Faculty + Teaching Artist Appointments
Pratt Institute, Visiting Instructor, 2019 – 2022
Duke University, Teaching Assistant as Duke MFA EDA Graduate Student, 2022
Cleveland Institute of Art, Adjunct Faculty, 2016 – 2019
Cuyahoga Community College, Adjunct Faculty, 2011 – 2015
Manhattan Theater Club, Artistic and Documentation Associate Teaching Artist Stargate Theatre, 2016 – 2020
New York Society for Ethical Culture, Teaching Artist, 2021
Cuyahoga Community College, Teaching Artist, Women in Transition Self-Portrait Documentary Workshop, 2016
Cleveland Center of Arts Inspired Learning, Teaching Artist, 2015
Technical Practices, FVID 106 Sec. 01 + 02 (F19-S22)
A core curriculum course for the Film Video bachelors degree at Pratt Institute, this course establishes the cinematic relationship of artistic expression through technical skills and a rigorous craft. Students gain foundational skills in cinematography, sound recording and editing through a series rigorous technical exercises and aesthetic prompts.
Introduction to Video, Pre-College FILM 101S (S22)
This introductory course for high school students at Pratt Institute explores perception, motion, composition, and sequence with the aim of developing for the student the language and grammar of video.
Documentary Video, PHV 341, (S15)
Focusing on documentary production, this advanced studio practice course at Cleveland Institute of Art challenges student filmmakers to explore intimacies with a subject (a person, event, or issue) through observation and expression. Documentaries demand the dynamic vacillation between filming (observation) and expression (framing shots and editing footage) at every stage of production. By its very nature documentaries call upon a high aptitude of cinematic theory, craft and artistic expression. Students develop skills creating moving image as an expressive artwork that conveys their personal perspective and voice by filming non-fiction and construct both narrative and non-narrative documentaries through a command of cinematic craft and aesthetic.
Experimental, Film & Video Art, PHV 340, (S16)
Focusing on experimental cinema and video art, this advanced studio practice course at Cleveland Institute of Art deepens students’ understanding of practices within experimental film and video art in the digital cinema medium through the creation of experimental films and video art students develop complex aesthetic approaches and methodologies. As an advanced video course, students investigate the scope of symbolic and improvisatory cinematic storytelling. Students explore unconventional methods of video acquisition, manipulation, processing, editing, screening and
Digital Cinema II: Scultping in Time, PHV 397 (F15)
This advanced studio practice course at Cleveland Institute of Art challenges students to develop an individual artistic voice through the creative process, practice and experimentation of the time-based visual art medium, digital cinema and moving image installation.
Digital Cinema I: Screen Grammar, PHV 297 (F15)
This foundational course at Cleveland Institute of Art engages students in fundamental exercises grounding their artistic practice in the rigorous craft and technical skills required in filmmaking and builds an critical appreciation of film as a medium of communication, entertainment, and art.
Digital Cinema, Pre-College CEPH 510 (S19)
Pre-College Digital Cinema at Cleveland Institute of Art offers an introduction, to the profession, craft and appreciation of motion picture as entertainment and art. Using the tools of digital cinema and audio recording, this course focuses on storytelling and artistic expression. Students gain hands-on experience in digital cinematography, lighting, audio recording and editing. Students development analytics skills to conceive, develop, research, script and devise the time-based art of digital cinema. The course emphasizes creative thinking and problem solving, with both group and individual projects required. Students receive an introduction to the vast spectrum of motion picture from commercial movies to fine art films.
Art of Story, MARS 1020 (F11-S15)
A core curriculum course for the Film and Media Arts associate degree at Cuyahoga Community College, this course focuses on screenwriting, introduces students to story structure, character development and dialogue. Students gain skills in the craft of storytelling, used in film, television, and video games. Additionally covering pre-production procedures and protocols, students learn the organizational skills and techniques necessary to create a production notebook used for planning a motion media production.
