by Erica Ginsberg, Docs In Progress® Executive Director
Docs In Progress® is proud to be partnering with the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar (though the generous cost-share support of the Philadelphia Foundation) to send up to three filmmakers to the renowned summer seminar in upstate New York from June 19-26, 2009. These Docs In Progress® Fellows will be selected from a competitive application process to participate in this renowned seminar which, brings together emerging and mid-career media makers, film scholars, critics, and students from around the world for a unique opportunity to expand their knowledge of cinema. To help launch this new opportunity for the Docs In Progress® community, we wanted to find out a little bit more about the Flaherty Seminar. So we talked to the Flaherty’s Executive Director, Mary Kerr and two Flaherty Alumni. Jes Therkelsen, a two-time Docs In Progress® screening alum (Best Part of Everything, 2005 and Four Minutes, 2008), attended as a Flaherty Student Fellow in 2007. Miami-based Juan Carlos Zaldivar was invited as a guest artist to screen and discuss his film 90 Miles at the Flaherty that same year and participated as a Fledgling Fund Fellow in 2008.
Q: The Flaherty Seminar was founded in an era when film schools were not as prevalent as they are today. As the world of film and film education has evolved, how has the Seminar evolved?
Mary Kerr: The first Robert Flaherty Film Seminar was an intimate group of artists, musicians, filmmakers, and friends of [documentary pioneer] Robert Flaherty’s widow, Frances, all gathered at the Flaherty family farm in Vermont to watch and discuss Flaherty’s films. We try to keep that same intimate feeling but we have had to increase the number of participants in attendance to help offset the costs of producing the Seminar. Today’s Flaherty Seminar [at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York] is comprised of about 160 makers, academics, students, programmers, writers and film enthusiasts.
The Seminar is known as a unique institution, which provides a forum for the in-depth study of independent media with the participation of the artists. We have a different programmer each year and they invite film and video makers to show 3-4 works throughout the week, rather than just selecting the most recent film, like a film festival would do. The seminar has a different theme each year. This year’s title is “Witnesses, Monuments, Ruins.” Participants looks at the body of work and the evolution of the makers who are invited based on the theme. Guest artists stay in the dorms and eat in the dining hall like everyone else and are asked to attend for the entire week which ensures that participants havegreater access to the featured artists than would be found at festivals or conferences.
Juan Carlos Zaldivar: The Flaherty is not like any other film seminar or film event that I am aware of. In order to understand the idiosyncratic value of the Flaherty, perhaps it is best to think of the seminar as an intellectual exercise or even an intellectual game, rather than comparing it to the framework of a symposium, a festival or a conference. What made the Flaherty a unique film event for me was the discovery that the experience is composed of carefully orchestrated circumstances. This prescribed set of circumstances create an environment that challenges, exhilarates and rivals the intellectual stimulation of any other film event that exists, at least in the United States. The circumstances include a mystery film program that unfolds day by day in unexpected ways; discussions, which are timed according to the length of each preceding screening; programmers that work for a year on the selection of films and the curatorial aspects and strategy of their program; and, most importantly, a voluntarily captive audience whose viewers have set their lives aside to watch, discuss and think about films for 12 hours a day for nearly a week in a secluded environment.
Mary Kerr: Let me add one thing on the “mystery film program” Juan Carlos mentioned. Just as it was in the beginning, no one in the Seminar audience knows what films will be screened until just before the lights go out. This practice is based on the importance of non-preconception to Frances Flaherty. She said, “If you preconceive you are lost, off to a false start before you begin. What you have to do is to let go, let go every thought of your own, wipe your mind clean, fresh, innocent, newborn, sensitive as unexposed film to take up the impressions around you, and let what will come in. This is the pregnant void, the fertile state of no-mind. This is non-preconception, the beginning of discovery.”
Q: That’s an important point. At a time when so many film seminars are focused more on the technical and business aspects of getting films made, it seems like the Flaherty focuses on something altogether different.
Mary Kerr: The discussions following the screenings are really what set the Flaherty apart from other film events. They are not your standard issue Q&A. After each screening, participants adjourn to a comfortable space for discussion, which is often a 10 minute walk away, allowing them to digest the program they just viewed before talking. A moderator begins the discussion sometimes without the filmmaker in attendance and gathers thoughts from the audience on the works and how they relate to the theme and previous works screened during the week. The discussion happens in more of a circular pattern rather than a back and forth dialogue between the audience and who’s up on stage. We sometimes will delve into the technical aspects of filmmaking, as that has so much to do with aesthetics and the ever-changing world of filmmaking, but business is rarely spoken about.
