January 2025 | Mark your calendars: 70th Flaherty Film Seminar Dates & Location

70th Flaherty Film Seminar

Thursday, June 26–Sunday, June 29, 2025
New York City, with Global Pods
and an Online Experience

---

Save the Date!

Thursday, June 26 – Sunday, June 29, 2025
New York City, with Global Pods and an Online Experience

This year’s Seminar will gather participants in New York City, alongside a series of Global Pods and an Online Experience. The parallel Flaherty Fellowship program will convene online and at Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film from Wednesday June 25 until Sunday, June 29, 2025.

For the past seven decades, the Seminar has been a space to explore the transformative power of cinema, foster cultural exchange, and expand the boundaries of what we know. As our founder Frances Flaherty reminds us, “It’s not a question of what I liked best. It’s what I can’t forget.”

This seminar will have no singular programmer, and is instead curated collaboratively with Flaherty Seminar elders and past programmers. As our small organization enters this new decade, we look forward to gathering, to reflect and recenter, and to continue to think with cinema and each other.

We are eager to share the 70th seminar experience with you, wherever you may be. Whether in person in NYC or via Pods active around the globe, we invite you to join us! 

Stay Tuned–Registration and Fellowship Applications open in March.

“ “Commercial culture silences debate; The Flaherty liberates it and invigorates ideas. And that is a difficult, messy, uncomfortable, and disquieting experience that should never be sanitized. Each participant should find their way out of philosophical and artistic knots their own way – but always in consort with other like-minded seminarians. If the media art world thrives on romantic individualism, The Flaherty is just the opposite; it is a sort of collective intellectual and artistic sauna that cleanses the body and the soul.” ”

— The indomitable Patricia Zimmermann reflects on the Seminar’s 50th Edition

---

Community News

Photo by Joanna Eldredge Morrissey

MacDowell Fellowship: Fall 2025–Winter 2026
Peterborough, New Hampshire

Apply by February 10, 2025

Approximately 300 artists in seven disciplines are awarded Fellowships each year and the sole criterion for acceptance is artistic excellence. There are no residency fees, and need-based stipends and travel reimbursement grants are available to open the residency to the broadest possible community of artists.

MacDowell encourages applications from artists of all backgrounds and all countries in the following disciplines: architecture, film/video arts, interdisciplinary arts, literature, music composition, theatre, and visual arts.

Artists interested in applying for a MacDowell Fellowship should complete an online application. Admissions staff can be reached at 603-924-3886.

---

🎥✨ Support The Flaherty!

70 YEARS OF CURIOSITY, COMMUNITY & COMMITMENT TO INDEPENDENT CINEMA

〰️

70 YEARS OF CURIOSITY, COMMUNITY & COMMITMENT TO INDEPENDENT CINEMA 〰️

For seven decades, The Flaherty has created vibrant spaces for collective inquiry, screening innovative works and fostering complex conversations that have deep reverberations in the field.  Flaherty has hosted upstarts and legends, screened masterworks and provocations, survived trends, ruptures and the passage of time - all while remaining focused on exploring cinema as a catalyst for the conversations we long to be having. 

The Flaherty has remained relevant for the last 70 years because of its responsiveness and commitment to its politics and participants, who find at the Seminar a haven to engage differently and more deeply with cinema.  We don’t use the term ‘participants’ lightly: each person who joins the seminar makes the seminar what it is.

Our belief in independent cinema is enshrined in our own institutional independence. Our roots are scrappy, irreverent, independent. Our board is composed of artists, academics, arts administrators, and elders; we have no major donors directing our mandate, and have been free of corporate sponsorship since our inception. Growth has been tricky — our future demands resources and partners that help us continue to expand our reach without compromising our integrity.

For decades, the Seminar ran primarily on volunteer labor, largely inaccessible registration fees, and modest donations. As we divest from the first two, we need our community’s help to get it across the finish line of the year. If you have the means, please consider shining some light our way by making a tax-deductible donation today.

A sincere thank you, 
on behalf of our modest and mighty team,

Samara
Executive Director, International Film Seminars, Inc.

---

Jumana Manna, Julian Ross, Fang-Tze Hsu, May Adadol Ingawanij, Riar Rizaldi at the Thai Film Archive. Photo by Vinai Dithajohn.

Read & Listen: Press from TO COMMUNE

• Cici Peng, ‘Distant Voices: A new edition of the Flaherty Film Seminar’. Tank Magazine, Issue 101. Winter 2024.

• Jean Ma, ‘To Commune: The 69th Flaherty Film Seminar.’ Film Quarterly vol. 78, no. 2, Winter 2024, pp. 68-73. 

• Anuj Malhotra, ‘Portions of an Immense Lava: Notes on a Film Seminar Designed as an Open Map,’ Senses of Cinema, issue 111, November 2024. 

• *Jooyeon Lee, ‘천 개의 조각 [A Thousand Pieces],’ Material online publication, September 2024. 

• *Wood Lin, Wanling Chen, Pei Hwa, ‘排除預設、反思權力，重探電影的交流可能性──拜訪2024 年佛萊赫提電影研討會, [non-preconception, reflections on power, and the possibilities of film at the 2024 Flaherty Film Seminar]’ Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute online publication, August 2024.

