Teaching
Hannaleena Hauru, Venice Biennale 2020, premiere of feature film “Fucking with Nobody”I have been teaching film directing, screenwriting, and dramaturgy since 2010 across Finnish Film Schools and European workshops. Because I am actively directing art-house features and shorts and prime-time TV drama, my courses are grounded in the realities of the current industry. I focus on giving students concrete tools, creating a safe space to take risks, and showing how a creative vision can meet real-world budgets and logistics. My teaching is backed by two Master’s degrees, one in Screenwriting and directing from Aalto University (ELO) and another in Comparative Dramaturgy from Goethe University Frankfurt and Uniarts Helsinki.
I am currently doing my pedagogical studies for arts teachers (60 credits) at Uniarts Helsinki for the 2026–2028 term. And to bring fresh, practical tools to my students regarding new technologies, I am participating in the 2026 "Mastering AI for European Film Professionals" training program organized by the National Film School of Denmark & co.
What I teach:
1. Film Directing & Auteur Practice
Helping students move from their unique artistic ideas to aesthetic choices on set and directing in practice. I focus on building confidence, practical scene work, and learning how to handle creative or workload pressures without losing your artistic drive.
Recent Course Case: "Film d'Auteur" Course (BA /MA level) at Aalto University, ELO Helsinki Film School 2021-. An annual intensive 2-week course where students work in small peer groups to design and execute auteur-driven film exercises, exploring the relationship between their artistic intention and the executed cinematic form.
2. Cinematic Dramaturgy
Looking at cinematic storytelling beyond the written script. We study how a story unfolds through performance, camera work, editing, sound design, through production choices and how a project connects with its audience through distribution, and how a spectator views and experiences the final film. Drawing from my research on collaborative dramaturgies, I teach students to treat the script not as a fixed blueprint, but as an open process. We also analyze how our own values and positionalities shape our artistic choices.
Recent Case: Visiting teacher at Laajasalon Opisto, 2026, one day.
3. Acting for Camera
Teaching the specific tools and technical awareness needed for camera acting. We study how the medium of cinema works, focusing on tools on how to express emotion and character within the cinematic space, in a chosen register, and how to collaborate with the director and the rest of the film crew. This teaching is amplified by my dramaturgical approach, helping actors look at a film project as a whole and understand how their performance connects with overall aesthetics, rythm, and the final audience receiving the performance.
Recent Course Case: Acting for Camera courses at Tampere University (NÄTY, BA/MA) 2025-2026.
4. Inclusive & Sustainable Filmmaking
Sharing practical, research-based methods for structuring production so that group communication and well-being are built directly into the plan. Drawing from my research on collaborative methodologies, I teach concrete tools for working with mixed teams supporting minority voices. We look at how to run consent-based processes from early script workshops through to the editing suite, also exploring flexible leadership models where authority shifts depending on whose knowledge and experience is on screen.
Recent Course Case:Fiction Series Professional Training Lab at the Czech TV Institute. A targeted masterclass for professional television writers, directors, and producers on implementing modern safety protocols, consent thresholds, and communication and feedback strategies working in writers’ rooms, as well as practical strategies for structuring a production that actively supports minority voices.