Announcing The Flaherty’s New Executive Director:
Samara ChadwickThe Flaherty Board of Trustees is thrilled to announce the appointment of Samara Grace Chadwick as our new Executive Director effective June 16 2021. Samara, a former Curator for the Goethe-Institut and Senior Programmer at the Points North Institute and Camden International Film Festival (2017-2020), brings us her detailed knowledge as a creator, academic, programmer, arts administrator, and community organizer. Samara’s international leadership in program development, strategic coalition building, and fundraising will drive The Flaherty’s success in ambitious future projects. Her passion for documentary and people, and her dedication to advancing collectivity, creativity, accountability, and intersectionality in the field inaugurate an exciting new phase for The Flaherty. Samara steps into the Executive Director position with a keen interest in forging new partnerships that will broaden access to the Seminar's approach to cinema and the unique and rigorous exchanges for which it is celebrated. As the organization approaches the centennial of Robert Flaherty’s seminal film Nanook of the North, Samara is committed to employing the tools proposed by Frances Flaherty – community and conversation, free of pretension or preconception – to address the legacies of colonialism, racism, patriarchy, and inequity that remain deeply embedded in the production, exhibition, and critical reception of non fiction forms. Samara has been programming nonfiction films, conferences, and interdisciplinary programs for over fifteen years. Her work demonstrates innovation and dedication to international collaboration, new technologies, and independent documentary. In addition to her role as Lead Curator on the Goethe-Institut Montréal’s New Nature (2020) and VR:RV (2018) international interdisciplinary exchange projects in immersive technologies, Samara was the Senior Programmer at the Points North Institute and Camden International Film Festival (2017-2020), and has programmed for Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (2011-2012), Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal - RIDM (2015-16), Meteoric Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (2019), 2ANNAS International Film Festival in Riga, Latvia (2008), and has organized conferences at re:publica Berlin (2018), MUTEK – Montreal (2018), MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (2012), and the Berlin Biennale (2012). Samara has a PhD in Communications and Cultural Studies from the Universidade Federal Fluminense (Brazil), the Universitá degli Studi di Bergamo (Italy), and Paris III - Sorbonne Nouvelle (France), a M.A. in Cultural Studies from the Freie Universität Berlin and a B.A. in Communication Studies and Liberal Arts from Concordia University in Montreal. With a natural inclination for leadership and community organizing, Samara is a founding member of Cinema Politica (2003), Independent Documentary Directors (2020), and is on the Board of Directors of POV Magazine. A firm believer in mentorship, she led the development of the RIDM Talent Lab and the PNI North Star Fellowship, while also acting as a mentor herself for the ITVS Diversity Development Fund and Visions du réel Opening Scenes Lab. Also a documentary filmmaker, Samara’s critically acclaimed debut feature 1999 premiered in 2018 at Visions du réel and has since played 30+ festivals worldwide, including Hot Docs, DokuFest Kosovo, BAFICI Buenos Aires, and the Museum of the Moving Image. Samara has served on juries at Sheffield Doc/fest (UK), The New Horizons Film Festival (Poland), Sunny Side of the Doc (France), Camden International Film Festival, New Hampshire Film Festival (USA), and FIFCA (Canada). Emerging from the difficult but fruitful period of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Flaherty board and staff welcome Samara, who succeeds executive director Jon Goff and interim ED Mary Ellen Pelzer. She will continue to assert and expand The Flaherty’s leading role among media arts organizations as an innovator of moving image form, a champion for inclusivity, and an activator of rigorous and world-building connections and conversations. Ruth Somalo President of The Flaherty Board of Trustees
|
