Research Film Studio

The Research Film Studio is a Princeton University academic program seated in the University Center for Human Values. The Research Film Studio provides an opportunity for Princeton University faculty (Local Spirit Initiative) and students – inside and outside of the curriculum – to develop their research ideas through short films as well as other publications in immersive and mixed media and supports the project-based learning in the Founding Director’s Princeton courses. The Research Film Studio regularly invites award-winning film directors for intensive filmmaking workshops and produces exhibitions and films for global platforms such as the Venice and the Mallorca Biennale and film festivals. The production of exhibitions and films are made possible by grants from the University Center for Human Values, the Council of Humanities, the Bost Center for Peace and Justice, the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, CreativeX, the Princeton Histories Fund, and Bert G. Kerstetter ’66. 

I Heard It Through the Grapevine

I Heard It Through the Grapevine

UCHV Palazzo Talks & Workshops

UCHV Palazzo Talks & Workshops

UCHV Palazzo Talks & Workshops

UCHV Palazzo Talks & Workshops

UCHV Palazzo Talks & Workshops

UCHV Palazzo Talks & Workshops

RFS Travel Grant

RFS Travel Grant

Arthouse Memes

Arthouse Memes in Venice Art Biennale

Angelus Novus Innovation Award

Angelus Novus Innovation Award

The Research Film Studio courses facilitate creative project-based learning in the form of various filmmaking exercises that break down the cinematic craft into manageable parts. The students’ Productivity is amplified by a digital database of memes collected from the studied films and the use of open-source AI automation of Photoshop, editing, animation and even TikTok. The students’ course-work is published on the course website and exhibited on global platforms.

The Research Film Studio’s student chapter grew out of an extracurricular filmmaking workshop co-taught by the award-winning director, Bence Fliegauf and Princeton professor, Erika A. Kiss in the fall of 2019. Our first project was a short historical film about the 1914 November 12 White House meeting between President Woodrow Wilson and William Monroe Trotter in which the President inadvertently blurted out that he knows and approves of the segregation of the federal workforce, the civil servants.

In 2018, Erika Kiss, Sigrid Adriaenssens, Chris Tully and John Higgins launched a faculty initiative in Princeton University that recognizes the increasing importance and opportunities of sensory learning, research and teaching through film and digital media. The first projects of the Local Spirit Initiative include co-teaching ‘Environmental Film Studies’ a Princeton course designed by Erika Kiss and the development of short research films and other immersive and mixed media teaching aid. Several award-winning film directors, who visited our campus, advise the faculty group’s filmmaking.

Exhibitions

Angelus Novus

Angelus Novus Project wins Innovation Award at the Venice Biennale 2023
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ArtHouse Memes

Presented in the Art Biennale Venice 2024
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Film Forum

The Film Forum started in the fall of 2005. It is dedicated to the critical discussion of films often in the presence of the filmmakers themselves. The Film Forum events are made possible by the generous gift of Bert G. Kerstetter ’66
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In Development

AI - Chrestomathy

searchable / generative database of arthouse memes mined by students
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Zora Neal Hurston Performative Archive

Co-founded by the Department of African American Studies and the UCHV Research Film Studio
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Home Beyond Good and Evil

The new project will be exhibited in the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale
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Partners / Platforms