We are partnering with arts organizations in global locations to host local experiences of the 68th Flaherty Seminar. The Pods support our mission to decentralize the Seminar experience and increase accessibility. This year, we are launching this model in five locations. We hope to expand to multiple locations, continents, languages, and time zones in 2024 and beyond.
About the Pods
From June 17 to 23, people in New York City, Toronto, Mexico City, Lisbon and Bengaluru will gather daily to watch Seminar programming and participate in discussions with local participants.
Our partner venues DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema (NYC), VTape (Toronto), Cine Tonalá (CDMX), FBAUL - faculty of fine arts of the university of lisbon (Lisbon) and Oorkathe (Bengaluru) will host groups of 20–70* people for seven consecutive days, each screening a program presented in-person that day at the Flaherty Seminar. In the spirit of the Seminar, each in-person screening will be accompanied by an extensive group discussion in the language or languages most favored by the local group. Guided by the seminar programmers and guest artists, local facilitators will guide conversations, providing discussion prompts & additional materials to enhance engagement with the Seminar program. The global Pods will engage in daily correspondence with one another, weaving together threads of conversation happening simultaneously around the world.
In addition to the in-person screenings, registered Pod participants will also have access to the full film programs from each day, to watch on their own time on our custom-built Online Platform. The Online Platform includes all seminar programs as well as support materials, readings, and discussion prompts. The platform will only be accessible to Pod registrants and Online Fellows from June 17-23, and will open to all online participants on June 23rd until the end of July.
We are so grateful to our international partners for making this longstanding vision of Seminar Pods a reality. We are already working on a number of worldwide partnerships for 2024 and beyond. We aim to introduce Pod locations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle-East, and increase locations in Europe, the South-, Central- and North-Americas. If you would like to host a future seminar pod, please complete our interest form.
Pod Details
Cost: $75–1000 sliding scale for the full week’s attendance *
*Starting price for registration open to variations based on location
Registration includes
June 17–23 | Access to in-person Pod, including:
Seven days of screenings
One daily film program from the in-person Seminar
Daily pre-recorded introductions by programmers Jon Davies and Steve Reinke
Daily in-person discussion on site, led by local facilitators
Access to the remainder of the Seminar programs to watch on our custom-built Online Platform in your own time and space
Daily correspondence from Skidmore College and partner Pods
June 23–July 31
Access to the Online Experience Platform, including 14–16 film programs enriched by supplementary reading and viewing materials
Access to exclusive Online Artist Talks and Discussion Groups
There will be no live streaming of in-person discussions from Skidmore College.
This year, we’re delighted to confirm the following Queer World-Mending Pod locations:
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New York City
DCTV’S FIREHOUSE CINEMA
Our Queer World Mending Pod in New York City will be hosted by our dear friends at DCTV. New York City participants will gather in lower Manhattan at DCTV’s amazing, brand new Firehouse Cinema throughout the week of the Seminar. All screenings will be held in the evenings. All screenings will be followed by a Seminar-style discussion facilitated by local moderators, artists and special guests. Pod registration also includes access to the Online Platform.
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60 registrations available at a Sliding scale starting at $75 USD.
*Special pricing available for DCTV Members - please contact DCTV for more info!
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Sat, June 17: 7pm local time
Sun, June 18: 7pm local time
Mon, June 19: 7pm local time
Tue, June 20: 7pm local time
Wed, June 21: 7pm local time
Thurs, June 22: 7pm local time
Fri, June 23: 7pm local time
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Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film
87 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10013
Note: The cinema’s entrance is around the corner on White Street between Lafayette and Centre Streets.
*Screenings will be held at DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema on all dates except 6/20 and 6/23 . These two screenings will be in the Studio on the 3rd Floor of the building)
Toronto
VTAPE
We’re bringing Queer World Mending to Canada with our Pod in Toronto, hosted by the wonderful folks at VTAPE. Vtape is a vibrant, Toronto based distribution organization that represents an international collection of contemporary and historical video art, documentaries, and installations. Toronto pod participants will gather at their space in 401 Richmond Street West for a confluence of screening and conversations. Weekend screenings will be held in the afternoon and weekday screenings in the evenings. All screenings will be followed by a Seminar-style discussion facilitated by local moderators, artists and special guests. Pod registration also includes access to the Online Platform.