• Devika Girish, The Film Comment Podcast: Flaherty Film Seminar 2024, July 3 2024.

*articles in Korean and Chinese are legible (enough) via google translate.

Thank you for Communing! An exceptional 69th Flaherty Film Semina

Thank you for Communing with us!

All photography by Vinai Dithajohn (unless credited otherwise.)

“Hope from solidarity through film.”
(In-Person Participant)

“It was a new, inspiring experience that helped me understand a new point of view on cinema. I met inspiring, open minded people, who sparked hope for building community.” (Gathering Participant)

“Mind blowing cinema, challenging and excellent discussion!” (Online Participant)

“The best cinema event I have ever attended!”  
(In-Person Participant)

“The warmth of the organisers and the participants was more than I could have hoped for. It had such a collaborative atmosphere, such kindness and care, while not avoiding difficult subjects. ”  
(In-Person Fellow)

---

To Commune Seminar Participants at the Thai Film Archive, June 2024

The 69th Flaherty Film Seminar brought over 900 of us into communion: 220 people gathered at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Thailand for To Commune. 215 more gathered online, and another 465 or more took part in informal gatherings in 44 locations worldwide.

We were astonished at how powerfully we experienced cinema as a physical, bodily, and ecstatic group experience. Warmed by the kindness and capaciousness of our hosts and team, we were able to take risks, be candid, curious, playful, and speak our hearts and minds. 

Thank you to our indomitable programmers, May Adadol Ingawanij and Julian Ross, for the deeply felt program; thank you to our hosts and partners at the Thai Film Archive; and thank you to each and every Guest Artist who attended – 

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook

Chikako Yamashiro

Ho Tzu Nyen 

Jumana Manna

Korakrit Arunanondchai

Paijong Laisakul & Isan Film Group

Riar Rizaldi

Saeed Taji Farouky

Sriwhana Spong

 – for the worlds you shared with us, for shaking and reshaping our own inner worlds. Thank you as well to featured artists Kore-eda Hirokazu, Lawan Jirasuradej*, Mohammad Malas, Ousmane Sembène & Thierno Faty Sow and Thamrong Rujanaphand and Sasithorn Ariyavicha* for the archival works that transcended time.

---

To Commune Film Programs and
Artist List is now online

Saeed Taji Farouky, Jumana Manna & Riar Rizaldi in conversation at the Thai Film Archive following Programs 3 & 4. June 28 2024.

Stills from :

1. Korakrit Arunanondchai, No history in a room filled with people with funny names 5. Courtesy of the artist.

2. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Village and Elsewhere: Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Beheading Holofernes, Jeff Koons’s Untitled and Thai Villagers. Courtesy of Ekarach Prangchaikul.

3. Chikako Yamashiro, Your Voice Came Out Through My Throat screening at the Thai Film Archive.

4. Sriwhana Spong, a hook but no fish. Courtesy of the artist.

---

To Commune in your Communities

We hope that To Commune will long continue to reverberate as a shared resource!

The Flaherty invites educators, programmers, and cultural workers & organisers to share these programs widely. We are happy to facilitate connections to seminar artists and programmers. Please note The Flaherty will only support screenings that in turn support the artists and/or programmers (screening fees, speaking fees, travel).

Please email seminar@theflaherty.org if you would like to organize a To Commune screening and discussion.

The 2024 In-Person Fellows in conversation with Riar Rizaldi. June 27 2024.

---

ขอบคุณมาก | thank you!

The Thai Film Archive and Flaherty teams at the Thai Film Archive, July 2 2024.

A tremendous ขอบคุณค่ะ / thank you to the phenomenal Thai Film Archive team, lead by Chalida Uabumrungjit, Kong Rithdee, Sanchai Chotirosseranee. Thank you for such a generative partnership, and for hosting us with such generosity. The facilities of the Thai Film Archive provided a setting that enlightened us all: bringing us higher, and deeper, into communing with cinema and one another. 

Thank you to the stalwart spirits of our brilliant production team – Juan Pedro Agurcia, Sheetal Prajapati, Kissada Kamyoung, Prima Sirivasuntra, Siriwimol (Por) Boonpitak, Anisa Hosseinnezhad, Jules Rosskam, Anne De Mare, Zile Liepins, and Eynar Pineda, as well as the masterful technical team at TFA for creating such a solid infrastructure for us to play in. Deep gratitude as well to our photographer Vinai Dithajohn for capturing much of our experience with his lens.

Thank you to our guest facilitators: Amal Khalaf, Anocha Suwichakornpong, Anuj Maholtra, Bo Wang, Dessane Lopez Cassell, Graiwoot Chulphongsathorn, Jemma Desai, Komtouch Napattaloong, Kong Rithdee, Lawan Jirasuradej, Pablo de Ocampo, Philippa Lovatt, Toby Wu, Zakariya Amataya, and Zoe Butt.

Thank you to our online experience partner, UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art, all our Gathering Hosts and venues at 44 locations worldwide. And thank you to our generous Fellowship partners, aonline and in-person To Commune Fellows, who joined us from 12 countries around the world, and contributed generously to the Seminar this year.

---

Community News

The Flaherty’s role is as a nexus of connections during — and beyond — the seminar. If you have news or projects you would like to share with our wider community, please let us know!