Applied Integrated Media (AIM) I: Real World Pre-production, MARS 2620 (F12-F15)
As the first requisite Film and Media Arts capstone course at Cuyahoga Community College, students build upon screenwriting skills, pre-production procedures and technical cinematography, sound recording and editing. Students take on roles as members of the pre-production team as they cover all facets of planning and pre-production for an advanced motion media project. Diverse media projects may include: advertising/public service campaigns, feature films, documentaries, media-centered performances, or media installations.
Applied Integrated Media (AIM) II: Real World production, MARS 2720 (S13-S15)
As the second requisite Film and Media Arts capstone course at Cuyahoga Community College, students demonstrate artistic, technical and organizational skills through production of advanced motion media project. Projects may include: advertising/public service campaigns, short or feature film, documentary, media-centered live performance, or media installation.
United States American Cinema, JMC 2040 (F12-S13)
This U.S. American cinema studies course at Cuyahoga Community College covers Hollywood productions from the turn of the 20th century to the present day. Students study Hollywood films as an expression of U.S. society and popular culture. Topics include: classical Hollywood cinema; the studio system; the star; genre studies of the western, comedy, musical, combat films, and film noir; Hollywood in the age of television; the film school generation; and into the 21st century.
TEACHING STATEMENT
Inspired by the empowerment of self-expression for artists and the empathic experience for audiences, I teach filmmaking as both an artistic and social justice practice.
I focus on deepening advanced artistic practices, individual aesthetic expression, self-confidence, critical thinking and analytical skills in tandem with the highly acute creative, communication and problem-solving skills demanded of teens and young adults learning the craft, artistic rigor and professional standards of filmmaking.
Having embarked on her twelve-year teaching career as an adjunct faculty member and visiting instructor at Pratt Institute, Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) and Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) where in addition to teaching degree core curriculum filmmaking courses, I served on the Pratt Year-End Student Survey Review, and was a Cleveland Institute of Art BFA thesis advisor. At Cuyahoga Community College I helmed grant funded projects in which students created the Tri-C documentary series on the food, culture and history of Cleveland, Ohio, and the Tri-C film criticism series interviewing filmmakers featured at the Cleveland International Film Festival.
As a teaching artist with the Center for Arts Inspired Learning (CAL) and in both Cleveland Institute of Arts’ and Pratt’s high school college credit program, I taught high school students artistic practices and professional skills of narrative fiction, documentary and experimental filmmaking. In addition to technical and artistic skills, I engage students the expressive dynamics of artmaking delving into their personal voice and critical cultural, political and societal perspectives. In the Center for Arts Inspired Learning program I guided my students through creating short documentary addressing issues of gentrification and the historical legacy of slavery and abolition through the production of a short documentary film in their Cleveland neighborhoods. The students’ films screened in a locally owned theatre and continues to screen on the non-fit organization’s website featured in the short documentary.
I led an Essay Documentary seminar at CIA and a Woman’s Self-Portrait Documentary workshop for the Woman in Transition program at Cuyahoga Community College which taught Women in Transition participants, women who are in transitional stages of their lives recovering from traumatic experiences including divorce, illness, unemployment, homelessness, incarceration, and drug and alcohol addiction, the professional, artistic, communication and critical thinking skills to write, produce, shoot, edit and distribute short documentary memoirs of their lives and experiences. One of the students films “through her lens”by Mary Archer received the school’s film festival award for Best Picture.
At Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stargate education program for male-identifying high school students with juvenile justice system records to create and perform original plays grappling with issues of systemic racism, self-determination and social justice activism, I taught dramatic writing, enunciation and devised theatre-making.
Nominated for the Ralph M. Bessie, Excellence in Teaching Award, Simone continues to strive for encouraging her students to remain ever curious about learning, ever expressive in their artistic practice and ever vigilant in their stewardship of social justice activism for all people.
Simone Barros 