DOC TALKS – Page 4 – The New School Doc Studies

October 6, 2022January 27, 2023 Doc Studies DOC TALKS

Doc Talk (Online) – SHORT FILMS – Q&A with Akosua Adoma Owusu

Through documentary and dramatic forms, as well as installation, Akosua Adoma Owusu’s work addresses the collision of identities, where the African immigrant located in the United States has a “triple consciousness.” Owusu interprets Du Bois’ notion of double consciousness and creates a third cinematic space or consciousness, representing diverse identities including feminism, queerness and African immigrants interacting in African, white American, and black American culture. Her films range from cinematic essays to experimental narratives to reconstructed Black popular media.

Moderated by Lana Lin, Director of the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies. Co-produced with Documentary Program Associates: Cacau Araujo (Doc Studies ’22 & Media Studies ’23) and Tiffany Jiang (Doc Studies ’22 & Media Studies ’23).

Akosua Adoma Owusu is a Ghanaian-American filmmaker, producer, and cinematographer. She currently lectures at Harvard University and at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Aiming to create a third cinematic space or consciousness, Owusu explores the colliding identities of black immigrants in America through multiple forms, ranging from cinematic essays to experimental narratives to reconstructed Black popular media. In her works, feminism and African identities interact in African, white American and black American cultural spaces.

Since 2005, Owusu’s films have screened internationally in festivals and museums, including the New York Film Festival, Berlinale Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Locarno International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, and the BFI London Film Festival. Named by IndieWire as one of six preeminent “avant-garde female filmmakers who redefined cinema,” she was a featured artist of the 56th Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. Her recent projects include Welcome to the Jungle (2019), a multi-channel video installation made in collaboration with the CCA Wattis Institute.

Presented by the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies
School of Media Studies, The New School

October 6, 2022January 27, 2023 Doc Studies DOC TALKS, Uncategorized

Doc Talk (In-Person) – BAROBAR JAGTANA (Trilogy of Short Films) – Screening and Q&A with Suneil Sanzgiri

Shot with 16mm film stock that expired in 2002—the same year as the state-sponsored anti-Muslim genocide in Gujarat—and filmed amid the anti-CAA protests in Delhi, BAROBAR JAGTANA, Suneil Sanzgiri’s cinematic trilogy, traces lines and lineages of ancestral memory, poetry, history, songs, decoloniality and diaspora. AT HOME BUT NOT AT HOME (2019) utilizes various modes of seeing at a distance to question the construction of identity and anti-colonial solidarity across continents. LETTER FROM YOUR FAR-OFF COUNTRY (2020) blurs boundaries of the epistolary format through a letter written by the filmmaker directed towards a distant relative, who was a revolutionary freedom fighter, prisoner’s rights activist, and Communist party leader. GOLDEN JUBILEE (2021) takes as its starting point scenes of the filmmaker’s father navigating a virtual rendering of their ancestral home in Goa, India, created using the same technologies of surveillance that mining companies use to map locations for iron ore in the region. A tool for extraction and exploitation becomes a method for preservation.

Moderated by Lana Lin, Director of the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies. Co-produced with Documentary Program Associates: Cacau Araujo (Doc Studies ’22 & Media Studies ’23) and Tiffany Jiang (Doc Studies ’22 & Media Studies ’23).

Suneil Sanzgiri is an Indian American artist, researcher, and filmmaker whose work contends with questions of identity, heritage, culture and diaspora in relation to structural violence. Sanzgiri’s work has been screened extensively at festivals and venues around the world including International Film Festival Rotterdam, New York Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Fest, True/False Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Doc Lisboa, Camden International Film Fest, Viennale, e-Flux, REDCAT, the Menil Collection, the Block Museum, Le Cinéma Club, and the Criterion Collection, and has won awards at BlackStar Film Fest, Open City Docs Fest, and VideoEx. His work has been supported by grants from Creative Capital, the Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, Field of Vision, and the Foundation for Contemporary Art. He was named one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in Filmmaker Magazine’s Fall 2021 Issue, and in Art in America’s “New Talent” issue in 2022.