The Film Comment Podcast: Flaherty Film Seminar 2024

Our inaugural Patricia Zimmermann Memorial Fellowship recipient Devika Girish speaks with seminar programmers Julian Ross and May Adadol Ingawanij—as well as Thai Film Archive deputy director Kong Rithdee and Thai filmmaker Anocha Suwichakornpong—to discuss the making of this year’s seminar. Their engaging conversation charts how the works of featured artists—Jumana Manna, Chikako Yamashiro, Riar Rizaldi, Ho Tzu Nyen, Saeed Taji Farouky, Korakrit Arunanondchai, and more—elucidate overarching themes of solidarity and communion.

LISTEN

---

Thank you to all who contributed and communed and thank you to our many Seminar and
Fellowship partners for this exceptional event possible:

To Commune Online Experience in partnership with UnionDocs

---

Onsite registration is sold out – join our global audience online!

The Flaherty is delighted to be partnering with UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art to present the Online Experience for the 69th Flaherty Film Seminar, To Commune. This year’s film programs will be hosted on the UnionDocs Membership Channel, available around the world to registered Online Experience and Onsite Seminar Participants from June 27 through July 21, 2024.

The Online Experience of To Commune will launch concurrently with the Seminar in Thailand on June 27 with films becoming available online day by day as they are screened at the Thai Film Archive. For the Online Experience, we’ll offer two live online synchronised programs, on June 27 and 30, exclusively for online participants to gather and discuss ideas and films. Online discussions will be moderated by guest and fellow participants. 

The complete program of films will remain online and accessible until July 21 to registered participants all over the world, along with complementary materials offered by the artists and curators.

Registration for the Online Experience costs $100 USD per person and will remain open until July 21. Registration includes both live events. Please note that in-person discussions held in Thailand will not be streamed for the online program and some films may not be available online due to permissions and streaming rights. 

---

Live Online Programs

Opening Discussion: To Commune, An Offering
Thursday June 27, 2–4 pm EST (New York) | 7–9 pm BST (London) 

Join us on Zoom for our opening discussion exploring the theme of this year’s seminar in small discussion groups.  We know how much each of you has to offer to our gathering. Our group is large and everyone has different ways to contribute.

In honoring that, we invite all participants to bring an offering – something to share at invited moments or at a time you choose in smaller groups or one-to-one conversations. The form of the offering – an object, a phrase, a song, a gesture or something else – is up to you.

The offering might take the form of something that:

• invites sharing (even if the sharing consists of questions or ruminations rather than neatly a formed presentation) 

• resonates with the themes of our gathering (even mysteriously)

• might be a seed for others (growing something within them)

Program 9 & Discussion
Sunday June 30, 9 am–12 pm EST (New York) 8–11 pm GMT (Bangkok) 

Log on to the UnionDocs Membership Channel and tune in for a synced viewing of Program 9 of the Flaherty Film Seminar, To Commune.  Following the viewing, all participants are welcome to join our zoom space for moderated post-film discussions. 

---

Stay Tuned!

Soon we’ll be sharing some exciting opportunities to gather informally to watch Seminar programs together around the world. If one is happening in your region, you’ll can sign up to commune in person!

Welcome to our 2024 Seminar Fellows and Partners!

Meet our 2024 Seminar Fellows 

Flaherty is thrilled to announce our 2024 Seminar Fellows! 27 Fellows will be joining us in Thailand this summer and 13 will be part of the Online Fellowship Experience. This year’s Fellowship program is proud to welcome Fellows from a wide range of geographical regions including Australia, Columbia, Cambodia, Thailand, and the U.K. among others! 

Each year, Flaherty works with generous Partners to support emerging professionals in documentary film to attend the Seminar and be part of a special Fellowship experience. Fellows are selected either by our sponsoring Partners or through our Open Call which ran from March 1 - March 29 this year.

Please welcome the 2024 Seminar Fellows! 

Anti-Archive
Daniel Mattes
Kavich Neang
Savunthara Seng

California College of the Arts
Boya Zhang 

California Institute of the Arts
Trisha Bhattacharya
Linda Wei
Utkarsh*

Center For Asian American Media (CAAM) Sophia Rhee

Centre for Research and Education
in Arts and Media (CREAM)
Juanita Onzaga
Rugun Sirait

Colgate University
Yi Cui

Corrientes
Laura Dávila Argoty*
Ángela Jiménez Cano*

Flaherty Curatorial
Zaina Bseiso
Paola Buontempo*
Nicky Ni*

Flaherty Professional Development
Sophia Haid*
Ivey-Camille Manybeads Tso

LEF New England
Maxime Cavajani
Pauline Shongov

Fund for the Development of Cinema (FDC) Colombia
Ana Bravo Pérez

Northwestern University
bree gant
Xiaolu Wang

Palestine Ministry of Culture
Rana Abushkhaidem*
Ibrahim Handal*

Patricia Zimmermann Memorial
Devika Garish 

Seminario El Público del Futuro
Edward Aroldo De Ybarra Murguia*
Fernando Vílchez Rodríguez*

Stanford University
Del Holton

Thai Film Archive
Chanasorn Chaikitiporn
Chayanin Tiangpitayagorn

University of California San Diego
Jun!yi Min*

University of Colorado Boulder
Emma Piper-Burket
Nandi Pointer

University of Melbourne
Shannon Owen

Waterman II Fund at the Philadelphia Foundation
Ireashia Bennett
Micah Magee
Nick Moncy*
Elham Sadeghian*
Chun Wang

*Online Fellows 

2024 Fellowship Open Call Selection Committee

The Fellowship Open Call applications were reviewed and selected by a committee of former Seminar Fellows. We are incredibly grateful for their time, expertise, and care!

