Slaying the beast - control the narrative, control the people
After the fall of the great 20th century ideologies, the Postmodernist countermovement began its rise to prominence with a single powerful tool – the Story. Claiming to free mankind, instead of the 20th century atrocities, with pluralism, individualism, diversity and freedom of expression – it has been affecting our lives, our politics, entertainment, art and media. In a lecture for content creators and audiences alike, we’ll unmask what has been happening to storytelling. Have we been going towards the freedom that postmodernism claimed to aim, or has the Golem risen to become a greater threat to us all?
Aliens - so whydo we need them?
Sci-fi stories depicting extraterrestrial have been told for millennia, but why? How attitudes towards extraterrestrial have changed throughout history, why and what have extraterrestrials and stories of them meant for mankind?
How storytelling works on page and screen? (and why some doesn't)
What would happen if Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman didn’t star in Eyes Wide Shut? Did Polanski choose the wrong genre for his own film? Did Spielberg ruin his own film? Did James Cameroon shoot his own dramatic foot for the spectacle in the Terminator series? How directional and production choices change, help or destroy cinematic stories?
Through behind the scenes stories and cinematic examples, we learn not only to watch what we are shown, but what could or should have been; how storytelling works, and why some works and some doesn’t.
Don Barak
Filmmaker & Writer
Israel
English, Hebrew
Don Barak is an internationally awarded filmmaker, writer, editor and script doctor. He studied BFA at the Tel-Aviv Tisch Film School. In addition to the creative work, Don has been publishing articles and essays about storytelling and cinema. In 2015, his non-fiction book “The Short Screenplay Book” was published and produced by the Tel-Aviv University and Israel’s Writers’ Guild.