How a Critic Watches —and Critiques — a Film

Everybody’s a critic. Everyone has his or her opinion of a work of art (or entertainment). What makes a professional critic’s opinion more informed, and presumably gives it more weight? What do critics see and hear that most viewers overlook, especially when they have to read subtitles? Michael Fox will riff on the challenges and ways of going deeper into movies, with a group exercise and a side trip into the least analyzed and appreciated genre: documentaries.

Michael Fox has been a freelance film journalist and critic since 1987. A founding member of the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle, he writes for KQED Arts.com, Oakland magazine and J. He teaches documentary classes at the OLLI programs at U.C. Berkeley and S.F. State. Fox is an inductee of the S.F. Film Society’s Essential SF.

Presented in collaboration with the Walnut Creek Library Foundation, Mountain Shadow Film Society and OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute UC Berkeley). REGISTER>