COURTNEY HERMANN - PROMOTION FILE
March 10, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you for taking the time to review my promotion file. The material I prepared addresses
the areas of achievement used to assess the performance of tenure stream faculty in the
School of Film:
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Research and Creative Activities
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Teaching, Advising, Mentoring, and Curricular Activities
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Governance and Other Professionally Related Service
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Community Outreach
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While the Promotion + Tenure criteria states that promotion and tenure will be granted upon a candidate's demonstration of their outstanding performance in at least two of the first three assessment areas, and satisfactory achievement in the fourth area, I believe I have demonstrated outstanding achievement across all areas during the review period and that I have served the departmental mission and programmatic goals of the School of Film through these endeavors.
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I enjoy working with our students and colleagues in the School of Film at Portland State University and I appreciate the opportunities my employment here has afforded me. I look forward to continuing to apply my energy toward pursuits that generate a culture of academic and creative achievement, inform my teaching practice, and promote the good reputation of the school and the university.
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Please find below a narrative outlining my activities during the review period and my curriculum vitae. Examples and additional information about the work cited in these documents are available on this webpage.
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Sincerely,
Research and Creative Activities - Samples
Documentary
Outliers and Outlaws (2024)
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Roles: Director, Director of Photography, Story Editor
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Loglines: The hundreds of lesbians who migrated to Eugene, Oregon from the 1960s to 1990s agreed on one thing: everything was going to be different. Outliers and Outlaws is a full-length documentary that uncovers the story of the lesbian world-builders who, branded as outsiders, forged an alternative community that ultimately transformed mainstream culture and politics.
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Distribution: QDoc Portland Queer Documentary Festival, Cinema 21 (9 screening dates), University of Oregon (Co-sponsored by the Museum of Cultural and Natural History, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies and others), Art House Theater Eugene (18 screening dates), Lesbian Looks at the University of Arizona, Cinema Systers Film Festival (Paducah, KY).
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Synopsis: Outliers and Outlaws uncovers the history of a large and vibrant lesbian community in Eugene, Oregon. Women who migrated to this small town in the 1960s-90s candidly share stories about the power of courageous and creative world-building. Intimate portraits–both then and now–model living in hard times with hope, humor, and commitment to social change. Narrated by musician Jody Bleyle (Team Dresch and Hazel) Outliers includes a rich archive of images documenting this groundbreaking community.​​
Image: Courtney introduces Outliers and Outlaws at QDoc.
Image: Outliers and Outlaws crew and participants in production.
The Eugene Lesbian History Project
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Roles: Media Producer, Web Designer, Copy Editor
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Description: An online, digital exhibit that includes 23 edited composite short films sharing perspectives from the oral history narrators of the Eugene Lesbian community, provides historical and scholarly context about their activism, and offers links and ideas for deeper study into this history.
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Peer review: Blevins, C. (2023). Review: Outliers and Outlaws. Reviews in Digital Humanities, IV(3). https://doi.org/10.21428/3e88f64f.51697199
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Accolades: Awarded the 2024 Mason Multimedia Award by the Oral History Association, selected for “16 Stories of Feminist Activism” by The Center for the Study of Women and Society at the Graduate Center CUNY in collaboration with the journals, Feminist Anthropology and Women Studies Quarterly in 2021.
Image: Courtney and collaborators review video edits for the Eugene Lesbian History Project digital exhibit.
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Image: Courtney presents the Eugene Lesbian History Project digital exhibit at the University of Oregon.
Video: A sample of a composite video from the Eugene Lesbian History Project digital exhibit.
Images: Sample images from the photo archive galleries of the Eugene Lesbian History Project Digital Exhibit.
Digital humanities project
Publications
Image: Directing the Documentary 7e, featuring PSU FILM students.
Directing the Documentary, 8th Edition
My mentor, Michael Rabiger, invited me to co-author the 7th edition of Directing the Documentary, published by Routledge in May 2020. We are now under contract to author the 8th edition, due in October 2025 and slated for publication in 2026 and I have taken on full writing responsibilities as Michael transitions away from long hours at the computer.
The 8th edition introduces significant changes. While previous editions began with a direct, conversational tone for new directors, later chapters often became overly technical and impersonal. This edition maintains an accessible, engaging style throughout, offering guidance rather than dictating rules. By framing filmmaking as a series of creative and logistical challenges—and demonstrating how to navigate them—we aim to make the book more dynamic and practical for aspiring directors.
Samples from the manuscript in-progress:
"Marketing Environmental Stewardship: Creating Brand Messaging for Nonprofits Engaged in Ecological Activism"
My colleague Dr. Ben Mendelsohn invited me to contribute an essay to Teaching Environmental Documentary: Media Making and Ecologies of Meaning, a dossier of nine articles he successfully proposed to the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (JCMS), published in 2024. My essay, "Marketing Environmental Stewardship: Creating Brand Messaging for Nonprofits Engaged in Ecological Activism," explores the evolution of my pedagogical approach to intensive film production, shaped by shifts in my own filmmaking interests. It reflects how I teach storytelling in service to environmental stewardship.
