My Courses

A few weeks ago, after a sudden rush of praise invading my timeline on Twitter for Shawn Ryan’s procedural cop drama “”The Shield,” I decided that this was as good a time as any to finally get into the show. It did not take long (in fact, maybe two or three episodes) before my mind…

For decades, Hollywood upheld and championed a certain its ideal of masculinity. Toxic masculinity permeated our screens with scenes of societal ills like sexual harassment, senseless violence, and blatant bigotry. Even cult classics like “Revenge of the Nerds” are infamous for depicting rampant misogyny, such as the now commonly referred rape scene where Robert Carradine’s…

From the very first scene of “The Bikeriders,” director Jeff Nichols is working hard to evoke an era. In an opening deep focus shot through a bar’s door frame, Benny, a biker, sits at the bar with his back to us. The camera pushes in, revealing two older men approaching him. They want him to…

“We walk into these rooms and we can’t just talk about our creativity or our ideas. We have to get through all the cultural baggage first.” –Ava DuVvernay, VICE.com/BET Guest Lecture Series, 2017 One day, while wandering through Instagram, I came across a promotional image for The Hollywood Reporter’s Roundtable series – The Emmy Edition.…

I always wanted to be a photographer for National Geographic, but it wasn’t until I was in college that I learned about visual anthropology. Anthropology taught me about foreign histories and cultures, but I also learned about myself and the world around me through filmmaking. As the 21st century advances, media literacy becomes just as…