Brit Fryer, 2023 Flaherty Fellow
Wren Gardiner, 2021 Flaherty Fellow
Rami George, 2021 Flaherty Fellow
Chisato Hughes, 2023 Flaherty Fellow
Andrea Hoyos, 2023 Flaherty Fellow
Dylan Huw, 2023 Flaherty Fellow
Abby Lord, 2023 Flaherty Fellow
Moorisha Moodley, 2023 Flaherty Fellow
Nehal Vyas, 2022 Flaherty Fellow
Claudia Zamora-Valencia, 2023 Flaherty Fellow

Expanded 2024 Fellowship Partnerships 

With this year’s Seminar taking place at the Thai Film Archive, Flaherty is excited to welcome both existing and new US-based and International Fellowship Partners for the 69th Film Seminar!  Through their support, we are welcoming Fellows from all over the world! We want to thank each of them for providing our Fellows the opportunity to be part of this year’s Seminar and supporting Flaherty’s work.

International Fellowship Partners

Anti-Archive (Cambodia)
Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) (United Kingdom)
Corrientes (Honduras/Colombia) 
Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Knowledge of Colombia (Columbia)
Palestine Ministry of Culture (Palestine) 
Seminario El Público del Futuro (Mexico) 
Thai Film Archive (Thailand) 
University of Melbourne (Australia) 

U.S. Fellowship Partners* 

California College of the Arts  
California Institute of the Arts 
Center For Asian American Media (CAAM) 
Colgate University 
Kate Cashel Fund George Stoney Fellowship 
LEF Foundation 
Northwestern University
Patricia Zimmermann Memorial Fellowship 
Stanford University
University of California San Diego 
University of Colorado Boulder
Waterman II Fund at the Philadelphia Foundation

*Some of our 2024 Fellowship Partners are under demands from their students and faculty to divest from all economic ties to the genocide in Gaza. Many of our past and present Fellows are currently participating in encampments on campuses. We support peaceful student and faculty protesters across the globe, and their calls for immediate and permanent ceasefire, and for war profiteers out of education (& the arts).

---

Our tremendous thanks to all our generous individual donors for making
the inaugural Patricia Zimmermann Memorial Fellowship possible. 

---

2024 Seminar Supporters 

The 69th Flaherty Film Seminar is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and Ford Foundation JustFilms. 

---

Community News

The Reel Deal
Friday May 31, 2 pm PT

Join Film Fatales for a webinar about funding unscripted feature films with representatives from Sundance, The Gotham, and Firelight Media.
LEARN MORE

Semaine de la Critique, Cannes

Valentina Homem’s (Flaherty Fellow, 2016) short film The Girl and The Pot will premiere at La Semaine de la Critique. In a dystopian world, a girl breaks her ceramic pot which holds a secret within, opening portals to a parallel universe in which the creation of a new world is finally possible.

LEARN MORE

---

April 2024: 69th Seminar Art by Nipan Oranniwesna, Programmers, New Fellowship Fund

---

The Flaherty is pleased to share this year’s Seminar poster with artwork by Nipan Oranniwesna. Living and working in Bangkok, Oranniwesna’s mediums range from painting, sculpture, mixed media, site-specific installation, photography, and video works. His practice delves into personal and collective memories, dealing poetically with spaces, urban cartography and the geo-body of nation/state—ideas that intersect and explore this year’s Seminar theme, To Commune, through visual language. 

---

Seminar Registration is Open
…with Scaled Ticket Pricing!

Seminar Registration rates are scaled and different based on your location. For those living outside of the U.S. or Canada, rates range from $250 USD to $550 USD. For those living within the US or Canada, rates range from $750 to $1500 USD. The higher rates in each range are meant for those who have institutional support. For those paying out of pocket, we encourage you to choose a lower rate that is affordable for you.

---

May Adadol Ingawanij and Julian Ross

The Flaherty is excited to be working with programmers May Adadol Ingawanij and Julian Ross for the 69th Flaherty Film Seminar, To Commune.  It is through their vision that the Seminar found its way to the Thai Film Archive this year and we are so grateful for this partnership in 2024! In addition to co-programming this year’s seminar, May and Julian are also collaborators for their ongoing curatorial project Animinstic Apparatus, exploring affinities between contemporary Southeast Asian artists’ moving image and animistic practices. We are honoured to welcome May and Julian to continue their ongoing creative exchange as programmers for this year’s Seminar. 

