By Kami Barrett-Batchelder Associate Director
Katie Muldoon
- With a background in marketing, you founded The Muldoon Agency in New York City. What inspired you to become passionate about films, especially foreign films? Why have you decided to teach in this phase of your life?
In my era, women’s career choices were generally nursing or teaching and, true to form, I planned to teach grammar school children. While attempting to put myself through college at the University of Cincinnati (UC), I followed my artist dad’s footsteps and worked in advertising. Finding advertising a natural fit, I moved, over time, from copywriting to art direction and, finally, in New York City (having left Cincinnati), my own marketing/advertising company.
My love for art films started in Mt. Adams, the bohemian part of Cincinnati perched on one of its seven hills from where you can, literally, walk down the hill to the city. This is where I lived while going to night school at UC and working in advertising. There, a funky, art deco movie house had featured “art films” that at first drew me simply because they were different. But after only a few tastes, my sister and I gorged ourselves on Z, 8 ½, Metropolis, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Belle De Jour, Repulsion (I had nightmares for a week), Jules and Jim, The Conformist, La Dolce Vita and every international film shown. The dramatic, original graphics, the genuine, gritty, in-depth, fresh stories, the real, not always glamorous, but still extraordinarily appealing actors…this was a whole new level of cinema.
In the beginning, it was the graphics that garnered most of my attention. Dad was a superb teacher of art. From the time my sister and I could talk, he explained color, balance and other aspects of art and design to us. In NYC, I had a potpourri of film events where I could find unusual films, from tiny film events where young directors presented their films, sharing the art approach behind their films, to the New York Film Festival with such luminaries as Pedro Almodovar. Plus, there is MOMA with its regular film shows, the tiny Thalia theatre, the Bleecker Street theater – so many places where one could learn and share knowledge with friends.
Now, to keep learning, I watch the extras on the films/enclosed discs and hunt for documentaries such as “Visions of Light” that explain how light is utilized in film. It is why, in my film classes, I try to share, in addition to information about the country and its traditions, some of the more art-oriented production aspects, such as camera angles, lighting, effects of sound and so forth with attendees, as it adds to the overall film experience.
Revisiting my desire to be a teacher, even while I was running my agency in NYC, I still, part of the time, taught marketing both for NYU and the Direct Marketing Association. Eventually, because of an ever-increasing travel schedule, I had to give up much of the teaching. But I missed it. When we moved to the Key West area, I taught for the Literacy Coalition. And, I might do so again in Palm Beach if time ever allows.
But right now, I have the opportunity to take another love – film – and combine it with my first love – teaching – for FAU LLS. To me, the greatest joy for a teacher is to see someone happy with shared knowledge. Often, students tell me how much they have loved a film and what it has meant to them or what they have learned. That is pure magic.
- This summer, you will present “Foreign Films Made Right the First Time.” Give us a glimpse as to what you will cover in this four-week course. What do you hope your students will take away from your presentation and the films?
“Foreign Films Made Right the First Time” uses the fact that superb international films have been redone by an American company, almost always in a less than stellar manner. It is this difference between U.S. films and international films that highlights some of the reasons why my sister and I got the foreign film bug at such a young age. This class will concentrate on the generally greatly superior foreign film but take time to examine the American “knock-off” and note what it is that specifically makes the original better.
Due to time considerations, I have constructed a comparison grid for the main class to review; the discussion group will also have clips and a trailer of the “knock-off” film to show the essence of the whole film. The discussion group will spend about a quarter of the time discussing the differences between the two films. The remainder of the time, we will talk about the main, original film as we do in all my classes.
Most of the summer films are selected in a more “summer” motif – thriller-type style rather than the more serious, heavier stories we often have in class. Each film is highly respected, multi- award winning and a prime example of its particular genre.
- What is your favorite foreign film? Why?
The reason I don’t have a favorite foreign film (or a favorite film of any type) is, thankfully, I keep discovering new and even more outstanding films.
Katie Muldoon will teach a four-week course, “Foreign Films Made Right the First Time,” starting on Wednesday, July 5, 2017 at 1 p.m. To register, click here.
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Katie, this was a wonderful read! Your intellect, your teaching ability and your creativity come across whenever you write, or, for that matter, in everyday conversations with a friend.
Hope