General information:
Writer/director/producer Rick Minnich taught documentary filmmaking part-time at MET Film School Berlin from 2014-2022, and was the Documentary Filmmaker in Residence at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2017. He has also given master classes and taught at various film workshops around the world, including the Beijing Film Academy (China), the Sabah Film Academy (Malaysia) and Doc Stories Black Sea (Romania). While he has some experience in narrative filmmaking, his specialty is documentary.
Workshops are flexible in structure and duration depending on the needs and resources of the organizers, and can range from a screening of one of his films with an extended discussion (approx. 3 hours total) to a week-long workshop on documentary filmmaking.
Rick is also available for one-on-one consultations and mentoring to help filmmakers shape their stories both BEFORE shooting and DURING the editing process.
Rick is based in Berlin, Germany, but is available for workshops and mentoring worldwide, both virtually and on location. For more information, please contact him at info@rickfilms.de.
Some points covered:
• What kind of story do you want to tell and how can you best tell it?
• How to follow your instincts and unveil your underlying motivations for wanting to make a film.
• Finding the creative and financial partners suitable to you and your project.
• Research: What and how much?
• Shooting alone vs. with a crew.
• Narration: Does your film need it? If so, what kind and how much?
• Working with home movies and/or archival footage.
• Music: When, what, why, and how much? How to use music (composed or licensed) to express story elements and emotions which images and words alone cannot convey. How to work with a composer.
• Getting your finished film out there: navigating the often confusing and overwhelming world of film festivals, sales agents, distributors, broadcasters, and streamers.
• Screenings of key documentaries of various genres which might help and inspire workshop participants.
Optional case study on making films about families
Ever since the release of his feature documentary Forgetting Dad in 2008, Rick has gained a reputation for being a master in making films about families. In this case study, he will show clips from his films Homemade Hillbilly Jam (2005), Forgetting Dad (2008), and The Presidents’ Tailor (2024), and discuss how he and his team mastered the challenges they faced in making these three very different family stories. Topics include:
- How to navigate mine fields in stories about family trauma
- The challenges of being both a family member and the filmmaker
- Discovering the universal elements in your personal story which will make your film artistic and accessible to a wide audience
- Finding a beginning, middle, and end to a neverending story
- Finding the right partners to help you tell your story and prevent it from drifting into mere naval gazing
- Gaining the trust of the families you are filming and navigating their complex dynamics
- Distilling the most powerful images from family archives to help drive the narrative
Latest Dates:
June 20 – August 12, 2022 Berlin, Germany
Rick will be teaching an 8-week intensive documentary film course at MET Film School Berlin.
August 12 – October 4, 2019 Berlin, Germany
Rick will be teaching an 8-week intensive documentary film course at MET Film School Berlin, where he has been teaching part-time since 2013.
August 31 – December 14, 2017 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA)
Rick will be the “Documentary Filmmaker in Residence” at Robert Morris University in Moon Township, Pennsylvania for the fall semester. He will be teaching an undergraduate documentary film course, and will be participitaing in several public events in the Pittsburgh area revolving around his films.
July 8 – 17, 2016 Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Rick will be returning as a mentor at the Sabah Film Academy at the Kota Kinabalu International Film Festival in Malaysia.
May 31 – June 11, 2015 Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Rick will be the director and dean of the Sabah Film Academy at the Kota Kinabalu International Film Festival in Malaysia.
October 16 – 20, 2012 Sibiu, Romania
Rick will be a tutor at the Doc Stories Black Sea workshop.
December 17, 2009 Beijing, China
Rick will be giving a master class on Forgetting Dad at the iDocs Conference at the Beijing Film Academy.
May 13, 2009 Warsaw, Poland
Rick will be giving a master class “How to Create a Film About Family Trauma” at the Planete Doc Film Festival.