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45 registrations available at a Sliding scale starting at $75 USD.
Vtape will host a cinq a sept reception on Friday the 23rd
Vtape’s research centre will be open all the weekdays from 5pm to 7pm so that anyone attending the Pod can hang out, browse through the publications, and watch previews of Vtape titles.
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Sat, June 17: 2pm local time
Sun, June 18: 2pm local time
Mon, June 19: 7pm local time
Tue, June 20: 7pm local time
Wed, June 21: 7pm local time
Thurs, June 22: 7pm local time
Fri, June 23: Reception 5pm, Screening at 7pm local time
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VTAPE
401 RICHMOND STREET WEST, SUITE #452
TORONTO, ONTARIO M5V 3A8 CANADA
Queer World Mending is coming to Mexico City by way of our lovely partners, No Ficción and Cine Tonalá. Participants registered for CDMX pod will gather at Tonalá’s wonderful Roma Sur location to watch films from this year’s seminar and engage in discussions led by local moderators and guests in the spirit of the Flaherty Seminar. Weekend screenings will be held in the evenings and weekday screenings in the early afternoon. All screenings will be followed by a Seminar-style discussion. All films screened in person at Cine Tonalá will have Spanish subtitles. Pod registration also includes access to the Online Platform.
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85 registrations available.
Early Bird Rate through June 4th:
Sliding scale starting at $500 MXN / 27.76 USD
From June 4th onwards:
Sliding scale starting at $1000 MXN / 55.09 USD
Students: $500 MXN / 27.76 USD
*Opening and closing nights 7pm screening, 9pm reception with one free beer per attendee. The rest of the screenings at 1pm will be byob or pay your own drink at the terrace.
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Sat, June 17: 7pm local time
Sun, June 18: 1pm local time
Mon, June 19: 1pm local time
Tue, June 20: 1pm local time
Wed, June 21: 1pm local time
Thurs, June 22: 1pm local time
Fri, June 23: 7pm local time
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Queer World-Mending is traveling to Europe with a Pod location in Lisbon hosted by FBAUL - faculty of fine arts of the university of lisbon. Participants registered for the Lisbon pod will come together at Belas-Artes, the arts university based in a former convent right in the city center, throughout the week of the Seminar to create community and engage in curious discussions around this year’s program. All screenings will be followed by a Seminar-style discussion facilitated by local moderators, artists and special guests. Pod registration also includes access to the Online Platform with the full film program of the 68th Flaherty Seminar as well as support materials, readings, and discussion prompts.
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50 registrations available at a Sliding scale starting at $75 USD / ~67.94 Euro
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Sat, June 17: 7pm local time
Sun, June 18: 7pm local time
Mon, June 19: 7pm local time
Tue, June 20: 7pm local time
Wed, June 21: 7pm local time
Thurs, June 22: 7pm local time
Fri, June 23: 7pm local time
Further details regarding special receptions and discussions to be shared soon!
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Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa
Largo da Academia Nacional de Belas Artes, 1249-058
Lisboa, Portugal
Bengaluru
Oorkathe
We are beyond thrilled to bring Queer World-Mending to Bengaluru, India. Hosted by Oorkathe, an art space with creative expression, mental health, inclusion and diversity at its core, the Bengaluru pod will come together here throughout the week of the Seminar to watch films and create community. All screenings will be followed by a Seminar-style discussion facilitated by local moderators, artists and special guests. Pod registration also includes access to the Online Platform with the full film program of the 68th Flaherty Seminar as well as support materials, readings, and discussion prompts.
