The 70th Flaherty Film Seminar

ONWARD! 
June 26–29, 2025
NYC, Global Pods + Online

PROGRAM | ARTISTS | FELLOWS | ONLINE EXPERIENCE | PODS | GATHERINGS | TEAM | PHOTOS

 

The visual identity for this year’s Seminar is deeply inspired by the work of Bill Brand, whose colorful public artwork MASSTRANSISCOPE embodies the spirit of movement, transition, and collective experience — ideas that are at the core of this year’s theme, Onward! As Art Director, Maliyamungu Muhande led the creative vision, drawing from Brand’s dynamic use of motion and form to shape the seminar’s visual identity. Zīle Liepins, as Designer, translated this inspiration into a striking design that reflects Flaherty’s evolving conversations, layered histories, and commitment to radical cinema.

 

  • In moments of great upheaval, can cinema provide fuel for a radical paradigm shift? What cultural momentum does the cinema offer us today? The very acts of making and watching non-fiction films are rooted deep in legacies of solidarity and resistance. How does this moment call on us to nourish those legacies and forge our own?

    Onward! is a call to move through obstacles with collective action. Onward! is the call of the artist, the activist, the doula, the hopeful, the grieving - the people in the midst of painful transition. Onward! is animated both by the urgency of change, and the patience to know that liberation must come, will come. Onward! embraces the battlefield as the terrain of greater possibility. Freedom is an ongoing state of insistence that is carried forward in each act of making, questioning, resisting, remembering. Onward! is to stay the course and trust in the process of change.

    Movement is not solitary. Onward! calls for collectivity, for curiosity, for entanglement, for hope, for solidarity across generations. Onward! is propelled by calls from the past, which too believed in the potency of the moment, and of all moments yet to come. Onward! celebrates coexisting and futurities.

    Onward! is the irresistibility of resistance. 

Programmers

The program was curated collaboratively by past seminar programmers Janaína Oliveira (2021), Carlos Gutiérrez (2007), and Richard Herskowitz (1987, 1990, 1999 & 2004), alongside programming partners Christopher Harris, Zaina Bseiso, and Louis Massiah.

Programs

Revisit the full program on the 2024 Seminar Programs page.

 

ARTISTS

Read about the Artists on the 2024 Seminar Artists page.

FELLOWS

Meet our 2024 Fellows

Meet the 2024 In-Person and Online Fellows.

About The Fellowship

Learn more about the 2024 Seminar Fellowship process.

2024 Flaherty Fellows, Photo by Vinai Dithajohn, courtesy of The Flaherty

 

ONLINE EXPERIENCE

Presented in partnership
with UnionDocs

The 2024 Online Experience ran from June 27 through July 21st and took place concurrently with the in-person Seminar in Thailand, with two live online programs on June 27 and 30.

GATHERINGS

Learn about our International Gatherings

Groups gathered in dozens of locations worldwide.

About the Thai Film Archive

The Thai Film Archive is a state agency tasked with collecting, preserving, and providing access to the country’s audio-visual and film-related materials. The Archive functions as a museum, library, and cinematheque.

With the support of the Ministry of Education, the National Film Archive was founded in 1984. In 1987, it opened to researchers and the general public and began programming public screenings, exhibitions, and lectures. The Archive moved to Salaya, a suburb on the outskirts of Bangkok, in 1997 and was re-assigned status as the Film Archive, a public organization, in 1999.

TEAM

2024 Flaherty and Thai Film Archive Teams, Photo by Vinai Dithajohn, courtesy of The Flaherty

Staff

Juan Pedro Agurcia – Production and Programs Manager

Siriwimol Boonpitak - Production Assistant

Samara Chadwick – Executive Director

Anne de Mare – Grant Writer & Discussions Coordinator

Anisa Hosseinnezhad – Fellowship Lead

Kissada Kamyoung – Production Coordinator (Thailand)

Eynar Pineda – Seminar Producer

Sheetal Prajapati – Interim Executive Director

Jules Rosskam – Online Fellows Coordinator

Prima Sirivasuntra – Production Assistant (Thailand)

Thai Film Archive

Sanchai Chotirosseranee - Deputy Director

Kong Rithdee - Deputy Director

Chalida Uabumrungjit - Director

THE FLAHERTY BOARD OF TRUSTEES

* in attendance

Pablo de Ocampo - President *

Dessane Lopez Cassell - Vice President *

Ted Kennedy -Treasurer *

Sara Archambault 

Jemma Desai*

Kevin Jerome Everson 

Steve Holmgren 

Tracy Rector 

Anna Saulwick 

Ruth Somalo

PHOTOS