER HERE

In this cherished romantic comedy by English duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, a woman travels to Scotland to get married, only to change her plan after meeting another man. We’ll learn why this film was often used by a Hollywood studio as inspiration for a perfect screenplay and discuss its enduring cinematic impact.

This course will be taught by Jenny Lee whose previous MMU Friday afternoon classes include Stagecoach, The Earrings of Madame De, and the Maysles documentary Salesman. Jenny Lee is a 2024 Oregon Literary Arts Fellow in Drama.

Class size will be limited to 18.

I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians

Thursday evening, May 2nd at 6:30pm

Cost: $22 ($18 members)

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The film gets its name from a quote from Mihai Antonescu, Deputy Prime Minister of Romanian and convicted war criminal for his role in the Romanian Holocaust. The plot follows a young filmmaker who attempts to draw attention to the dark and ignored parts of her country's history; specifically, its involvement in the genocide of Jews, Roma, and Ukrainians. When people learn of her plan, she receives unexpected pushback - why can't she show the positive side of Romanian history? Why won’t she focus on the evils that have been wrought upon her country from without instead of the evils that exist within?

With book bannings and limits on curriculum in the daily news, I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS (Romania, Czech Republic, Germany, Bulgaria, France, 2018, 140 min), articulates uncomfortable parallels to contemporary debates in our own country. In this class, we’ll look through the lens of Romanian film and history and consider the question, how should we address our history?

This course will be taught by MMU Instructor Satchel Stinson, a Portland Public Schools Social Studies teacher and former Movie Madness staffer.

Class size will be limited to 18.

Japanese New Wave: Gender/Politics

Starting Monday evening May 6th at 6:30pm

Cost: $90 ($75 members) for the four-class series.

CLASS FULL - ADD YOUR NAME TO THE WAITLIST

The Japanese New Wave was one of the most audacious film movements changing the shape of cinema in the decades after World War II. Less a formal movement than a collection of directors pushing boundaries in both style and content, the Japanese New Wave started within a rigid studio system as a way to attract new, younger audiences before shifting towards independent productions as directors were either forced out of or never allowed into the system.

In this course we will focus on films from the Japanese New Wave that engage with gender and/or politics and, in various ways, rejected aspects of classical Japanese and modern approaches to cinema, combining formal experimentation with critical engagements with Japanese history, society, and culture.

Films:

5/6: The Insect Woman (1963, 123 min)

5/13: Diary of Yunbogi (1965, 24 min) + Three Resurrected Drunkards (1968, 80 min)

5/20: Death by Hanging (1968, 118 min)

5/27: Funeral Parade of Roses (1969, 105 min)

This class will be taught by MMU Instructor Jordan Sudermann, who teaches IB Film and various social science courses at Lincoln High School. His interests in film include post-war European art cinema, East Asian cinemas, and queer cinemas.

Films will be screened at the Movie Madness Miniplex, followed by an instructor-led discussion. Classes will begin on Monday evening, May 6th, and be held each Monday through the 27th, at 6:30pm.

Class size will be limited to 18.

Exploring Portland Through Film

Starting Tuesday evening, May 7th at 6:30pm

Cost: $90 ($75 members) for the four-class series.

CLASS FULL - ADD YOUR NAME TO THE WAITLIST

There’s a certain charm about Portland, Oregon. There’s a grittiness, a creativity, a well kept underlying culture that flows through the ever changing uniqueness of our Rose City. It, alongside the Pacific Northwest, has served as a beautiful backdrop for a distinct cinematic identity, inspiring many who have passed through, and captured on film by few.

In this class, we will explore the intersection of storytelling and location in Portland while delving into Oregon’s film history that set us up for these films. Spotlighting auteurs Gus Van Sant and Kelly Reichardt, we will consider how their foundational work has been influenced and centered around the city. Is there a thread that ties these stories together? Do they capture the essence here? Was Portland better back in the day? Join us as we look at the changing portraiture of Portland.

Films:

5/7: Pig (2021, 92 min)

5/14: Old Joy (2006, 73 min)

5/21: Drugstore Cowboy (1989, 98 min)

5/28: My Own Private Idaho (1991, 104 min)

This class will be taught by MMU Instructor Zoe Gillian, who recently taught a class exploring transcendental and slow cinema.

Films will be screened at the Movie Madness Miniplex, followed by an instructor-led discussion. Classes will begin on Tuesday evening, May 7th, and be held each Tuesday through the 28th, at 6:30pm.

Class size will be limited to 18.

Worldwide Vampires: Everlasting Appeal

Starting Wednesday evening May 8th at 6:30pm

Cost: $90 ($75 members) for the four-class series.

CLASS FULL - ADD YOUR NAME TO THE WAITLIST

Whether you call them verdilak or blodsugare, vampire films have been with us since the days of silent films. While traditional Dracula films often focus on the power and temptation of their title character, the films we’ll watch examine the bitter loneliness, the will to survive, and destiny of the vampires themselves.

In this class, we’ll explore four modern vampire films from four different countries. We’ll examine how each film contributes to cinematic vampire lore, analyze why the filmmakers chose to use vampires to explore their themes, look at the cinematic techniques used to depict the vampire, and celebrate the enduring appeal of the vampire in cinema.

Films:

5/8: Byzantium (Ireland, 2012, 118 min)

5/15: Let the Right One In (Sweden, 2008, 114 min)

5/22: Thirst (Korea, 2009, 134 min)

5/29: Night Watch (Russia, 2004, 114 min)

This class will be taught by MMU Instructor De Thieman, a former studio production archives manager whose past classes include MMU’s What Is Costume?

Films will be screened at the Movie Madness Miniplex, followed by an instructor-led discussion. Classes will begin on Wednesday evening, May 8th, and be held each Wednesday through the 29th, at 6:30pm.

Class size will be limited to 18.

The Matrix Trans-lated

Starting Thursday evening, May 9th at 6:30pm

Cost: $90 ($75 members) for the four-class series.

CLASS FULL - ADD YOUR NAME TO THE WAITLIST

Even before The Matrix series creators Lana and Lilly Wachowski came out as trans, hot takes on the layered allegorical meanings of the film franchise abounded — and since then, hot takes about the transness of this saga have proliferated even more.

In this class, we’re going to go behind the takes and dive deep into all things trans in The Matrix. We’ll watch all four films in series, read and explore material from the trans creators of the films, and speculate about why it took Keanu until Movie 4 to realize that it’s… kinda trans.

In addition to exploring gender allegories galore, we’ll take the four films of The Matrix as a set of unfolding layers in a puzzle box about reality, destiny, programming and free will, a set of movies that uniquely asks us for our analysis, detailed attention and, of course, a self-reflexive questioning of what we believe to be true about our experiences as consumers of mediated realities, and as gendered beings.

Films:

5/9: The Matrix (1999, 136 min)

5/16: The Matrix Reloaded (2003, 138 min)

5/23: The Matrix Revolutions (2003, 129 min)

5/30: The Matrix Resurrections (2021, 148 min)

This class will be taught by Max Swanson, a filmmaker/performer, writer, educator, and organizer based in Portland, OR. They currently also teach at NW Doc and PSU, and work as a freelance story consultant. They are also a co-producer of the local drag and art collaborative Max & Mars Present.

Films will be screened at the Movie Madness Miniplex, followed by an instructor-led discussion. Classes will begin on Thursday evening, May 9th, and be held each Thursday through the 30th, at 6:30pm.

Class size will be limited to 18.