Juan Carlos Zaldivar: Another important aspect of the Flaherty that makes it different from other seminars and which, in my opinion, protects its integrity and spontaneity of thought, is the simple fact that there are no name tags for participants at the Flaherty. Neither one’s identity nor our affiliations are announced until we check into the dorms. In the true spirit of a seminary, all distractions, including that of expensive hotel rooms are subtracted and all meals are shared. These logistical choices, in my opinion, keep exchanges between people more honest. Folks get to know each other for what they think and not by what they do or who they work for. Connections and friendships made at the Flaherty last a long time for this very reason. The seminar is also able to keep its mission authentic and to protect it from the “chit-chat” type of networking and socializing which is so prevalent at most film events that focus on the business aspects of film.
Q: Jes, even though you were in film school at the time you attended the Flaherty, how do you feel the experience enhanced your film education, both in terms of understanding film as an art form and in helping develop you as a filmmaker?
Jes Therkelsen: To see and discuss works with the artist and other professionals is a rare opportunity and that’s most of what you do at the Flaherty. It certainly was a supplement to my education. [The 2007 seminar] focused on the ethics of documentary filmmaking. It helped me develop the kinds of questions and concerns doc films might bring up once they are screened to an audience.
Going as a student fellow was an amazing experience. For one week, you are absolutely engrossed in the experience of eating, sleeping and breathing documentary films. Being surrounded by so many successful professionals in the field of doc filmmaking might be a little intimidating for students, but Fellows have scheduled breaks set aside to speak with curators, educators, distributors, filmmakers and so many others during lunch or breakfast or happy hour gatherings. We also spent a few days before the seminar getting to know each other, which was an added bonus.
I think documentary filmmaking attracts a certain kind of curious and questioning personality. I felt comforted meeting so many others like myself who are going through similar struggles and successes.
Q: The Flaherty brings together many different people looking at film from different angles. What was this experience like for you, Juan Carlos?
Juan Carlos Zaldivar: The conversations at the Flaherty can get heated in the best sense of the word. The “tug of war,” in my experience, is often between folks who are interested in dissecting the films formally vs. those participants who are more interested in academic discussions about the work. It is partly this tension that often gets at the heart of a film’s impact, whether it happens at a group discussion, one-on-one during a walk through the campus, or over a meal.
I was invited to attend the Flaherty in 2007 to show my documentary 90 Miles. I had worked with co-programmer Carlos Gutierrez a few years back when I was touring the US, facilitating community screenings of the film. Before I attended, I read Patricia Finneran’s article on the Flaherty, which set the tone for my expectations for the event. I was both nervous and excited about attending.
Before the national broadcast of 90 Miles [on the PBS series POV], I attended over 60 screenings with my film and I experienced a few heated Q&As because of the polarized political positions that the general public tends to adopt re: Cuba and Cuba/US relations. However, I had never had the chance to experience a strictly theoretical or critical discussion of the film, such as Ms. Finneran had described in her article. I looked forward to it very much. I wanted the experience to be as pure as possible. As a result, I found myself holding back from expressing my opinions throughout the week. Because my film is of a personal nature, I wanted to remain as anonymous as possible to the audience until the film had its screening. My experience at Flaherty that year was amazing. After my film screened, I was able to enter into excellent discussions about the program at large and about the issues it raised with the added value that 90 Miles was one of the stepping stones for the different arguments raised. This made me proud. The most interesting aspect for me was to see the film spoken about within a larger, cultural and formal context.
Q: What sort of connections were made as a result of your participation in the Flaherty?
Jes Therkelsen: Flaherty has a great alum network and I feel connected with everyone else who had gone to the seminar. I am still in contact with a good number of others who I had met there.
Juan Carlos Zaldivar: I have forged a strong personal connection to the Flaherty and to some of the folks that I have met there. For instance, I was invited to screen 90 Miles in Chicago by [2007 Fellow] Cecilia Cornejo in 2007 as part of a Latin-American film program. Last year, I was inspired to present a selection of the 2008 program at Dot Fiftyone Gallery in Miami. When I attended the Flaherty in 2008 [as a Fledgling Fund Fellow], I was developing a new section for the Miami Film Festival 2009 entitled “Cutting the Edge,” which featured video art. I was moved by the inclusion of video artists Allison Kobayashi and Oliver Husain in the 2008 program and decided to jump start what will hopefully become a tradition to bring selections from the Flaherty programs down to Miami through my social network Art Tribes Network.
Jes, knowing what you know about both Docs In Progress® and the Flaherty Seminar, what advice would you give the Docs In Progress Fellows heading out in terms of the best way to prepare for participating in the Seminar?
Jes Therkelsen: Get plenty of sleep before you go. You won’t get much sleep while you are there.
The deadline to apply for the Docs In Progress® Fellowship to the Flaherty is April 15, 2009. See our website for more details on eligibility and to download an application.
This article may not be reprinted without permission.