“We’re thrilled to be working with the Flaherty and the Thai Film Archive on relocating the Seminar to a region that’s so rich in multitudes and home to so many of the most dynamic contemporary filmmakers and artists. The Flaherty’s model of championing nonfiction cinema through fostering sustained collective dialogues is a source of immense curiosity for filmmakers, artists, cinephiles and thinkers around the world. Holding the Seminar in Thailand opens up the possibility of attendance for many people for whom the gathering would otherwise be inaccessible. We’re hugely energised by the openness of spirit of colleagues at the Thai Film Archive and the Flaherty. To make alliances across such different contexts, and to bring the trust to try something new together, feels like the kind of optimism necessary for withstanding the times. We’re really looking forward to returning to Thailand to spend time with everyone at the Seminar, thinking and dreaming together with cinema.”

– May Adadol Ingawanij and Julian Ross

May Adadol Ingawanij | เม อาดาดล อิงคะวณิช is a writer, curator, and teacher. She is Professor of Cinematic Arts at the University of Westminster where she co-directs the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media. May publishes regularly in English and Thai for a wide range of publications. Her recent and ongoing curatorial projects include Legacies, and Animistic Apparatus.

Julian Ross is a researcher, curator and writer based in Amsterdam. He is an Assistant Professor at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society, a film program advisor for IDFA, and co-organiser of Doc Fortnight at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, with Sophie Cavoulacos. He is co-director of the interdisciplinary research centre ReCNTR and editorial board member of Collaborative Cataloging Japan.

---

Patty Zimmermann at the 1994 Flaherty Film Seminar; contact sheet

Patty Zimmermann Memorial Fellowship Fund
in partnership with Visible Evidence

We are thrilled to announce that The Flaherty and Visible Evidence are partnering to co-create a new Fellowship Fund in honor of the late and great Patty Zimmermann (1956-2023). Together, our two organizations are fundraising for a Patricia Zimmermann Professional Development Fellowship Fund, with the proceeds to be divided equally between The Flaherty Seminar and the Visible Evidence Conference.

Read The Flaherty’s Memorial to Patty Zimmermann

A tremendous thank you to our 54 donors so far. Please join us now in making any donation – large or small – to make the Patricia Zimmermann Fellowship Fund a reality. ONWARDS!

---

Community News

bam.org

RETROSPECTIVE

Pearl Bowser
April 19-20-21

Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)
30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY

The Boom Is Really An Echo: Selections from the Pearl Bowser Media Collection features rare films highlighting Bowser’s deep connections to Brooklyn as a home, a location for Black activism, and a space for creativity, cultural expression, and community celebration.

Pearl Bowser (1931-2023) worked closely with The Flaherty for over fifteen years, as the organizer (alongside Madeline Anderson) of the Flaherty Black and Third World Filmmakers Mini-Seminar (1975), as Board President (1986-1989) and as Programmer of the groundbreaking 35th Flaherty Film Seminar 1989.

Read The Flaherty’s Tribute to Pearl Bowser in our October Newsletter

---

Onyeka Igwe, still from The names have changed, including my own and truths have been altered

THANK YOU

Onyeka Igwe with Imani Nikyah Dennison 
Flaherty/Colgate Global Filmmaker in Residence

Thank you to Colgate’s Film and Media Studies program for hosting last night’s screening and discussion with Colgate/Flaherty Global Distinguished Filmmaker in Residence Onyeka Igwe and Flaherty Curatorial Fellow (2023) Imani Nikyah Dennison.

LEARN MORE

---

Rose Lowder, still from La Source de la Loire  

OPEN CALL

Doc’s Kingdom 2024
Call for Programmers

Doc’s Kingdom – International Seminar on Documentary Film is accepting proposals from programmers for its 2024 edition, to be held in Odemira, Portugal, November 19–23. Film and moving image programmers from all nationalities who have participated in a previous edition of Doc’s Kingdom are invited to apply by April 30, midnight (GMT).

LEARN MORE

REGISTRATION IS OPEN for the 69th Film Seminar in Thailand!

---

To Commune
69th Flaherty Film Seminar
Thai Film Archive, Salaya, Thailand
June 27–July 2, 2024

Register for the 69th Flaherty Film Seminar today!

This year’s Seminar offers scaled ticket pricing. There is a limited number of tickets at each level—we encourage you to register as soon as possible. Please remember that your registration fee does NOT include your accommodations or travel . 

After you complete registration, please visit our Hotel and Travel page for guidance on booking accommodations in Salaya. We also encourage you to read through our updated 2024 Seminar FAQs to help you prepare for your trip! 

---

Apply for a Fellowship

Are you interested in applying for one of our funded onsite or online Fellowships? Applications are open until March 29, 2024!

---

Community News

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | DEADLINE: MARCH 25

Camden International Film Festival

Calling doc filmmakers! The Camden International Film Festival is accepting submissions for the 20th Edition of the festival! We’re looking for the next generation of nonfiction filmmakers. Submit now to be a part of this transformative festival experience in stunning coastal Maine.
APPLICATION DEADLINE  March 25, 2024

---

FUNDRAISER

Film Fatales Online Auction
March 5–19, 2024

This Women’s Herstory Month, join us in uplifting Film Fatales, an intersectional and action-oriented arts nonprofit and advocacy organization championing underserved filmmakers of all marginalized genders. Their online auction will feature incredible opportunities from today’s top filmmakers.

Bid at Charity Buzz!

---

Get ready for the 69th Seminar in THAILAND!

---

To Commune
69th Flaherty Film Seminar
Thai Film Archive, Salaya, Thailand
June 27–July 2, 2024

Seminar Registration Opens March 1!

