Emily Abi-Kheirs, Ha'aheo Auwae-Dekker, Isabel Rojas, Raven Two Feathers
Announcing Flaherty NYC Season 25!
November 17–19, 2023 in NYC and Online
The Flaherty is delighted to announce our upcoming Season of Flaherty NYC.
The series is programmed by Emily Abi-Kheirs (2022 LEF Fellow), Ha'aheo Auwae-Dekker (2022 Curatorial Fellow), Isabel Rojas (2022 Curatorial Fellow), and Raven Two Feathers (2022 Professional Development Fellow).
This year, the series takes the form of an offering, in a collectively-curated response to the 2022 Flaherty Film Seminar Continents of Drifting Clouds programmed by Almudena Escobar-López and Sky Hopinka.
The 25th Season of Flaherty NYC will open on Friday November 17th and run in a mini-seminar format over the weekend of November 18-19 in person in New York City, alongside hybrid and online programs. Artists and program details will be announced in our October Newsletter.
We are especially interested in sharing this program and our process with community leaders, artists, and educators. If you and your collaborators/students would like to take part via an institutional partnership or otherwise, please contact samara@theflaherty.org for more details.
A sincere thank you to our curatorial advisors and guides: Almudena Escobar-López and Sky Hopinka, 2022 Professional Development Fellow Angeline Gragasin, Poh Lin Lee of Narrative Imaginings, and our program partners at Humanities New York and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.
About the Programmers
Emily Abi-Kheirs (she/her) is a Boston-based independent documentary producer and programmer. In 2022, she was recognized as a Documentary New Leader by DOC NYC for her work to create a more inclusive and equitable documentary field through intentional community building and creative collaboration. Previously, she was the Manager of Filmmaker Services at Women Make Movies where she supported women and female-identifying filmmakers. She began her career at WORLD Channel. She is currently the Program Director for Salem Film Fest. She is a LEF New England Flaherty Film Seminar fellow and an IDA Getting Real Fellow. She is currently producing Untitled Altered States Film, directed by Julie Mallozzi. She graduated from Emerson College with a B.A. in Documentary Production.
Haʻaheo Auwae-Dekker (they/them) is a proud Kanaka Maoli artist, filmmaker, and storyteller from Waimea on Moku O Keawe, the Big Island of Hawaiʻi. As a storyteller, Haʻaheo is driven to create art that amplifies voices through embracing vulnerability. As a young Hawaiian who has lived in diaspora, their art has been a means of reconnecting while creating art that reflects an increasingly universal experience. Their work has shown them the power of Indigenous storytelling. They have participated in film festivals including the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival, Wairoa Māori Film Festival, and the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY). They are a Flaherty Film Seminar Curatorial Fellow and an invited artist to the UnionDocs workshop Entangled Bonds: Working with Family in Documentary Film. In 2023, they were a participating artist in MoMA’s Doc Fortnight. Currently, they work with Nia Tero as an Associate Producer for their Storytelling Team. They graduated from Seattle University with a BA in Film Studies.
Isabel Rojas (she/her) is a cultural manager, audiovisual media programmer, and curator from Oaxaca, México with an interest in educational and pedagogical practices. She is dedicated to research, teaching, management, and the production of cultural projects aimed at audience design and development. She serves as the Artistic Director of the Seminario El Público del Futuro (The Future Audience Seminar) at the International Film Festival of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (FICUNAM). She is co-founder and programmer at OaxacaCine (2011-2023). She holds a degree in Cultural Management and Sustainable Development from the Autonomous University of Benito Juárez in Oaxaca (UABJO). She is a Berlinale Talent (Audience Design 2023) and a Flaherty Film Seminar Curatorial Fellow (2022). She creates spaces for dialogue and the collective construction of knowledge in her practice, building experimental projects that blend coexistence, study, and research.
Raven Two Feathers (he/him/they/them; Cherokee, Seneca, Cayuga, Comanche) is a Two Spirit, Emmy award-winning creator based in Seattle, WA. Originally from New Mexico, they spent their childhood moving, exploring Indigenous cultures across the continent and Pacific. They returned to New Mexico to attend Santa Fe University of Art & Design, graduating magna cum laude with a BFA in Film Production. They recently premiered at ImagineNATIVE with A Drive to Top Surgery, a 360 video slice-of-life experience. They grow their practice through the people they meet, and the stories that guide them.
