BAL Film
School
#5
January 2025 - May 2025
Online and in person
The course starts in January 2025 and ends at the end of May 2025.
Applications are open until December 30, 2024 (deadline extended)
Baltic Analog Lab announces the fifth edition of our BAL Film School – an international five-month course in experimental analog filmmaking.
The school is open for both international and national participants providing regular online meetings with filmmakers and researchers from all around the world, teaching in-person as well as online workshops, and providing full assistance in analog film production.
The course provides participation either in online sessions only or online and in-person masterclasses (full course).
The online meetings will happen weekly via Zoom allowing participants to join from any location and engage with filmmakers as well as fellow students.
2025 edition we dedicate to an exploration of film both as a filmic and a performative medium. Full course participants will create expanded cinema pieces to be presented at the opening ceremony of the Process Festival in May 2025 in Riga.
This year our in-person masterclasses will provide training in BAL premises in Riga and Crater Lab in Barcelona, teaching shooting, processing, and duplicating 16mm film as well as incorporating it in expanded cinema performance.
By meeting various filmmakers whose work predominantly focuses on analog, experimental film, the aim of the school is to provide an alternative education in film studies diving into various forms and expressions of experimental film language.
Supported by the Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation
Guest Speakers
Regulations
The course starts in January 2025 and ends at the end of May 2025.
Applications are open until December 30, 2024. (deadline extended)
Anyone over the age of 20 can apply to the school.
We offer two participation models, each at a different cost:
Full course cost:
800 EUR for international,
700 EUR for national participants
Online course cost:
400 EUR
Payments can be made in several installments.
The full course offers participation in all online sessions, seminars, and online workshops, participation in 3 in-person masterclasses in Riga and Barcelona, as well as film stock, access to the darkroom, film equipment, and personal assistance for processing films at Baltic Analog Lab. Students will have the opportunity to perform at the opening ceremony of the Process festival happening in Riga on May 21, 2025 and will receive a festival pass.
Travel costs and accommodation costs for the in-person masterclasses must be covered by the participants themselves.
Online courses include participation in all online sessions, seminars, and online workshops led by international teachers and filmmakers sharing their knowledge and very specific tips and tricks for creating experimental films.
Each lecture will be recorded and available to all participants in case they cannot be present at the scheduled meeting.
The meetings will happen once a week in the evenings at 7 PM CET with some exceptions for overseas visiting lecturers.
NB! We only accept 20 participants for the full course due to the limited capacity of the mentorship and space in the lab.
Program
The course offers in-depth knowledge exchange and teaching of experimental film, encompassing it from the historical side as well as contemporary and technical hands-on approach. By meeting various filmmakers across the world, we will get to know their unique approaches to experimental filmmaking, meeting them on the Zoom platform and engaging in conversations. We will meet filmmakers who have established their place in the experimental film scene by working with analog film for decades, creating unique films that have been shown across many film festivals, art-house cinemas, contemporary art museums, and galleries as well as underground cinemas and artist-run laboratories.
This year, apart from meeting filmmakers and researchers sharing their personal approach to experimental filmmaking, we will also offer several online workshops and seminars allowing participants to engage with the group and the teacher more actively.
This year amongst confirmed speakers there are Emmanuel Lefrant (FR), Kim Knowles (UK), Karel Doing (NL/UK), Peter Tscherkassky (AT), Esther Urlus (NL), Ana Vaz (BR), Alexandre Larose (CA), Jeanne Liotta (USA), Valentina Alvarado Matos (VE/ES), Carlos Vásquez Méndez (CL/ES), Katherine Bauer (USA/FR), Ben Rivers (UK), Viktoria Schmid (AT), Richard Tuohy (AU), Dianna Barrie (AU), Maksims Šenteļevs (LV), Ieva Balode (LV), Jānis Putniņš (LV) and others.
Online meetings will happen once a week in the evenings, with some materials given prior to the meeting – film links, reading materials, or tasks. Once a month there will also be a seminar where participants will be engaging with each other and the lecturer in a group environment.
Apart from meeting filmmakers and theoreticians, we will also offer online workshops with Ieva Balode (LV), Richard Tuohy (AU), Dianna Barrie (AU), Esther Urlus (NL) and Maksims Šenteļevs (LV).
For the full course participants, we offer three in-person masterclasses – the first happening in Riga for 3-4 days in February at Baltic Analog Lab with its founder Ieva Balode teaching basic shooting with 16mm Bolex camera and film processing in an artist-run laboratory. In March we will offer our second workshop at Crater Lab, Barcelona, with their member Yago Alcover teaching a workshop on duplicating 16mm film with an optical printer. The third workshop will take place in May, in Riga, and will be led by American artist and filmmaker Melissa Ferrari, who is teaching a magic lantern workshop with the aim to create an expanded cinema show for the opening ceremony of Process festival.
Students will receive a filmstock to work on their own films during the course. It can be processed and scanned at Baltic Analog Lab or elsewhere in April and premiered at the Process Festival in May 2025.
The course will be moderated by BAL founding member Ieva Balode (LV) and Kim Knowles (UK)- senior lecturer of Aberystwyth University, film researcher, and film curator.
The school is supported by the Latvian State Culture Capital foundation.
Schedule:
December 9-30, 2024. Open call for applications
January 7, 2025. Announcement of participants
January 15, 2025. Start of the school
January-May, 2025 Zoom sessions
Full course
February 21-23, 2025. Workshop in BAL, Riga
March 14-17, 2025. Workshop at Crater Lab, Barcelona
April, 2025. Film processing at BAL (or elsewhere)
May 17-18, 2025. Workshop at BAL
May 21, 2025. Film presentation and performance at Process Festival
Thank you for applying, we are currently processing all timely sent in applications! The announcement of participants will be announced on the 7th of January 2025.