December 2020
the Flaherty’s end of the year fundraising screening
We are very excited to announce our end of the year online screening will be on Sunday, December 20 at 3pm EST. The screening showcases the work of three former Flaherty guest artists and fellows who became part of this year’s Filmmaker Magazine 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema, Ephraim Asili, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich and Joie Estrella Horwitz.
We are inviting all of the Flaherty community and beyond to join us in this special event with films by all three of the filmmakers. Our 2020 Programmers-in-residence - Devon Narine-Singh, Suneil Sanzgiri, and Alia Ayman - guest- curated the program, selecting two shorts by each of the filmmakers. They officially named the screening Footprints as a way to recognize the impact of “those who came before us”. There will be a live conversation with the filmmakers and programmers after the screening.
In order to access the screening we are asking our supportive audience to donate to The Flaherty by purchasing a ticket that ranges from $12 (suggested donation) to any amount you are able to contribute. We hope that you will attend Footprints on December 20th and the other programs we will bring to you in the upcoming year. To support our ongoing work, we're also asking you for a year-end contribution because we know you love the work we do and want to see more of it. Please consider making a special year-end donation of $25, $50 or $100 to help The Flaherty bring the work of a diverse range of independent filmmakers to you.
For years, The Flaherty has been working hard to serve as a launching platform for underrepresented voices, new talents with fresh perspectives, as well as celebrating the impact of established veteran filmmakers. We are here to honor our mission in new methods, to reach new audiences locally and internationally.
We look forward to seeing you virtually on the 20th and in the months ahead!
Graphic Novels & Feutured filmmakers
Graphic novel illustrator Nicho Reyes of NARF! Studio designed some amazing individual posters for the screening featuring our guest filmmakers. Nicho’s work ranges from comic book character creation to movie posters.
Illustration by Nicho Reyes
Illustration by Nicho Reyes
Illustration by Nicho Reyes
footprints
December 20, 3pm EST
Guest-Curated by Devon Narine-Singh, Suneil Sanzgiri, and Alia Ayman
Featuring the work of the three Flaherty filmmakers who’ve been recognized by Filmmaker Magazine as the Top 25 New Faces of Independent film, this program looks at how each filmmaker explores questions of ancestry, lineage, movement, and location. 'Footprints' implies a notion of impact and transience—how we impact others, and how those who came before us have impacted us. Join us for a live conversation between the filmmakers and the Flaherty NYC programming collective DNA on December 20th.
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Films in the program:
Kindah - 12' - Ephraim Asili
Outfox the Grave - 6' - Madeline Hunt-Ehrlich
Anonymous 1,2 - Joie Estrella Horwitz
Calder For Peter - 11' - Ephraim Asili
Green Turns Brown - 6' - Joie Estrella Horwitz
Anonymous 3, 4 - Joie Estrella Horwitz
Spit on the Broom - 12' - Madeline Hunt-Ehrlich
Anonymous 5 - Joie Estrella Horwitz
Total running time = 52'
WE ARE BACK!
We have gone through a lot of changes at the moment but the office staff is back to organizing new Flaherty events, this is a Flaherty Family effort to bring our organization back and offer different online events to our community during these uncertain times. We don’t know how long we will exist in this “partial” mode of operations but we are hoping to come back in full force as soon as possible. If you want to contact us you can send us an email to our new address info@theflaherty.org
If you want to share your events and screenings on our Newsletter, you can submit your info here.
FLAHERTY PROGRAMMERS
Hartnett Gallery Presents
Alison Nguyen: i broke my mind at the link in my bio
Hartnett Gallery is pleased to present Alison Nguyen’s i broke my mind at the link in my bio in a virtual exhibition, curated by the Graduate Director of Hartnett Gallery Almudena Escobar López (2018 Flaherty NYC Programmer), featuring a new video work and screenings of Nguyen’s moving image work from 2017 to the present full. The exhibition, running until December 18, will also include a series of public conversations and an online lecture-performance by Nguyen.
The virtual exhibition centers on Nguyen’s new body of work, Andra8 which spans video, installation, sculpture, and online performance. Andra8: my favorite software is being here is a digital video work focusing on an algorithmically generated character living in an apartment in the virtual void. Throughout the day she works as a “virtual assistant, a data janitor, a life coach, an aspiring influencer, and content creator” surviving off of the human data that she collects from these jobs.