Patty Zimmermann at the 1994 Flaherty Film Seminar she co-programmed with Erik Barnouw and L. Somi Roy; contact sheet
Onward, Patty Zimmermann!
With the news of Patty Zimmermann’s sudden passing last month, our community has been awash in tides of grief, and grateful recollection and reconnection. Our small team at The Flaherty has been deeply humbled and moved by the outpouring of love for her. Patty was a connecting force across her many practices, and certainly within The Flaherty realm—as a Board Member, Seminar Programmer, co-author of The Flaherty: Decades in the Cause of Independent Cinema (2017) and Flash Flaherty: Tales from a Film Seminar (2021), and a vigorous advocate and mentor.
Before I was announced as the Executive Director of the Flaherty, I was a quiet surreptitious attendee of the Flash Flaherty launches — what a gift to be offered such a heartfelt and complex glimpse into the people who have helped shape this organization over the decades. In our first zoom call together a few weeks later, Patty regaled me with advice and encouragement. I could sense her knack for people—she vigorously, fearlessly, and intuitively equipped so many of us with the tools we needed to succeed in our various radical, wild, creative visions.
Patty—You have lit up so many of our lives. Thank you for your brilliance and unwavering curiosity.
Thank you to all who have been part of the surge of reconnections and memories over the past weeks, and especially to Carlos Gutiérrez, Josetxo Cerdan Los Arcos, Helen De Michiel, John Knecht, Laura U. Marks, Linda Lilienfeld, Lynne Sachs, Richard Herskowitz, Steven Montgomery, and Su Friedrich, whose heartfelt and gorgeous tributes to Patty you can read in the section linked below.
Samara Chadwick
Executive Director
Patty was a beacon and a shout.
A provocateur, an intellectual, an activist.
A sparkler. A synthesizer. An enactivist.
Unbounded energy and piercing insight.
A brilliant scholar, a force for goodness, an unforgettable person.
Participate in a Groundbreaking New Study
We invite you to take part in a groundbreaking new study to better understand the relationships between documentary makers and participants.
Over the past months, The Flaherty has been honored to work alongside partner organizations Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Documentary Accountability Working Group, Documentary Producers Alliance, FWD-Doc, Nia Tero, and Youth FX: NeXt Doc, in an ITVS-lead study to develop a deeper understanding of how documentary filmmakers work with the individuals and communities whose stories they share on screen.
The online survey invites filmmaker practitioners and documentary participants to share their experiences. Thanks to your critical insights, we can better identify how the documentary ecosystem can support the work of filmmakers and film participants. Help us ensure that this unprecedented documentary research takes place.
The survey is open until September 29.
What to know before participating:
You must live or work in the United States. Films can be set internationally.
Films can be any length.
The survey is available in English only.
The survey takes an approximately 15 minutes to complete.
The survey is compatible with most third-party screen readers.
You can complete the survey via telephone or an ASL-supported video call.
Patricio Guzmán, Dreaming of Utopia: 50 Years of Revolutionary Hope and Memory | September 7—15, 2023
Anthology Film Archives, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), and the IFC Center
Presented by Icarus Films and Cinema Tropical
Master documentarian Patricio Guzmán (b. 1941) has documented the tumultuous political history of his native Chile for over fifty years. Through the democratically elected socialist government of President Salvador Allende in the early 70s, the US-backed coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, and the more recent social uprising that opened the door for the rewriting of a new constitution, Guzmán has served as a witness and chronicler of the history of this South American nation.
His commitment to filming the lived history of his country for more than 50 years is unprecedented in world cinema. September 11, 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the 1973 coup led by General Pinochet and his army, which drastically changed the history of Chile and Latin America.
To mark the occasion, Icarus Films and Cinema Tropical present a special film series in New York City, celebrating the long career of the influential and lauded Chilean director. Included new restorations of his 1972 debut feature The First Year and his three-part epic The Battle of Chile.
LEARN MORE
Job Opportunity: Assistant Professor of Media and Film Studies, Skidmore College
The Film and Media Program at Skidmore College is hiring an Assistant Professor of Media and Film Studies. Applications are currently being accepted for the position, with an expected start date in September 2024. More information is available on the Skidmore Human Resources website.