Presented by the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies
School of Media Studies, The New School

March 24, 2021April 25, 2021 Doc Studies DOC TALKS, Events

DOC TALK (ONLINE): What Farocki Taught / On the Domestication of Sheep – Screening and Q&A with Jill Godmilow (filmmaker and author)

“Godmilow’s film re-makes Farocki’s film… in order to study it, to take apart its various phases, to understand it, to think about it…. It is an act of remembering…. Film which can break reality into pieces… can also demonstrate for us the processes of memory, of re-thinking the past and turning it—not into nostalgia—but into a lesson for the future.“
—Tom Gunning

“A bracing exercise in political filmmaking and pedagogy… resurrecting the Brechtian frontal attack, both on an economic system intent on the manufacture of death and on the complacency of documentary realism.”
—Michael Renov

Ever since Jill Godmilow began making documentaries in 1966, her work has broken barriers. Her early feminist films helped pave the way for more films made by, for, and about women. In her groundbreaking Far From Poland she explored the rise of the Solidarity movement at a distance, incorporating an unprecedented array of experimental approaches—staging, reenactment, interviewing, archival films—and thereby fostering a post-realist movement within documentary filmmaking. Her criticism of documentary’s “pornography of the real” has won her friends and enemies, challenging left liberal documentary to re-think its strategies. What Farocki Taught (1998) is one of her most controversial films, a re-make and interrogation of Harun Farocki’s Inextinguishable Fire about Dow Chemical’s creation of napalm B during the Vietnam War. Since her retirement from teaching at Notre Dame University, she has been busier than ever, producing and directing new films and writing a book for students about the documentary. Her recent short film, On the Domestication of Sheep (2019), is a quirky surprise—an animated film that delivers a blow to gendered capitalism with ironic wit and powerful punch. Godmilow remains tireless in her efforts to keep the debate over documentary ethics as stimulating as ever. She will discuss these two short films, radically different in style and tone from each other, and then speak about her new book and film-in-progress.

Jill Godmilow is an internationally known, award-winning independent filmmaker who has been producing and directing nonfiction and narrative work on feminist, gay, labor, and art issues for decades. In 2003, her Academy Award-nominated feature Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman was added to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. She is Emerita Professor at the University of Notre Dame where she taught film production and critical studies courses in the Department of Film, Television & Theatre for twenty years. She is probably best known for her radically deconstructive approach to the documentary and juxtaposition of fact and fiction. In 2020 she began work on a new film, For High School Students—Notes from the Vietnam War. She has just finished writing Kill the Documentary—A Letter to Filmmakers, Students and Scholars, forthcoming from Columbia University Press.

Please join us for this online screening and Q&A, hosted and moderated by Deirdre Boyle, Associate Professor in the School of Media Studies at The New School.

Presented by the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies
@tnsdocstudies
Doc Studies @ Instagram

School of Media Studies
The New School
https://newschooldocstudies.wordpress.com/
http://www.newschool.edu/public-engagement/documentary-media-graduate-certificate/
http://www.newschool.edu/public-engagement/media-studies/
http://www.truthbetoldfilmfestival.com

March 10, 2021April 23, 2021 Doc Studies DOC TALKS, Events

DOC TALK (ONLINE): The Missing Picture – Screening and Q&A with Deirdre Boyle (Author of the book, Ferryman of Memories: The Films of Rithy Panh)

“Documentary, personal essay, historical reconstruction, film poem, therapeutic exercise—”The Missing Picture” is something of all of these.“
–Jonathan Romney, Film Comment

“The audacity of “The Missing Picture” … is equaled only by its soulfulness.”
–Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

Rithy Panh is Cambodia’s leading filmmaker and foremost chronicler of the genocide that decimated his nation when Pol Pot tried to create an agrarian utopia through terror. Acclaimed for his groundbreaking documentaries about perpetrator guilt, Panh’s best known film is a very personal one, his Academy Award-nominated memoir, The Missing Picture. His quest to find a missing picture is, on a literal level, a search for footage shot by a Khmer Rouge cameraman, but the “missing picture” is a conceit that evokes all that is absent and inaccessible for him. It took years for him to assemble an archive of propaganda films that expose Khmer Rouge ideology and to envision clay figurines and dioramas that depict horror without turning viewers into voyeurs and his film into what Jill Godmilow has called “the pornography of the real.” History, memory, and art all come together in a film that demonstrates the power of art to respond to genocide with beauty and wisdom.

Panh was 13 when his family was evacuated to rural Cambodian where all but one of them died of starvation, over-work, disease, and despair. Rithy survived and escaped to a refugee camp and then exile in France. Educated at l’IDHEC, the prestigious national film school in Paris, he returned to Indochina where he has made more than 20 award-winning feature films over the past 30 years. Although he has collaborated with cinema luminaries like Angelina Jolie and Isabelle Huppert, Panh considers himself essentially a documentary filmmaker. He is enigmatic, unpredictable, and indefatigable in his quest to heal his nation and make new films.

