The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar‘s program of innovative docs continues for three more Tuesdays in November at New York City’s 92YTribeca.
If you New York doc fans haven’t had a chance to swing by the 92YTribeca to sample of the tasty morsels at The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar since its start last month, there’s still time! 2011 marks the first year that The Flaherty Seminar and the 92nd Street Y’s downtown arts center have collaborated, and the results speak for themselves.
The theme of this season’s series, curated by programmer and writer Miriam Bale, is “Snapshots: Tourism in Cinema.” As the press release describes it, “the films in this program will be exploring documentary as a form of tourism, of the filmmaker as an outsider looking at a place through the gaze of the outsider.”
There are still three more opportunities in November to experience the series, which 92YTribeca will been screening on Wednesday evenings through November 16, 2011. Here is a brief rundown on the balance:
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
“Mur Murs” (dir. Agnès Varda, 1981): A visitor (Juliet Berto) explores street life in early eighties Los Angeles, looking at music, subcultures and where murals interact with graffiti, in this little seen Varda documentary, one of several of her documents of California life. The screening will be followed by a party DJed by Dave Tompkins, author of the book How to Wreck a Nice Beach.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011: Medical Tourism
“Made in India” (dir. Haimowitz/Sinha, 2010): A feature-length documentary film about the human experiences behind the phenomena of “outsourcing” surrogate mothers to India. Both filmmakers will be in attendance to discuss issues of sex, sexism and colonial legacy.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011: Religious Tourism — Haiti Pilgrimages
- Olivia Wyatt (director of Staring into the Sun, filmed in Ethiopia, and co-director of Below the Brain) will present a special sneak preview of her new diptych documenting two Vodou/Catholic pilgrimages to Haiti.
- “Divine Horsemen” (dir. Maya Deren and Cherel Itō, 1985): The result of a mixture of fieldwork and very personal research, this film (Deren’s last, finished by her partner Itō) is an incredibly vital document of voodoo rituals in Haiti. It is a masterpiece and an incredible bridge between art, personal experience and ethnography.
The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar is a nonprofit film organization named after legendary filmmaker Robert Flaherty. Find out more about the series at flahertyseminar.org.
