'Film Course: Women Make Film II' consists of two sixty-minute screenings: each followed by a discussion with a filmmaker and a critic.

The second of seven classes focuses on how some of the world’s greatest female directors capture conversations, handle camera movement and harness the power of discovery. This session features screenings of six chapters from Mark Cousin’s documentary Women Make Film.

‘Conversation’ shows how directors turn fundamental human interactions into powerful cinematic moments. In the next chapter, ‘Framing’, Cousins looks at how frames paint the scenes. Next, ‘Tracking’ explains the complex choreography and precise camerawork of tracking shots—an essence of filmmaking magic.

Pointing clearly to the origin of theatre, ‘Staging’ answers a key question: how do directors shape a scene’s invisible geometry and accentuate tension between characters? In ‘Journey’, Cousins dives into movement where modes of transportation become metaphors for horizontal and vertical inner journeys. Finally, the ways discovery and revelation shape some of cinema’s most iconic moments are the subject of ‘Discovery’.

In this film class, acclaimed director Mable Cheung of An Autumn’s Tale (1987) and veteran critic Ka Ming will discuss Mark Cousins’ analysis of different approaches on harnessing the power of conversation, framing, tracking, staging, journey, and discovery in film. The commentary will draw examples from Cheung’s An Autumn’s Tale (1987), The Soong Sisters (1997), City of Glass (1998) and Alex Law’s Echoes of the Rainbow (2010). Ka Ming will also explore how directors from Hong Kong tackle the theme of ‘journey’ compared to filmmakers on the international stage.