June, 2021
2021 Flaherty Seminar In-Person Experiences
This is the very first online seminar in 66 years! This means we have people joining us from all around the world. We want to invite all of our registered participants to connect with each other safely in compliance with local covid guidelines to enjoy the seminar together.
We know that this has been a very difficult year for everyone and we are all longing for some community! We also know that in-person encounters are still risky for many, this is why we recommend caution when gathering, always respecting your region's health and safety guidelines. Consider small groups and projections in open spaces! If you are part of a film collective in your community or have the capacity and equipment for this type of projection, contact us so we can connect you with participants in your area.
Not to worry if there aren’t others in your area, the virtual seminar will still allow for an in-depth and connected experience.
If you’re not able to attend, please help us promote the Seminar. With the restrictions of COVID come new openings: the 2021 Seminar is open to filmmakers and film lovers all over the world. Already half of our registrations are from outside the US, and half are also first-time registrants. Please help us reach new audiences!
Please link any social media posts to The Flaherty accounts:
IG: @theflaherty / https://www.instagram.com/theflaherty/
FB:@flahertyseminar / https://www.facebook.com/flahertyseminar
TWITTER: @flahertyseminar / https://twitter.com/flahertyseminar
Registration is OPEN for the
2021 Flaherty Film Seminar
“OPACITY”
Friday, July 9 - Sunday, July 18
Programmed by Janaína Oliveira
REGISTER TODAY see link below
Registration for the 2021 Flaherty Film Seminar “Opacity” programmed by Janaína Oliveira is open.
Some reasons to register for the 2021 Flaherty Film Seminar:
Programmer Janaina Oliveira (BIO) has been working for nearly 2 years on this program. We can’t tell you who will be coming, but know this: some you know already, with deep surges of awe. Others will shake your world wide open. They are groundbreaking creators from around the world - in The Flaherty’s first entirely BIPOC programme.
Janaina’s theme – OPACITY – couldn’t be more relevant. Prepare for films and conversations that will frame your engagement with film for years and years to come.
This is the first online seminar in 66 years of The Flaherty. We’re hard at work making sure the experience will be rich in moments of intimacy, debate, magic, and surprise. We are breaking with traditions and planning some really surprising and invigorating moments throughout.
Because of the online format, the 2021 Seminar is far more accessible, inclusive, and affordable than ever before. Registration rates are a fraction of what they once were, and filmmakers/scholars based in any of these countries can attend for $150.
And we are facilitating in-person experiences! See above :)
Janaína Oliveira for Encontro 2020
More details about the Seminar…
SCHEDULE
We have extended the length of the seminar to spread out the daily sessions to two sessions a day of screenings with discussions. They will be running at a time that is reasonable for the majority of time zones, which will allow for synchronous viewing worldwide, please see below for timing details:
DAILY SESSIONS (times are likely to correspond to the following):
SESSION 1
8-11h US Pacific /11-14h US Eastern / 12-15h Brazil / 16-19h London/ 17-20h Europe/
SESSION 2
2-15h US Pacific /15-18h US Eastern / 16-19h Brazil / 20-23h / 21-24h Europe/
REGISTRATION
We have and drastically reduced the fees to allow many more people than ever before access to the deep world-making conversations.
REGISTRATION PRICING (All prices are in US Dollars):
EARLY BIRD - $350 (+ fees) (SOLD OUT)
REGULAR REGISTRATION - $450 (+ fees)
FRIEND OF THE FLAHERTY (For those that want to support us, this tier will include a Limited Edition Poster) - $550 (+ fees)
SPECIAL PRICING
STUDENT - $350 (Proof of 2021 semester registration required) (+ fees)
REGION & COUNTRY PRICE - $150 (The Flaherty is offering a discount to those participants currently residing in one of these regions or countries. CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST.) (+ fees)
Registration is a two step process.
1 - REGISTRATION - Click to Register
2 - PAYMENT - Once you fill in the registration form you will be redirected to the payment page
Your spot will only be confirmed once you have registered and paid.
We look forward to welcoming you in July!