Andra8 is a modern day Bartleby. A woman acting in resistance to the logic of capitalism. Employing techniques of experimental video, 3D animation, and machine learning, the work expands on dialogue taking place around technology, gendered digital labor, and the construction of self in the age of ambient intelligence, revealing invisible structures of control.
Devon Narine-Singh (2020 Programmers-in-residence) is hosting the new Multitudes Film Festival, a Queer BIPOC centered event featuring CUNY Students and CUNY Professors on December 4 and 5. Suneil Sanzgiri (2020 Programmers-in-residence) will be screening in a session on December 5 around Queer Paritation at 11am. The event’s program includes works and presentations from Brooklyn College, York College, City College, Lehman College and the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. A zoom link will be posted on the facebook page the day of each session.
around the virtual world
Still from Mirrors of the Heart (1993) by Lourdes Portillo
Through December 30, the online site Corrientes will be streaming the work by Mexico-born and Chicana identified filmmaker Lourdes Portillo (1992 Flaherty Seminar Guest Artist). The decision to share Mirrors of the Heart (1993), one of Lourdes’ lesser known works and one that at first glance seems to have a more traditional form, comes from the wish to revitalize the meaning of cinematographic experimentation in a moment that is socially and politically critical for Abya Yala and the rest of the world. This is a film in which Lourdes rerouted her experimentation towards the task of informing audiences in the United States about Bolivian, Dominican and Haitian societies and cultures. Portillo weaves together a documentary that is at once formally conventional while also defiant of the model in which it was produced due to its insightful social, political and aesthetic study. Mirrors of the Heart was produced by the PBS as part of their documentary series Americas (1993)
In order to contextualize this piece for a new audience, the film is presented with a conversation between Lourdes Portillo and Eduardo Makoszay; which reveals more about what occurs in the film's images, sounds and cuts, and what is reflected within them.
“How can I connect the screen to the human and the human to the human through a machine, right? That’s the dilemma. It’s not a dilemma—it’s a game, you know. And it’s a goal.”
(Lourdes Portillo,1990)
Call for entries
MDOCS Storytellers' Institute Visiting Fellow Applications Now Open!
Applications to be a Visiting Fellow in the 2021 MDOCS Storytellers’ are now open. Be inspired by a multidisciplinary, multi-generational, creative and intellectual community. This 5-week funded residency organized around the theme of Co-creation: Delights, Discontents & Dislocations is open to non-fiction-based artists working in any and all mediums (sound, painting, photography, sculpture, film, video, word, performance, installation, etc.). APPLICATION DEADLINE is Dec. 15th.
Submit to our e-newsletter through our website.
We will no longer send a separate email for submissions, please visit our site anytime for instructions to submit your listing for our newsletter through the ‘About’ section of the site’s drop-down menu.
2019 Catalog Available Now!
The 2019 Seminar Catalogue includes detailed information about the 65th Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. This publication is the result of a collaboration between Flaherty / International Film Seminars, Inc. and World Records, in conjunction with the Action: the 2019 Flaherty Film Seminar, programmed by Shai Heredia.
Thank you to all our contributors: Shai Heredia, Jason Fox, Abby Sun, Joel Neville Anderson, Lakshmi Padmanabhan, Priya Sen, Ani Maitra, Pooja Rangan, Aparna Sharma, Jim Supanick, Tenzin Phuntsog, Jheanelle Brown, Chet Pancake, and Carl Elsaesser.
Edited by World Records
Design by Dan Schrempf
Copy Editing by Nadine Covert
SUPPORT the Flaherty
With your support, we will continue to bring filmmakers and audiences of all levels together. All contributions, whether large or small, help ensure the excellence of Flaherty programs for many years to come. Every donation makes it easier for us to support the artists in their art and to inspire others to create. Any amount you are able to donate will have a big impact. During COVID-19, The Flaherty can continue to present thoughtful interactive programming about the exploration of film culture and time-based media. Cinemas may be closed, but we must continue to preserve film history and hope to support the restoration of important works for many years to come. This year, your donation will be more impactful than ever.
If you prefer to donate by check please make it out to: The Flaherty, 80 Hanson Place, #603, Brooklyn, NY 11217.
About the Flaherty
The Flaherty is a media arts organization that brings together diverse, curious minds to foster an in-depth discourse on film and the creative process. We believe in the transformative power of the moving image and its ability to change how we think about film, and the world we live in. Since 1954, our unique Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, has provided an unparalleled opportunity to explore beyond known limits of the moving image and renew the challenge to discover, reveal and illuminate the ways of life of peoples and cultures throughout the world.
