Amy Bertram

Biography

A Tennessee native, Dr. Bertram is a polyglot, a scholar, and well versed in art, literature, culture, and film. With a PhD in French and Cinema Studies, she teaches Film Studies in the Motion Pictures Department at Belmont University. Her courses include Film History, History of Television and Digital Media, and a range of special topics courses that include French Film History, French New Wave, Cinematic Universes, and a Directors series (Hitchcock, Scorsese, Spike Lee, French Women, Ava DuVernay). She is the chair of the Curb College Diversity Committee, serves on the Faculty Senate for the university, and is a faculty advisor for two student organizations, Women in Film and Onyx Creators Club.

Her chapters on François Ozon’s connections to Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s work appear in the Edinburgh University Press ReFocus book series on Ozon (2021) and Fassbinder (2025). Her entry on Agnès Varda is in a book about French film directors (2023). With a diversity grant from Curb College in 2022, she has a project that considers film as an educational tool, based in the work of DuVernay and the impact of Hip Hop music in film/TV as a call to action in the fight for social justice. At the local arthouse Belcourt Theatre, she has given a seminar on Claire Denis and introduces films, such as Denis’ Beau Travail (1999) and Both Sides of the Blade (2022). She is working on an upcoming video essay on Harold Scott, a Tennessee man who has lived with HIV+ for 35 years and whose advocacy for AIDS education and outreach is rooted in Christian faith and love of family.