We at the Thai Film Archive are excited to collaborate with the Flaherty team in hosting the 2024 Flaherty Seminar, the first time this esteemed event will take place in Thailand. This is a huge opportunity for us to welcome international participants to come together to watch films and do what we all love the most—discuss cinema and expand our horizons. Our motto is Cinema Enlightens. We hope to share an enlightening week with all of you in late June.

—Director Chalida Uabumrungjit & Deputy Directors Kong Rithdee and Sanchai Chotirosseranee, Thai Film Archive 

---

2024 Seminar FAQs

We look forward to welcoming participants from around the world to Thailand for a unique Flaherty Film Seminar! In tandem, we are excited to once again offer an online Seminar experience for those who can’t make it to Thailand. Registration opens March 1. Get ready with this head start on what to expect and how to prepare. Check out our Frequently Asked Questions for information about registration, what’s included, what you need to plan, and details about Salaya, Thailand.

We‘ll be sharing lodging options and travel recommendations within Thailand, and locally in Salaya after registration opens.

---

Photographs of Patty Zimmermann at the 1994 Flaherty Film Seminar; contact sheet

Patty Zimmermann’s Life and Legacy
March 16, noon ET | Online 

Join us for a celebration of our extraordinary, exuberant, indefatigable friend and colleague Patty Zimmermann (1955–2023). This virtual gathering will be an informal, grassroots, and participatory celebration where all attendees are invited to join in and share brief stories and tributes about our brilliant and beloved colleague.

An influential member of The Flaherty community for decades, Patty Zimmermann was a beloved programmer, mentor, and board member. One of the many contributions she made to the organization over the years was co-authoring The Flaherty: Decades in the Cause of Independent Cinema (2017) and Flash Flaherty: Tales from a Film Seminar (2021) (both alongside Scott MacDonald), two books that honor The Flaherty’s history and legacy and demonstrate how the relationships that have grown out of our annual seminar have been instrumental in transforming American media history.

We are ever grateful for her spirit, creativity, and presence in film and in our community. We welcome you to read these incredible tributes to Patty from The Flaherty community.

AFTER REGISTRATION, YOU WILL RECEIVE A ZOOM LINK TO JOIN THE EVENT

---

Community News

Image courtesy Kimi Takesue

THE FLAHERTY RECOMMENDS

Kimi Takesue's Onlookers
February 16-23, 2024
Metrograph & Metrograph at Home

Onlookers, a visually striking, immersive meditation on travel and tourism in Laos and how we all exist as observers, opened in New York City at Metrograph on February 16. The final screening is TOMORROW February 22 at Metrograph.

Metrograph at Home is featuring a streaming showcase of Takesue’s films including Onlookers, Where are you taking me?, and 95 and 6 to go until March 23, 2024.

IN PERSON | 7 Ludlow Street, NYC
ONLINE | metrograph.com/at-home/

LEARN MORE
onlookersfilm.com
metrograph.com/onlookers

---

Still from Monisme, courtesy Chandra Knotts

SCREENING SERIES

Doc Fortnight 2024
Feb 22—March 7, 2024
The Museum of Modern Art

MoMA’s annual celebration of nonfiction cinema returns with a showcase of the most innovative, vital voices in documentary and hybrid filmmaking. In its 23rd year, Doc Fortnight’s wide-ranging slate continues to bring New York City audiences award-winning debuts, film-festival highlights from around the world, and adventurous new films by moving-image artists.

IN PERSON | 11 W 53rd St, New York, NY
LEARN MORE

---

Image courtesy Seminario El Público del Futuro FICUNAM

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS; DEADLINE FEB 25

Seminario El Público del Futuro FICUNAM
Mexico City, Mexico
April 10—May 18, 2024; Apply by Feb 25

Seminario El Público del Futuro invites projects and exhibition spaces from Mexico, Ibero-America (including Central America and the Caribbean), and Italy to collectively reflect, investigate, discuss, and imagine possible audiovisual exhibition and distribution models in line with current times. The Seminar will run April 10—May 18, 2024 and include weekly online meetings. For the first time, it will have two groups: one for emerging projects and another for established projects. Read more and apply today— Applications close February 25!

LEARN MORE

---

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS; DEADLINE MAR 8

Extremely Shorts Film Festival 2024
May 31—June 1, 2024; Apply by March 8

Submit your film to Extremely Shorts, Aurora Picture Show’s eclectic festival of adventurous short films (3 min. max.) of all kinds. The 27th annual program will be selected by guest juror Lili Chin and presented in person and online in late May.

LEARN MORE

---

Image courtesy Chicago Filmmakers

SCREENING (CHICAGO)

Commodity Trading: Dies Irae
March 15, 7 pm at Chicago Filmmakers

Flaherty 2021 Filmmaker M. Woods premieres Commodity Trading: Dies Irae, their fourth feature film, for its first theatrical running, at Chicago Filmmakers.

A "bad trip" mapping the socio-political hyperreality and its nightmares, Commodity Trading: Dies Irae opens the door to the most potent drug available, The Numb Spiral, where you can manipulate the material of physical reality in a viral Nihilistic haze. Through interwoven 16mm hallucinations and multimedia collages, Woods weaves a narrative through Los Angeles as two lost souls look for the entrance to the Numb Spiral, where they are swallowed up.

