This course offers a dynamic tour of global nonfiction filmmaking, revealing how directors speak to audiences shaped by their own cultures. Refreshing, revealing, and sometimes jarring, these international perspectives invite OLLI members to explore how filmmakers wrestle with reality, storytelling, and ethics. Screenings of recent, rarely seen documentaries spark discussions of each film’s aims, techniques, and artistic choices, building a sharp vocabulary for understanding how documentaries create meaning and emotion.

Faculty Bios

Karen Davis is senior film programmer emerita for the Mill Valley Film Festival and professor emerita at California State University at Monterey Bay.

Niels-Ole Rasmussen is a director at Copenhagen Film and built his craft in broadcast news before finding his sweet spot in documentaries and series created for Danish, European, and Taiwanese audiences.

This is an In-Person Course

• Classes meet in person at F&S: Freight & Salvage, at 2020 Addison St., Berkeley, CA
• You must be a current OLLI @Berkeley member to register. Learn about membership, including our fee assistance program.

Schedule Highlights  

• Course starts on Wednesday, Sept. 23, and ends on Wednesday, Oct. 21 
• Classes meet for 5 weeks, 2 hours 15 minutes per session (9:45 a.m.–noon)
• All course materials will be available in Member Dashboards through Dec. 31

Member Praise for Faculty

Karen is a captivating instructor! Can't wait for her next class.

Excellent teacher, very interesting films, and loved learning about talented people in film that I either knew nothing about and/or are just amazingly gifted people.

Faculty Q&A

• Read an interview with Karen Davis from our archive.