Poster design by Nico Bascuñán
OPACITY
Programmed by JANAÍNA OLIVEIRA
Uncertainty, fragmentation, opacity. We live in a time when the transparency of convictions and definitions and the desire for total understanding of differences that historically guided the Western world of images no longer holds. In cinema, the boundaries between center and margin have been loosened and dissolved. Today, the critical issue may no longer be to relocate the center but our perceptions of the margins. More than ever, the traditional geographical boundaries of cinemas have proven unsatisfactory, as cultural and historical connections are continually reworked. Moving images require both filmmakers and viewers to negotiate what is not understood: there is no such thing as a blind spot; there never was. The spots are opaque, and they compel us to shape new tools for describing what we see, feel, and think.
The 66th edition of the Flaherty Film Seminar will inspire us to look defiantly at the opaque places of cinema. As suggested by the writer and philosopher Édouard Glissant, the works presented will “clamor for the rights to opacity for everyone” in their irreducible singularities. Opacity is an unfolding force that creates openings and endless possibilities of cinematic existence, especially for subjects that have been excluded or are less valued on conventional screens. The Seminar will be an opportunity to experience the moving image in its power, beauty, and, most of all, ordinariness. As an invitation for displacement or provocation, it points to an open future, to cultural, formal, aesthetic freedoms, where questioning is prioritized over finding answers.
Due to the current Covid-19 health crisis, this year’s Seminar will be the first virtual iteration of the Flaherty. While we will miss being with new and old friends in person, this Seminar is an opportunity to gather the largest and most diverse Flaherty cohort to date. We will engage in the way we have for over sixty years, with screenings and structured and informal discussions, and also convene new activities that expand the possibilities of the moment... True to the inventive spirit of the Flaherty, the sessions will be led by participating artists to stimulate our minds, our senses, and our collective unconscious.
Share your news and 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.
FLAHERTY PROGRAMMERS
The Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) at University of Rochester is exhibiting Tara Merenda Nelson: FourMats, on view from My 28 through August 8, 2021. The exhibition is curated by Assistant Curator of Media Arts at the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) in Rochester, Almudena Escobar López (2018 Flaherty NYC Programmer) .
FourMats includes two multimedia installations by Tara that combine four formats—16mm film, super 8 film, slide film, and HD video—to construct a single image. End of Empire (2014) is a vertical puzzle-like image of the Kodak tower in downtown Rochester, and Moon (2015) projects a square composition of the celestial body. Both works are an inquiry into perception and projection, using iconic imagery to reveal the distinct visual qualities of each projected format. To this end, the projection devices are a crucial part of the display.
Note that FourMats was conceived by the artist as a performance to be run for short periods of time.
The exhibition is activated during the following hours:
Thursdays: 4 pm—8 pm
Saturdays: 1 pm—4 pm
During the remainder of the time, a digital version of the projected installation is on display.
The exhibition program includes:
Meet the artist: The Expanded Cinema Practice of Tara Merenda Nelson on July, 29 at 6pm: an online conversation between Tara and Almudena Escobar where they will talk about Tara Merenda’s expanded cinema practice.
An online curated program of films by Tara in dialogue with filmmakers that influenced her such as Rose Lowder and Helga Fanderl. Release date TBD (to be released in mid July)
ONLINE SCREENINGS
State Funeral, directed by Sergei Loznitsa (Netherlands, Lithuania, 2019)
STATE FUNERAL, an astonishing archival vision of the Soviet Union in the days after Joseph Stalin’s death, is streaming exclusively on MUBI. This latest nonfiction achievement from Sergei Loznitsa brings together hours of restored footage to recreate a historical spectacle and reveal the terrifying absurdities inherent to totalitarianism. For a limited time, you’re invited to claim a free month of MUBI to watch this film and much more: mubi.com/theflaherty
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.
If you prefer to donate by check please make it out to: The Flaherty, 80 Hanson Place, #603, Brooklyn, NY 11217.
Add the 2019 Robert Flaherty Seminar Catalogue to your library!
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
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.