IN PERSON: 1326 W. Hollywood Avenue, Chicago IL 60660)
LEARN MORE

---

WORKSHOP

Pitch It
March 22, 2024
2 pm PT

Join Film Fatales on for an online workshop, How to Create Impactful Decks and Pitches, led by Film Fatales member Jenny Deller.

RSVP
Get 25% OFF with the code FilmFatalesPartner

---

Image courtesy Raven Two Feathers

CASTING CALL

Indigenous Genders
A documentary by Raven & Relatives

Feature-length documentary filmmakers seeking femme Indigenous person, mid 30–40s: non-cis, trans, non-binary, and/or Indigiqueer. Ideally living on lands near or east of the Mississippi River. The project explores finding joy through reflection and memory. LEARN MORE

---

Submit your community news

Did we miss your news? Recently our Community News portal was malfunctioning. If you submitted but didn't see your news listed, we apologize and hope you aren't discouraged. 
Our submission form has been repaired and we encourage you to share your news!

---

The Flaherty welcomes Sheetal Prajapati as Interim Executive Director and Dessane Lopez Cassell as Board Vice President

---

Photograph by Luvia Lazio

Sheetal Prajapati joins The Flaherty as Interim Executive Director through July 2024

We are delighted to announce that Sheetal Prajapati will be joining The Flaherty as the Interim Executive Director through July 2024, while Executive Director Samara Chadwick is on maternity leave. We look forward to welcoming Samara back in May to transition back into her role and be part of the upcoming Seminar, To Commune (June 27 - July 2, 2024).

Sheetal has been working with Samara and the Board as a strategic consultant since January 2023, focusing on long-term planning and the articulation of the organization’s values, mission, and vision. We are thrilled she will bring this knowledge and experience to this interim role. During her term, Sheetal will work with The Flaherty Board, staff, partners, and artists to produce the 69th Flaherty Seminar in Thailand and maintain organizational operations.  

Sheetal comes to The Flaherty with two decades of experience as an arts administrator, educator, artist, and advisor working across the fields of art and public engagement. Through her agency Lohar Projects,  she offers advising and consulting services for artists, arts professionals, and cultural organizations to grow, change, and most importantly, thrive in communities. Concurrent with her consulting practice, Sheetal served as the Executive Director of Common Field from 2020-2022, overseeing its final two national artist convenings and stewarding an intentional sunsetting process as it closed. Previous to founding Lohar Projects in 2019, Sheetal served in leadership and engagement roles at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, The Museum of Modern Art, the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

---

Board Member Dessane Lopez Cassell facilitates a group discussion with filmmaker Sharlene Bamboat during the 68th Flaherty Film Seminar, Queer World-Mending, June 2023

Board Member Dessane Lopez Cassell elected Vice-President

The Flaherty Board of Directors has voted unanimously to appoint Dessane Lopez Cassell to the Executive Committee of the Board, in the role of Vice-President. Dessane, who joined The Flaherty Board in 2023,  is a New York-based editor, writer, and curator who focuses on film and visual art concerned with race, gender, labor, and decoloniality. Dessane’s writing has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Film Comment, Hyperallergic, and in books and catalogs from The Studio Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Whitney Museum, among others. Additionally, Dessane has curated exhibitions and screenings at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Metrograph,  the Studio Museum, Anthology Film Archives, and the Black Women’s Film Conference. Previously, she was Editor-in-Chief of Blackstar’s journal, Seen, and served on the programming team for their film festival from 2018 to 2023.  Dessane is also an alumni of The Flaherty both as a team member for the 2019, 2021, and 2022 Seminars, as a Fellow for the 2018 Seminar, and as a programmer for the Fall 2018 Flaherty NYC.

““Dessane brings a unique perspective and insight that will be invaluable to the organization in the coming years. We all see her as a key stakeholder and partner in stewarding the Flaherty through some of the exciting evolution we’ll go through over the next years.” ”

— Board President Pablo de Ocampo

---

The 69th Flaherty Film Seminar in Thailand 

““ Our curatorial approach seeks to explore the tensions and the sparks of efforts to commune. Not to gather to recognize an identity or a common concern, but to make relations on grounds of radical differentiation. “ ”

— May Adadol Ingawanij and Julian Ross, 2024 Seminar Programmers

The 69th Flaherty Film Seminar: To Commune, programmed by May Adadol Ingawanij and Julian Ross, will be presented at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Thailand June 27–July 2, 2024. We look forward to welcoming an expanded international audience to Thailand to gather, watch, and learn together.

In February we’ll be sharing more information about the Seminar experience in Thailand with registration and fellowship applications opening soon after!

---

Share your news

We want to know what you’re up to.
Submit community news and listings to a future Flaherty newsletter.

---

Seminar Dates & Location Announced & Double your Gift!

---

We need your support

---

The 69th Annual Flaherty Film Seminar

To Commune

June 27–July 2
Thai Film Archive
Salaya, Thailand

Reconstruction of Sri Kung film studio facade with the “Floating Cinemathèque” behind. Image courtesy Thai Film Archive, Salaya.

The Seminar is going to Thailand!

The 69th Flaherty Film Seminar, To Commune, will take place at the Thai Film Archive near Bangkok from June 27 to July 2, 2024. 