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30 registrations available at a Sliding scale starting at $30 USD / ~2,478.36 rupee
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Sat, June 17: 6pm local time
Sun, June 18: 6pm local time
Mon, June 19: 6pm local time
Tue, June 20: 6pm local time
Wed, June 21: 6pm local time
Thurs, June 22: 6pm local time
Fri, June 23: 6pm local time
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95, New, 3, 7th Rd, Nandi Durga Road Extension, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560046, India
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The Flaherty’s mission is to bring Socratic dialogue to the moving image, fostering collective inquiry, exchange, and introspection. Propelled by a desire to upend entrenched norms and unequal power dynamics, we champion new models of nonfiction filmmaking, curating, and theorizing.
We cultivate an ever-expanding community of filmmakers, scholars, curators, and cinephiles around a shared belief in the transformative, world-building power of independent non-fiction cinema.
The annual Flaherty Film Seminar is revered as one of the most significant convenings around non-fiction cinema in the world. Each year, filmmakers, scholars, students, curators, critics, archivists, fellows and cinephiles gather for an immersive, week-long program of screenings, in-depth discussions, artist talks, installations and/or performances around a theme. Unique in form, rigor and scope, “The Flaherty Seminar has got to be the toughest, most valuable, most stimulating arena in which a filmmaker can present his or her work” - William Greaves, 1991.
Founded in 1954, the Flaherty Film Seminar is the longest running film event in North America. The Seminar has long been revered as a headwaters of non-fiction cinema, screening innovative works and fostering high-level discussions that have deep reverberations in the field. It has directly inspired the creation of seminal institutions (New Day Films, Third World Newsreel, UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art, Kin Theory, COUSIN Collective) and international convenings (Doc’s Kingdom, INPUT, Oberhausen Seminar, Arden House Seminars). The films of such significant artists as John Akomfrah, John Cassavetes, Shirley Clarke, Pedro Costa, Harun Farocki, Coco Fusco, William Greaves, Mona Hatoum, Sky Hopinka, Arthur Jafa, Isaac Julien, Barbara Kopple, Alanis Obomsawin, Yasujiro Ozu, Satyajit Ray, Jean Rouch, Agnès Varda, Bill Viola, and Frederick Wiseman were shown at Seminar before being widely known in the American film community, ushering new cinematic references into the mainstream.
Recent seminar programmers: Sky Hopinka, Almudena Escobar López (2022), Janaína Oliveira (2021), Shai Heredia (2019), Kevin Jerome Everson and Greg de Cuir Jr. (2018), Pablo de Ocampo (2013), Dennis Lim (2010).
More details here:
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"Non-preconception is the pre-condition to discovery because it is a state of mind. When you do not preconceive, then you go about finding out. There is nothing else you can do. You begin to explore.” – Frances Flaherty
To keep with The Flaherty Seminar tradition of non-preconception, we do not announce the filmmakers or films that we will be screening, but trust us when we tell you that you are in for a very exciting edition of the seminar.
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“Better a mended sock than a torn one – not so with subjectivity.” –Hegel
The world – wounded, wasting, wheezing – needs mending. But our feral subjectivities, our libidos, need to remain torn, agape, asunder. So how can we mend the wounded world if we are open wounds ourselves? Sexuality is a force that cuts through histories and identities, and offers an embodied approach to thinking. Perhaps queer desire, through its very non-productive fucked-upness can mend the world better than more stable, normative approaches.
It is hard to have any hope these days, now that so many of the flaming creatures are literally flaming creatures. As the world burns, one can barely determine which fires to put out, which to ignore, and which to fuel and fan. This program will join the living and the dead because the only way into the future is through the ashes of the past. Queer World-Mending will be a playground of desire, a laboratory for developing and performing new subjectivities. And if we can’t build a new house, we can at least change the wallpaper. Long live the new flesh!
– Jon Davies, Steve Reinke
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Learn more and register for our Online Experience!
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Are you part of an organization, space or institution that’s interested in hosting a Pod in 2023 or 2024? Fill out our interest form!
