The Biology of Story Self-Study Course

In what ways are the patterns of Story woven into our lives, our society, our world?

Or are we and our world woven by the patterns of Story?

Drawing upon the practical insights of those who tell stories in many forms, the Biology of Story Course explores the growing use of narrative in a wide range of fields and disciplines, including Film & Television, Interactive & Transmedia, Oral Storytelling & Folklore, Literature & Creative Writing, Indigenous Studies, Education, Religion, Psychology, Journalism, Peace & Conflict Studies, Life Sciences, Cosmology, and Health & Medicine.

The cultural knowledge of Indigenous Peoples, traditionally rooted in story, frame the course’s epistemological approach, which rethinks social and institutional assumptions with the hope of releasing human potential.

Fourteen quizzes and fifteen writing assignments (all optional) help students solidify their learning and work on their storytelling craft through personal reflection and peer feedback when available. Transcripts are available for easy reference.

A NOTE ABOUT THE COURSE CREATOR AND LECTURER

The Biology of Story Course is brought to you by Resounding Media Inc, which was formerly owned by Amnon Buchbinder and now by your current instructor Geneviève Appleton.

Buchbinder, who appears in the course lecture videos, was a gifted screenwriter and Genie Award-winning filmmaker. He taught at York University, where he received a tenure-stream appointment in 1996 and was promoted to full professor in 2019. He was the former Chair of the Department of Cinema and Media Arts, and played an instrumental role in developing its curriculum in the production and screenwriting programs.

The author of numerous screenplays, Buchbinder served as story editor on more than a hundred feature film projects in funded development. He was also an accomplished author. He wrote the novel Mortal Coil, described as “vivid, thought-provoking and startlingly beautiful” by author Shandi Mitchell, and The Way of the Screenwriter (House of Anansi Press, 2005), which reinterprets the craft of screenwriting from both a philosophical and practical point of view, and has been widely acclaimed within the film industry.

Buchbinder taught professional screenwriting workshops in a dozen countries, and served as curator and film programmer for several organizations, including the Vancouver and Toronto International Film Festivals.

He directed three narrative feature films: The Fishing Trip (1998), Whole New Thing (2005) and Travelling Medicine Show (2015). The Fishing Trip, written by a former student, was nominated for three Canadian Academy Genie Awards, winning one.

Whole New Thing, a comedy co-written by Buchbinder and playwright-actor Daniel MacIvor, was screened at more than a hundred international film festivals, receiving a dozen best picture awards. It was acquired by ThinkFilm and distributed theatrically in Canada, the U.S., and other territories.

His interactive documentary Biology of Story (2016), made in collaboration with Helios Design Labs, launched in 2016 at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival. Selected by programmers as an event highlight, it was described by narrative scholar Brian Boyd as “internationally significant in a host of fields, as research, as art, as story.”

The Biology of Story Course, which had its debut at York University in 2016, earned Buchbinder the AMPD eLearning award in 2017.

Amnon recorded the lecture videos while living with cancer for 8 years. He passed away in November, 2019 at the age of 62. One of his last wishes was that I, Geneviève Appleton, offer the course to the world. My associate producer Morgan Fics and I chose Udemy as the best platform for that.

We thank you for enrolling, and hope that The Biology of Story will be as fulfilling a journey for you to take as a student as it was for us to create.

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Videography and Editing by Harrison Kozak, Jeff Hamill, Morgan Fics, Alec McKay and Seán Irvine.