Associate Professor of Media Studies Deirdre Boyle has taught at the New School for over 40 years. She is the author of the forthcoming Ferryman of Memories: The Films of Rithy Panh (Rutgers University Press). Her essays on Panh’s groundbreaking films led her to step back to examine his entire oeuvre, which took her to Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Geneva, and Toronto and immerse herself in the cinema of a brilliant but haunted artist. Victor Torres Rodriguez is Deirdre’s research assistant and an invaluable editor and first reader uniquely qualified to interview her about Panh’s work. He joins a terrific group of graduate assistants, colleagues, and friends who have contributed their support and knowledge about colonialism, genocide, and trauma to Ferryman of Memories.

Presented by the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies
@tnsdocstudies
Doc Studies @ Instagram

March 10, 2021April 15, 2021 Doc Studies DOC TALKS, Events

DOC TALK (ONLINE): The Cats of Mirikitani – Screening and Q&A with Linda Hattendorf (Director/Editor)

“A fascinating, absorbing and instructive tale, full of delayed revelations and subtle pleasures.“
–Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Chicago Reader

“A profoundly gripping film with a cumulative impact that may well wipe you out.”
–Bilge Ebri, New York Magazine

The Cats of Mirikitani began as a portrait of Jimmy Mirikitani, a homeless Japanese-American street artist living in New York City, but then it morphed into a stunning personal story of an unlikely relationship that confronted one of America’s long-standing prejudices and initiated a healing process catalyzed by the events of 9/11. This film was Linda Hattendorf’s directorial debut, and she worked closely with editor Keiko Deguchi to structure a film in which she reluctantly became a character. Cats premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006 where it won the Audience Award. The film was later broadcast on the PBS series “Independent Lens,” toured theatrically around the globe, and was invited to over 100 film festivals.

AWARDS: Best Picture Japanese Eyes, Tokyo International Film Festival; Best Documentary, Durban International Film Festival; Norwegian Peace Film Award, Tromso International Film Festival, among over 30 others.

Linda Hattendorf is much in demand as an editor today, and her work has been broadcast on PBS, A&E, TCM, and The Sundance Channel, and screened in various theatrical venues and film festivals. She has collaborated with direct cinema master Barbara Kopple and did research for PBS’s house documentarian Ken Burns. She served as cameraperson on William Greaves’ celebrated Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take 2 ½ and editor for his PBS special Ralph J. Bunche: An American Odyssey. She is currently editing Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story about the legendary photojournalist of Asian American issues who died recently of covid-19. She has an MA in Media Studies from the New School and briefly taught editing for the DocStudies Certificate.

Presented by the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies
@tnsdocstudies
Doc Studies @ Instagram

February 12, 2021March 11, 2021 Doc Studies DOC TALKS, Events

DOC TALK (ONLINE): The Big Scary “S” Word – Screening and Q&A with Yael Bridge (Director/Producer)

“Examines the history of socialism and why so many Americans have been conditioned to reject a philosophy that’s in their best interests”

– Cassie Da Costa, Daily Beast

THE BIG SCARY “S” WORD delves into the rich history of the American socialist movement and journeys with the people striving to build a socialist future today. With inequality growing, a climate catastrophe looming, and right-wing extremism ascending around the world, many Americans are wondering whether capitalism is to blame. But what is the alternative? Socialism is plagued by conflicting definitions. Is it dictatorship or democracy? Norway or Venezuela? Reform or revolution? This film explores where American socialism has been, why it was suppressed, and imagines what a renewed American socialism might look like.

AWARDS: Official Selection: AFI Fest 2020, Official Selection: Mill Valley Film Festival 2020, Official Selection: DOC NYC 2020, Official Selection: HotDocs 2020, Official Selection: DocLands 2020.

Yael Bridge is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker based in Oakland. Her films have shown at major film festivals nationally and internationally. She produced Left on Purpose, winner of the Audience Award at DOC NYC, and most recently produced Saving Capitalism with Robert Reich, nominated for an Emmy Award in Business and Economics. As Director of Productions at Inequality Media, Yael has made numerous viral videos tackling complex political issues that have garnered over 200 million views on social media. She holds an MFA in Documentary Film and Video from Stanford University, a Graduate Certificate in Documentary Studies and an MA in Media Studies from the New School.

