The invitation
Somewhere near you, there is probably someone whose story has never been recorded. A grandparent with memories that exist nowhere else on earth. A neighbour whose life would stop you in your tracks — if you only knew it. A community elder whose knowledge will disappear the day they are gone.
Preserving Our Stories is an invitation to become the person who shows up with a camera and says: your story matters. I'm here to listen.
This is an online filmmaking course designed for homeschool students aged 14–18, anywhere in the world. You will learn to use your smartphone and today's AI tools to make a real short film — a cinematic portrait of someone whose story deserves to be remembered. Along the way, you will develop skills that matter far beyond filmmaking: research, critical thinking, interviewing, storytelling, and the courage to share something true.
You don't need a film camera. You don't need experience. You need a story worth telling — and we will help you find it.
Online course · The Mattering Studio · 2026
For homeschool students, ages 14–18, globally
Self-paced and asynchronous — learn on your schedule
Guided by Avi, your AI course guide
18-video CapCut editing tutorial series included
Delivered via Thinkific — accessible on any device
One assignment: make a film about a story at risk of being lost
Questions? Contact us at hello@preservingourstories.org
What you will make
Documentary · Portrait
Your film will centre on one person — a family member, community elder, or neighbour — whose story has never been told on film. You will interview them, film them, and build a short cinematic portrait that does justice to their life.
Smartphone · AI tools
Your smartphone is your camera. AI tools help you research, plan, and refine your script. CapCut handles your editing. No expensive equipment, no film school prerequisites — just a story worth telling and the skills to tell it.
Skills · Development
Research, interviewing, critical thinking, storytelling, planning, problem solving, and collaboration. The filmmaking process develops exactly the habits of mind that matter in every area of life — and this course is designed to make that connection explicit.
The curriculum
The course follows the five phases of filmmaking — development, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution — with each chapter building directly on the last. Avi, your AI guide, walks you through every lesson with warmth, clarity, and thirty years of teaching experience behind her.
Each chapter opens with an overview video, then moves into The Studio — where you develop and build your actual film project step by step. By the end of Chapter 11, you have a real film to share with the world.
Somewhere near you, there is someone over seventy who has never once been asked to tell their story on camera. They have memories, experiences, and knowledge that exist nowhere else on earth. And they are waiting for someone to show up and say — your story matters. I want to hear it.
— Nikos Theodosakis, Preserving Our Stories
Your instructor
I have been making films and teaching people to make films for thirty years. I built this course because I believe the most important stories in the world aren't in movie theatres — they're in your home, your neighbourhood, your family.
I am the author of The Director in the Classroom: How Filmmaking Inspires Learning, used by educators in more than a dozen countries. I have facilitated filmmaking workshops across Canada, the United States, and Europe. And I have spent a career trying to answer one question: what does it mean to make something that matters?
I have Parkinson's disease. It doesn't change what I know, or how much I care about getting this right for you. But it did mean I had to think creatively about how to show up for every lesson. So I made a filmmaker's decision — I created Avi. She delivers every lesson on screen. Everything she teaches comes directly from my work and my experience. Think of her as my voice in the room, showing up for you every single day.
The next great documentary filmmaker might be watching this right now. I think it might be you.
Meet Avi
Avi is short for Avatar — and she is your on-screen companion through all eleven chapters and seventy lessons of this course. She is warm, direct, and deeply knowledgeable about every phase of the filmmaking process.
Avi delivers everything Nikos designed — his thirty years of teaching experience, his love for the craft, and his belief that every student's story is worth telling. Think of her as the teacher who shows up for every lesson, ready to help you make something real.
At the very start of the course, you will also meet Nikos himself — in person, on camera. That moment is the one thing Avi cannot deliver. It is the filmmaker saying directly to you: I built this for you. Now let's begin.
Avi
AI course guide · Preserving Our Stories
Present in every chapter overview video
Guides all 18 CapCut editing tutorials
Teaches the C.R.A.F.T. AI prompting method
Introduces the AI Film Crew framework
Warm, clear, and never condescending
Built on 30 years of Nikos's teaching experience
What educators say
"In an area that abounds with material in the use of multimedia in the classroom, it is refreshing and encouraging to discover a book that demonstrates how teachers can weave film production into the curriculum."
Bernard McCloskey
FIS Project Creative Director, Dublin, Ireland
"This is the best production handbook for teachers that we've seen. The chapter on why filmmaking belongs in the classroom deals with the same questions we in Israel are asking too."
Dorit Balin
Ministry of Education, Israel
"The Director in the Classroom is aimed directly at teachers who want to empower their learners and allow them to demonstrate their learning in innovative ways using current and emerging technology."
Susan Crichton
University of Calgary
Part of The Mattering Studio
Preserving Our Stories is the flagship course of The Mattering Studio — Nikos Theodosakis's production studio and publishing imprint, based in Penticton, British Columbia.
The Mattering Studio is also home to the third edition of The Director in the Classroom — currently in development — and Mattering, a book about what it means to live and work in ways that genuinely matter.
This course is deeply connected to that philosophy. A student who makes a film about someone whose story was in danger of being lost has done something that matters — to their family, their community, and to anyone who will ever watch it.
Visit The Mattering Studio