It is with great pleasure that I write to share some good news: Our beloved Documentary Studies program will be featured at this year’s (Online) DOC NYC, with four films by the last year’s graduate filmmakers in the ‘University Showcase‘. Kudos to our outstanding students Amrit Cheng, Maliyamungu Muhande, Claire Haughey and Lillian Xuege Li whose films are in the showcase, and who managed to complete their work under very difficult circumstances.
“OK Boomer” by Amrit Cheng.“Nine Days a Week” by Maliyamungu Muhande.“Hidden Costs” by Claire Haughey.“Park Life” by Lillian Xuege Li.
Also, big kudos to our remarkable Doc Studies faculty – Silvia Vega-Llona, Rafael Parra, Peter Sillen, Deirdre Boyle, Ted Robinson, Erin Greenwell and our exceptional program associates and student assistants of Fall 2019/Spring 2020 – Mariana Sanson and Thalia Noboa. Special thanks to our outstanding program assistant, Marcos Echeverria Ortiz, who helped compile the films.
Please share widely, and tune in to enjoy the work of our exceptional New School filmmakers and alumni!
Warm regards,
Amir Husak, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF DOCUMENTARY STUDIES.
Monday, Oct. 26, 2PM EST FREE AND OPEN TO THE NEW SCHOOL STUDENTS, FACULTY and STAFF Screening and Q&A with filmmaker and artist Naeem Mohaiemen
AFSAN’S LONG DAY (41 min.)
A complex portrait of Bangladeshi historian and liberation war researcher Afsan Chowdhury, who writes diary entries in the form of magazine editorials. Using a third-person voice as a distancing device, and through stories of being a long-term diabetic, his time in exile (or immigration) in Toronto, and his navigation of the debris of a nation trapped by the past, Chowdhury revisits his radical past and returns to the long day when he almost died. The men in uniform wanted to execute him after they found the Marxist pantheon in his library. “They thought I wrote them after I said so; I probably fit into the visual imagination of a radical. Beards are never trusted on young men. I argued with them about searching our house.” What else do you need to identify an enemy?
Naeem Mohaiemen researches rhizomatic families, malleable borders, and socialist utopias. The idea of a future global left, as an alternative to current organizing categories of race, religion, and nation, drives the work. He is author of Midnight’s Third Child (Nokta, forthcoming) and Prisoners of Shothik Itihash (Kunsthalle Basel, 2014); and co-editor w/ Eszter Szakacs of Solidarity Must be Defended (Tranzit, forthcoming) and w/ Lorenzo Fusi of System Error: War is a Force that Gives us Meaning (Sylvana, 2007). He is on the board of the Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New School, New York, and the film council of ICA, London. [shobak.org]
Please join us for this online screening and Q&A, hosted and moderated by Amir Husak, Director of Documentary Studies and Assistant Professor in the School of Media Studies.
Presented by the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies
We have fantastic news!!! Doc Studies graduates Maliyamungu Muhande @congolesetraveler, and Lillian Xuege Li @lillian_xuege_li received the National Board of Review’s 2020 Student Grant for their individual films “Nine Days a Week” and “Parklife.”
Two film: ALL THAT PERISHES AT THE EDGE OF LAND & EL RETORNO / THE RETURN
“Hira Nabi’s camera magnificently captures the “ship breaking” industry of Pakistan, which employs the poorest of the poor to disassemble obsolete carrier vessels for scrap.“
Eric Althoff, Screen Comment
“A powerful commentary on the ocean as a key space of globalization and of the precarious lives defined by shifting economic parameters – one that deftly connects deindustrialization of the North and environmental degradation to the harsh realities experienced by labourers in the Global South.“
Emilia Terracciano, Frieze
ALL THAT PERISHES AT THE EDGE OF LAND (30 min.)
In this docu-fictional work, ‘Ocean Master’ a decommissioned container vessel is anthropomorphized, and enters into a dialogue with several workers at the Gadani yards. The conversation moves between dreams and desire, the environment, places that can be called home, their own physical vulnerabilities, and the structural violence embedded in the act of dismembering a ship at Gadani. As the workers recall the homes and families they left behind, the long work days mesh indistinguishably into one another, the desperation that they carry with them like shackles rises to the forefront, and they are forced to confront the realities of their work in which they are faced with death every day. How may they survive and look towards the future?
+ EL RETORNO / THE RETURN (12 min)
A taxi driver agrees to drive a stranger around a town the man has never visited. Their short journey gives the man a new destination. This film was made during the ‘Filming in Cuba with Abbas Kiarostami’ workshop in Jan-Feb 2016 organized by Black Factory Cinema and Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (EICTV).
Hira Nabi works with images and text to tell stories of the everyday. Her practice is concerned with the environment, the often unseen, and a slow process of re-earthing: by which she intends to shift focus away from anthropocentric stories into a more interconnected and larger witnessing of the times we live in. She earned a BA in film and postcolonial studies from Hampshire College, and an MA in cinema and media studies from The New School. She lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan, where she is teaching at the Beaconhouse National University, and researching cinematic cultures, and botanical movements and plant migrations in South Asia.
Please join us for this online screening and Q&A, hosted and moderated by Amir Husak, Director of Documentary Studies and Assistant Professor in the School of Media Studies.
Congratulations to Amrit Cheng (Doc Studies 2020), whose graduating film OK Boomer is premiering today at Teen Vogue, along with an op-ed from two young activists whom the film features.
This remarkable film chronicles the student-led campaign to integrate the New York City public school system, which is among the most segregated in the country.
We are heart-broken to say that this year’s Truth be Told Festival had to be postponed due to the pandemic. This was a very hard decision to make, as we were very excited about sharing this year’s films with all of you. The choice, however, was obvious. Instead of going ahead with an online version of the festival, we have decided to wait until it’s safe to have an on-site screening. This was an unprecedented and difficult academic year and our students deserve praise for their perseverance, heartfelt commitment and care. We greatly look forward to welcoming you all back, sharing these films with you, and celebrating their achievements together. Further announcements will be posted here and on our blog / social media. In the meantime, we invite you to take a look at the 2020 Teaser – a sneak preview of student films completed in the program this year.
All the best,
Amir Husak (Director, Graduate Certificate in Documentary Studies) & Doc Studies production team
The last two months have been an incredibly probing time for all of us. A true emotional rollercoaster! As the pandemic forced us to adapt in ways we never imagined, we found ourselves embracing a whole range of creative alternatives and discovering different forms of solidarity and fortitude. The Doc Studies Class of 2020 persevered and successfully completed the program (and their films!) in an awe-inspiring display of commitment, care, and resilience. Their journey to graduation – especially considering the present circumstances – is an accomplishment that ought to be celebrated. Hereby, we want to invite you to join us in congratulating them. Also, please join us at the School of Media Studies Recognition Ceremony, presented tomorrow at 3pm EST via Livestream or on Facebook. #docstudies2020#newschoolgrad
The New School Doc Studies 