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 November 2024 classes.

Essential Queer Docs: Word is Out

Thursday evening, November 7th at 6:30pm

Cost: $22 ($18 members)

REGISTER HERE

In 1977, WORD IS OUT: STORIES OF SOME OF OUR LIVES (133 min) broke screen silence as the first nonfiction feature directed by gay filmmakers - in this case, a collective of six filmmakers brought together by documentarian Peter Adair, called the Mariposa Film Group, with the intention of creating images and archiving the stories of their intersecting communities.

In this class, we’ll learn about the many impacts of the film on queer lives in the late 1970s, and its legacy as an essential early archive of queer life. We’ll also discuss how these filmmakers sought to queer the documentary form itself through a radically collaborative approach to filmmaking and archiving of gay life, opening space for decades of by-queers, for-queers documentaries to come!

This class will be taught by MMU Instructor Max Swanson, a filmmaker/performer, writer, educator, and organizer based in Portland, OR.

Class size will be limited to 18.

Essential Queer Docs: How to Survive a Plague

Thursday evening, November 14th at 6:30pm

Cost: $22 ($18 members)

REGISTER HERE

2012’s HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (110 min) weaves a portrait of the rage, grief, love and action of the early AIDS epidemic that is essential viewing in the canon of queer documentaries. Director and journalist David France began covering and reporting on the AIDS crisis in the early 1980s, and drew from over 700 hours of archival footage to create this essential & moving portrait of the time.

In this class, we’ll delve into the importance of not only documenting our queer and trans lives and fights for liberation as they happen, but of taking up these essential texts as guidance to continue the fights highlighted in the film. Doing so, we’ll explore the political potential of queer documentary, tracing the lineage of the activist groups in the film to our contemporary movements for queer and trans rights, disability and Covid justice — and celebrate our collective power along the way.

This class will be taught by MMU Instructor Max Swanson, a filmmaker/performer, writer, educator, and organizer based in Portland, OR.

Class size will be limited to 18.

What is Sound Design?

Thursday evening, November 21st at 6:30pm

Cost: $45 ($30 members)

CLASS FULL - ADD YOUR NAME TO THE WAITLIST

Sound in film has a long history of being considered secondary to image, but when we pay attention to how it impacts our experience of movies, we discover how essential and creative this element of cinema is!

In this two-hour Movie Madness University class, we’ll explore the creative decisions and sonic elements that go into building the soundscape of a film — from dialogue and soundtracks to foley, ADR, and more. We'll track the history of sound design in film, from how the introduction of sync sound to the ways that new technologies like Dolby Atmos have transformed what filmmakers can do. We’ll learn about the sound recording and design process, listen to examples from key scenes in sound design history and contemporary cinema, and uncover the profound ways that sound design shapes, makes, or breaks every film you’ve ever watched.

This class will be taught by MMU Instructor 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.

Class size will be limited to 18.

Remembering Gena Rowlands

Starting Monday evening November 4th at 6:30pm

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

REGISTER HERE

Captivating on both the silver screen and from the comfort of your home, Gena Rowlands’ artful approach to rendering visible women’s interiority deserves resounding praise.

Remembering Gena Rowlands is a four week exploration of the iconic actress' body of work—lingering in her singular talent for balancing incredible rawness with stunning poise.

Films:

11/4: TBD

11/11: TBD

11/18: GLORIA (1980, 123 min)

11/25: OPENING NIGHT (1977, 144 min)

This class will be taught by MMU Instructor TK, local filmmaker, storyteller and historian.

Class size will be limited to 18.

Introduction to Agnès Varda

Starting Tuesday evening November 5th at 6:30pm

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

CLASS FULL - ADD YOUR NAME TO THE WAITLIST

In this course we’ll discuss the legend, the myth, the bowl cut… of the one and only Agnès Varda. A multidisciplinary mother of the French new wave, documentary realism, and experimentalism, and described by Martin Scorsese as one of the “Gods of Cinema”. Varda is an icon for a reason. This class will provide an introduction and overview to Varda’s career through the lens of four representative works.

Films:

11/5: CLÉO FROM 5 TO 7 (1962, 90 min)

11/12: DAGUERRÉOTYPES (1975, 79 min)

11/19: VAGABOND (1985, 106 min)

11/26: THE GLEANERS AND I (2000, 82 min)

This class will be taught by MMU lead instructor Kia Anne Geraths, a filmmaker and educator.

Class size will be limited to 18.

Vertigos

Starting Wednesday evening November 6th at 6:30pm

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

CLASS FULL - ADD YOUR NAME TO THE WAITLIST

Alfred Hitchcock’s psychosexual thriller VERTIGO has fascinated audiences, critics, and filmmakers since its release in 1958. It broke into the top ten of the Sight & Sound poll in 1992 and toppled CITIZEN KANE for the number one slot in 2012. In addition to countless readings by critics and scholars often influenced by the work of Freud and Lacan, numerous filmmakers have been influenced in different ways by the film, both consciously and unconsciously, resulting in a collection of works that in different ways play with its plot and themes.

In this course we will focus on four films that in different ways engage with some aspect of VERTIGO: an homage by Brian de Palma, a sixth generation Chinese neo-noir by Lou Ye, Christian Petzhold’s post-war set reworking of Vertigo’s third act, and Park Chan-Wook’s most recent theatrical release. These films will be discussed both on their merits and as they relate to VERTIGO.

Students are highly encouraged to screen VERTIGO on their own prior to the first session.

Films:

11/6: OBSESSION (1976, 98 min)

11/13: SUZHOU RIVER (2000, 83 min)

11/20: PHOENIX (2014, 98 min)

11/27: DECISION TO LEAVE (2022, 138 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.

Class size will be limited to 18.