Regional Arts and Culture Council Grant
Description: A co-authored project grant supporting the documentary Outliers and Outlaws.
Amount: $5,000
Oregon Cultural Trust Grant
Description: A co-authored project grant supporting the documentary Outliers and Outlaws.
Amount: $35,680
Accepted Proposals
Selected Courses
Branded Media Production
I developed Branded Media Production as an intensive production course for intermediate and advanced students studying film production at Portland State University.
Students work in small production units to produce professional quality, short form branded videos for real clients.
During the term, students meet with the clients to determine their needs as they relate to the communication of the organization’s brand to a target audience. Students then prepare and deliver a formal pitch presentation to the clients—feedback from which is integrated into the final concepts for the projects. Students manage all aspects of production from ideation to delivery.
Inviting collaborations with clients raises the stakes for students, copies a process that students might find when making work professionally in the future, and offers a built-in audience and distribution opportunities for their work. During the review period, I facilitate collaborations between students and the following organizations and businesses, with a sample project from each collaboration below:
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The Oregon Ravens – A competitive team in the Women’s National Football Conference, committed to advancing and developing the sport.
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Wild Diversity – A Portland-based nonprofit that connects Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQ2S+ communities to outdoor experiences.
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Friends of Family Farmers – A nonprofit dedicated to promoting and protecting socially and ecologically responsible agriculture in Oregon.
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Portland Gear – A Portland-based apparel company, whose marketing director at the time of the course was a PSU FILM alumnus.
Teaching, Advising, Mentoring, and Curricular Activities - Selected Achievements
Development
Portfolio and Professional
At the end of the term, students present themselves as emerging professionals to the school community, alumni, peers, friends, family, and to established media professionals.
The portfolio show manufactures a reason for students to reach out to local professionals, serves as a marketing tool for the course itself among lower level students, establishes a culture of career planning in the program, keeps the program on the radar of the local creative community, provides a destination for students’ work, creates a meaningful deadline for student completion of marketing materials, raises the stakes for the course deliverables, offers a safe space in which students can present themselves as professionals for the first time, and formalizes the transition from classroom to job market.
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I created a web-based portfolio show in Spring 2020, and maintained the practice after the event returned in-person in 2023, ensuring ongoing accessibility for faculty promoting graduates to potential employers.
In Spring 2024, I enhanced the production value of the “video greetings” that each student scripts by building an interview setup in a school production lab and incorporating a teleprompter with scripts written in advance by the students. This upgrade professionalized the videos and reinforced the importance of high-quality self-presentation.
Click through at right to view student video greetings, cover letters, and portfolios.
Annually since Spring 2016, I have facilitated Portfolio and Professional Development, an experience that culminates in a portfolio show held at Portland State University.
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The course asks graduating students to investigate their interests, values, personality, and skills as the basis for discovery and communication of their personal brand as they begin their careers. To discover career goals and set a path to attaining them, students undertake a series of short research projects, in-class writing exercises, and oral presentations.
In service to communicating their personal brand, students prepare marketing materials (a portfolio website, a resume, a generic and a tailored cover letter, a business card) and a reel or reels highlighting generalist and/or specialist skill sets in media production.
Documentary Production
The Documentary Production sequence is one of two production tracks available to students (the other is in fiction filmmaking). Throughout Documentary I, II, and III, students engage in a series of exercises and projects spanning various storytelling modes and honing a diverse set of skills essential to the wide spectrum of documentary approaches. These exercises and projects are deliberately scaffolded to support the increasing level of complexity required to complete the final project in each course, culminating in the making of a fully realized short film in Documentary III.
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I developed this sequence beginning in 2015 and have shared my curricluum widely with other faculty to provide guidance and encourage continuity between the courses.
The samples below showcase the range of skills developed through two key exercises and the final project in Documentary II. At one end of the spectrum, students create an Archival/Historical Documentary, editing together found photos, archival film/video clips, sound effects, music, and scripted narration. At the other, they produce an Observational Documentary, which prohibits direct intervention by the filmmaker or the use of mediated elements in the edit. These and other exercises build toward the final project: a Portrait Documentary.
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In all cases, students are encouraged to select story subjects based on their areas of particular interest and in service to addressing themes that underpin their artistic identities.
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Archival/Historical Documentary
Observational Documentary
Documentary Portrait
Course Evaluations and Classroom Visitation
Course evaluations demonstrate student appreciation for my approach to teaching and curriculum design, and I consistently earn a majority of “Strongly Agree” assessments regarding the overall quality of instruction across all of my classes as well as positive written comments (see course evaluation results below).
Introduction to Digital Filmmaking
Documentary Production I
Documentary Production II
Documentary Production III
Branded Media
Portfolio and Professional Development
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My teaching received a favorable review from Professor Kristin Hole during the review period (see classroom visitation report below).