Curated by May Adadol Ingawanij & Julian Ross, To Commune will gather ten prominent guest artists and 100+ Seminar participants from around the world, including up to 30 Fellows for six days of screenings, discussions, exhibitions, and performances.

The Flaherty is honored to partner with the team at the Thai Film Archives, comprising Director Chalida Uabumrungjit, and Deputy Directors Kong Rithdee and Sanchai Chotirosseranee. The Archive’s state-of-the-art venues and vibrant neighborhood will offer an ideal setting for encountering the seminar’s cinematic worlds and connecting with each other.

“The floating cinemathèque” was a core vision of the newly designed Thai Film Archive, combining Buddhist ideology and state-of-the art design. Image courtesy Thai Film Archive, Salaya.

The 2024 Seminar will reflect the programmers' desire to highlight how filmmakers, artists, and community organizers across Asia and the Global South inherit surprising legacies of historical efforts to commune. 

“How does cinema enable us to commune? We’re interested in the potential of groups gathering around a screen over a period of time. We approach documentary filmmaking as that which brings together bodies, minds, and spirits across different spaces, worlds, and temporalities. 

Beyond self-organizing and community-building, to commune is to communicate with mystical, animistic, and ritualistic capacities. 

Beyond affirming commonality, to commune is to connect with others and to be in touch with the unknowable. 

We turn to the fundamental value of cinema as an encounter with beings and worlds very different from our own. Our curatorial approach seeks to explore the tensions and the sparks of efforts to commune. Not to gather to recognize an identity or a common concern, but to make relations on grounds of radical differentiation.”  

–May Adadol Ingawanij & Julian Ross.

Although the Seminar is most often held in the US, it has taken place in multiple locations worldwide, including Puerto Rico (1961) and Latvia (1990). We are thrilled to continue this legacy in Thailand in 2024! Participants are invited to attend the seminar in Thailand, or join our asynchronous Seminar Pods in up to 15 locations worldwide. We’ll announce more details and open registration in the new year.

Save the date–June 27-July 2, 2024! 

---

João Vieira Torres and Dan Taulapapa McMullin in conversation during MAKA: Many Eyed Vessel

Thank you FNYC 25!

Thank you to all who were a part of our 25th Edition of Flaherty NYC, MAKA: Many Eyed Vessel. We gathered in downtown Manhattan for three magical days of collective offerings curated by Flaherty Fellows Emily Abi-Kheirs, Ha'aheo Auwae-Dekker, Isabel Rojas, and Raven Two Feathers. 

We worked with the cinematic form to conjure our ancestors and commune with ghosts, examine notions of identity, homeland, and language. We invoked spells and counterspells to envision new, contingent futures collectively. We are grateful to Emily, Ha’aheo, Isabel, and Raven for their labor and care; to filmmakers João Vieira Torres and Dan Taulapapa McMullin for joining us in person; and to all the practitioners, artists, and collectives who offered their work to bring us together. Gratitude to our partners who made the program possible through their support – especially DCTV and Metrograph for providing spaces to gather, and to every single person who attended – online or in person, for one day or all – who formed the net and knots that made MAKA what it was. 

We invite you to revisit the program on our website and to read about the programmers’ process and intentions in their interview with Eddy Frumkin for Documentary Magazine.

---

Please Give, and Double Your Gift
All end-of-year donations will be matched!

Exceeded all expectations by providing more joy than I imagined might have been possible. The bonding with fellows and staff was a lovely surprise [...] a lot of learning happened in a short amount of time, resulting in deeply valued exchanges.
–2023 Seminar Fellow

2023 has been a terrific year for The Flaherty in many regards. Our last three Seminars brought together the largest and most diverse cohorts since The Flaherty’s founding in 1954. We shared the work of almost forty artists and collectives from all continents. Over 1,300 online and in-person participants attended from 45+ US states and 40+ countries. Our hybrid and pod Seminar expansion brought together people across a dozen timezones.

Our past informs our future. In 2024, we commit to being responsive to new audiences while holding true to our roots in radical and fearless experimentation. We will foster curation as craft; uphold our programmers’ process and visions; de-center the in-person Seminar away from a US context; and encourage multigenerational and international attendance. We will continue to experiment iteratively with hybridity and Seminar Pods to expand the reach of our programs and bridge international, multilingual, and multicultural conversations.

Your support is indispensable for the future of the Flaherty Film Seminar. Community donations directly enable us to create innovative cinema experiences, propel artists, reach audiences, provide mentorship through our Fellowship program, and expand global Seminar Pods tailored for accessibility and decentralization.

Double your contributions! Until December 31st, all donations will be matched by an anonymous donor — up to a total amount of $10,000. Help us meet our goal of $20,000 by end of year.

All donations are tax deductible

---

A wholehearted thank you to our departing trustees
Nicholas Elliott, jeanelle augustin, Jason Livingston

We extend deep gratitude to our departing board members, Jason Livingston (served 2017-2023), Nicholas Elliott (served 2017-2023), and jeanelle augustin (served 2022-23) for their service. All three served on the Executive Committee – Livingston and Elliott as Secretary, augustin as Vice-President – during times of significant institutional transition and growth. We thank them  for their wisdom, vision, and heart.

---