Two special workshops: Film criticism with Emmanuel Burdeau and 16mm exploration
L’étudiante troisième année, Khalissa Akadi, à la caméra.
Each year, at the start of the spring semester, HEAD gives students the opportunity to enrich their artistic practice through interdisciplinary workshops presented by the different departments. The Film Department is offering two immersive workshops: a one-week workshop on film criticism, and “Persistence of Images,” a 16mm film workshop. On this occasion, the Film Department has invited Emmanuel Burdeau to lead the workshop on film criticism.
The first day of this workshop will feature a public roundtable: French film critic Emmanuel Burdeau will engage in discussion with his Swiss colleagues Stéphane Gobbo and Charlyne Genoud, respectively members of the editorial teams of Le Temps and Le Courrier.
Emmanuel Burdeau is a film critic. He teaches film analysis at several major schools. He has recently launched his own critical platform on Substack. His latest book, Gravité: On Billy Wilder, was published by Lux Éditeur in 2019. His next book, a biography of Serge Daney, will be published by Éditions La Découverte.
Stéphane Gobbo, who holds a Master’s degree in Film History and Aesthetics, began his career with the journals FILM and Cinébulletin, before working for La Liberté and L’Hebdo. Head of the culture section at Le Temps, member of the committee of the Swiss Association of Film Journalists, and contributor to RTS, he served as General Delegate of the Critics’ Week at the Locarno Film Festival in 2015–2016.
Charlyne Genoud developed an interest in film criticism during her Bachelor’s degree in Literature at the University of Lausanne. Since 2020, she has worked for the film section of Le Courrier and, in parallel, writes short stories with the collective Épisode. She has been studying film directing at ECAL since 2022 and is also involved in film distribution.
Emmanuel Burdeau
Charlyne Genoud
Stéphane Gobbo
The remainder of the workshop, “Critics’ Week,” aims to introduce students to film criticism in its various forms. They will be encouraged to think of criticism as an extension of creation, and to reflect on the political responsibility artists have regarding the imaginaries conveyed by their works.
This rich week will culminate in the recording of a radio program to be broadcast on Radio Vostok in early March. Students will take on the role of film critics, alongside Emmanuel Burdeau, to discuss three films currently showing in French-speaking Swiss cinemas at the time of broadcast. Radio Vostok.
La conversation au centre de la création cinématographique: aperçu du grand atelier 2025
The second workshop offered by the Film Department, “Persistence of Images,” provides an immersion into the very material of cinema through an experimental approach to 16mm film. From film theory to production, from shooting to developing, from editing to projection, each step becomes a space for experimentation and discovery. Students will also explore developing analog film using natural products such as lemon or vinegar. The films will be screened collectively at Cinéma Spoutnik.
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