Presented by the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies
@tnsdocstudies
Doc Studies @ Instagram

January 31, 2021February 12, 2021 Doc Studies DOC TALKS

DOC TALK (ONLINE): Honeyland – Screening and Q&A with Samir Ljuma (Cinematographer)

Nothing less than a found epic, a real-life environmental allegory.
(A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis, NYTimes)

A miraculous feat, shot over three years as if by invisible camera.
(Cath Clarke, The Guardian)

Its narrative construction depicts extraordinary tensions and conflicts with a clarity and coherence that a screenwriter might dream of.
(Richard Brody, The New Yorker)

Nestled in an isolated mountain region deep within the Balkans, Hatidze Muratova lives with her ailing mother in a village without roads, electricity or running water. She’s the last in a long line of wild beekeepers, eking out a living farming honey in small batches to be sold in the closest city – a mere four hours’ walk away. Hatidze’s peaceful existence is thrown into upheaval by the arrival of an itinerant family, with their roaring engines, seven rambunctious children and a herd of cattle. Hatidze optimistically meets the promise of change with an open heart, it doesn’t take long however, before a conflict evolves that exposes the fundamental tension between nature and humanity, harmony and discord, exploitation and sustainability.

The debut feature from documentarians Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska, HONEYLAND is made with the widescreen sweep of an epic, yet clearly built from an intimate collaboration between filmmakers and subject. With a surprising sense of humor, it’s a tough and tender portrait of the delicate balance between humankind and nature, a glimpse at a fast disappearing way of life, and an unforgettable testament to one extraordinary woman’s resilience.

AWARDS: Sundance, Critic’s Choice Documentary Award, Cinema Eye Honors, European Film Awards, International Documentary Association + 30 other awards and over 40 nominations including two Oscar nominations for Best Documentary and Best Foreign Film.

Samir Ljuma is an award-winning cinematographer and producer from Macedonia. He worked as Director of Photography on several documentary features and collaborated with a host of international film directors, including AVEC L’AMOUR by Ilija Cvetkovski and HONEYLAND by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov. He is the winner of the American Society Of Cinematographers Award for Best Documentary Cinematography as well as IMAGO Award, IDA Award, Cinema Eye Honors Award, and Sundance Film Festival award.

Presented by the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies
@tnsdocstudies
Doc Studies @ Instagram

January 27, 2021February 27, 2021 Doc Studies DOC TALKS, Events

DOC TALK (ONLINE): Mayor – Screening and Q&A with David Osit (Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor)

THE BEST NEW FILM ABOUT THE ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT is a dark comedy about Ramallah’s Mayor… offers a striking new perspective on that struggle, with a personal on-the-ground quality matched by grand tonal ambitions that makes it the best of its subgenre. CRITICS PICK.
—Indiewire

THOUGHTFUL AND GRIPPING… There are whiffs of Veep-like humor throughout MAYOR … but it’s also a sincere tale of a public servant who’s seeking to lead in a world that’s stacked against him.
—VOX

Offers more absurd moments than Samuel Beckett could have ever worked up.
—UNIVERSAL CINEMA

MAYOR is a real-life political saga following Musa Hadid, the mayor of Ramallah, during his second term in office. Surrounded on all sides by Israeli settlements and soldiers, most people in Ramallah will never have the chance to travel more than a few miles outside their home, which is why Mayor Hadid is determined to make the city a beautiful and dignified place to live. His immediate goals: repave the sidewalks, attract more tourism, and plan the city’s Christmas celebrations. His ultimate mission: to end the occupation of Palestine. Rich with detailed observation and a surprising amount of humor, MAYOR offers a portrait of dignity amidst the madness and absurdity of endless occupation while posing a question: how do you run a city when you don’t have a country?

AWARDS: Grand Jury Prize winner: Full Frame Film Festival, NEXT:WAVE winner: CPH:DOX 2020, Best Documentary: Boston Palestine Film Festival, Official Selection: True/False Film Festival 2020.

David Osit is an Emmy Award-winning director, editor and composer. David is one of the directors of the feature documentary THANK YOU FOR PLAYING, which premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, broadcast on POV in 2016, and was nominated for three Emmy awards, winning for Outstanding Arts & Culture Documentary. He also edited and produced OFF FRAME, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and Berlinale in 2016. His first film, BUILDING BABEL, premiered at True/False in 2012. David is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents and the Sundance Nonfiction Director’s Lab.

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

http://www.newschool.edu/public-engagement/documentary-media-graduate-certificate/
http://www.newschool.edu/public-engagement/media-studies/
http://www.truthbetoldfilmfestival.com

@tnsdocstudies
Doc Studies @ Instagram

School of Media Studies
The New School