Mentoring Highlights
Micole Joyner-Cottle
I supported Micole Joyner-Cottle’s professional development by connecting her with PSU FILM alumnus Ian DeVore from W+K’s JOINT in Fall 2022, assisting with her resume and portfolio, and facilitating a residency with W+K’s JOINT in Summer 2023. She leveraged this opportunity into a full-time position as an assistant editor. Similarly, I helped Lucy Rick secure a paid part-time role in client services at W+K’s JOINT in Fall 2023, which led to an entry-level production assistant position at Make Make Entertainment, a leading producer of commercials and branded content in Santa Monica, CA, in Winter 2025.
Garrett Recker
In Spring 2021, Garrett Recker approached me about sponsoring their application for the Andries Deinum Prize for Visionaries and Provocateurs, a $10,000 award from PSU’s College of the Arts. I worked extensively with Garrett to develop a polished proposal for BORN, a multimedia art project critiquing the fashion industry’s reinforcement of gender norms and restrictive body ideals. The project provided a platform for LGBTQ+ youth to express their authentic identities through personalized fashion.
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The final exhibition featured large-format portraits of subjects in self-designed garments,
accompanied by personal narratives on gender expression. It also included a film directed by and featuring Garrett and other dancer-performers, inspired by experimental and surrealist cinema, exploring the impact of gendered clothing from childhood to adulthood. The exhibition debuted on September 30, 2022, at Portland State University's Lincoln Performance Hall with an artist talk, film premiere, and reception. I structured the event, scripted introductory remarks, and coordinated presenters and catering. The exhibition remained on view in Lincoln Hall’s Broadway Gallery through January 20, 2023.
Aedin Powell
Aedin Powell distinguished himself as a producer of documentary film and branded non-fiction media across my Documentary I, II, III and Branded Media courses. While still in school, I connected him with a paid opportunity at Sustainable Northwest, a conservation agency working with rural and Tribal communities. I assisted him in responding to their inquiry and developing a budget, leading to a successful collaboration that opened further job opportunities for Aedin post-graduation. Additionally, I introduced him to Morgen Young at Historical Research Associates, resulting in ongoing documentary and oral history project collaborations. These two connections launched Aedin’s business as a non-fiction media producer.
Governance and Other Professionally Related Service - Selected Contributions
Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission Grant and Project
As the primary investigator on an $87,500 grant from the Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission and with the expertise of my co-investigator, Professor JJ Vazquez, I led PSU FILM’s acquisition of new multi-camera production and livestreaming equipment and the retrofitting of a classroom into a studio appropriate for this work. This investment supported the creation of new courses taught by Professor Vazquez (Studio Production, Multicamera Field Production, and Sports Production), and students produced four short programs broadcast on community cable access under the umbrella theme: Fifty Years After Title IX: Portland Women in Sports.
Video: One of several videos produced with grant-funded equipment and distributed on YouTube via livestream and on demand as well as to cable access stations Metro East and Open Signal.
Stop Motion Animation Initiative
Stop Motion Animation Initiative - Pitch Deck
Under my leadership, PSU FILM secured $7,500 in funding from the President’s Office to hire a consultant for the development of a stop-motion animation curriculum and lab, with 2–3 courses in that discipline now offered annually. I hired an experienced stop-motion technician to build the lab, ensuring its capabilities aligned with industry production processes and strengthened a pipeline for PSU students into Portland’s animation sector. Alongside representatives from the PSU Foundation and the Provost’s Office, I pitched this initiative to Laika, securing their commitment to student engagement and portfolio review participation, while the team successfully negotiated Laika’s support for College of the Arts student scholarships and faculty fellowships.
Image: One of four mini-stages fully equipped with stop motion hardware and software.
Image: Professor Dan Ackerman demonstrates a rigging technique for student Elijah Stegner-Herbest.
Video: Interdimensional Piano, a Group Production Workshop animated short.
Community Outreach - Featured Activities
Discussion Facilitator
I facilitated a post-screening discussion with Skye Hopinka (Ho-Chunk), a MacArthur Fellowship awardee, after a screening of his Malni – Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore at the Hollywood Theatre. Hopinka is an indigenous media artist who earned his undergraduate degree at Portland State. His work blends documentary, personal essay, and experimental filmmaking. The event was sponsored by NW Documentary Arts and Media.
Prepared questions for Sky Hopinka post-screening discussion
Image: Courtney with Sky Hopinka and Malni subject at the Hollywood Theater
Media Appearances
KGW-TV
On KGW-TV, I was interviewed as part of a segment on the Eugene Lesbian History Project’s digital exhibit, a living history collection documenting the experiences of lesbian communities in Oregon. I discussed the role of film in preserving stories that might otherwise be lost, emphasizing how visual storytelling helps humanize and make historical narratives more accessible.
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Jefferson Public Radio
In an interview with Jefferson Public Radio, I discussed my role as Director of Outliers and Outlaws, focusing on the documentary’s historical significance and its engagement with contemporary audiences.
