Film and Electronic Arts

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Ephraim Asili MFA ’11 Selected as 2023–2024 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow

Filmmaker Ephraim Asili MFA ’11, who is associate professor and director of the Film and Electronic Arts Program at Bard, has been selected as a member of the 2023–2024 cohort of Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellows for his work in the arts. During their fellowship year, this international cohort will work on projects that “contend with the urgent, the beautiful, and the vast: from reckoning with the challenges of climate change to creating digital models of iconic Italian violins to detecting distant galaxies.” Asili has been named a Radcliffe-Film Study Center Fellow, an honor which includes a stipend of $78,000 plus an additional $5,000 to cover project expenses. Radcliffe-Film Study Center Fellows are provided studio or office space, use of the Film Study Center’s equipment and facilities, and access to libraries and other Harvard University resources during the fellowship year.

The Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program annually selects and supports artists, scholars, and practitioners who bring both a record of achievement and exceptional promise to the institute. A Radcliffe fellowship offers scholars in the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and arts—as well as writers, journalists, and other distinguished professionals—a rare chance to pursue ambitious projects for a full year in a vibrant interdisciplinary setting amid the resources of Harvard. The 2023–2024 fellows represent only 3.3 percent of the many applications that Radcliffe received.

Post Date: 05-09-2023

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Kelly Reichardt Spoke with Vanity Fair and the Daily Beast about Her New Film, Showing Up

“Kelly Reichardt loves art school far too much to ever make fun of it,” writes Katey Rich for Vanity Fair. Promoting her new film, Showing Up, S. William Senfeld Artist in Residence Kelly Reichardt spoke with Vanity Fair on their podcast Little Gold Men about choosing a working artist as the subject matter. “People make art for reasons other than money,” Reichardt said. “People make art because they're compelled to, it’s how they deal with the world or how they translate things to the world.” Speaking to Allegra Frank at the Daily Beast, Reichardt was asked about her work being considered part of the “slow cinema” movement, a distinction she felt is less about film and more about the world at large. “Some things that we’re calling slow cinema, what we’re really talking about is a 30-second shot, which is, to my mind, not that slow,” she said. “It’s just that the world is so sped-up.”

Post Date: 04-11-2023

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Governor Kathy Hochul Grants Clemency to Bryon Russ Whose Petition Included an Advocacy Video Coproduced by Bard Human Rights Students

Governor Hochul recently announced that she has granted clemency to seven people—an action that fulfills her commitment to granting clemency on a rolling basis, rather than only once at the end of each year. The Governor’s announcement includes commuting the sentence of Bryon Russ, “an individual originally convicted under the Rockefeller Drug Laws and who had been serving one of the longest sentences for a non-violent drug-related conviction in the State.”

Bryon Russ is one of the individuals with whom Bard undergraduate students—as part of the seminar Human Rights 321, Advocacy Video—created a video presentation to accompany his clemency petition in fall of 2019. Bard students Maeve Potter ’20, Charlotte Geissler ’21, Adrianna Candor ’20, and the late Margarita Kuchma MA ’23 worked with a team of students at CUNY Law School and the human rights organization WITNESS to prepare short video presentations that accompanied a number of New York State clemency applications. 

Russ, 47, was sentenced in 2001 to 40 years in prison, of which he has served close to 23 years. While incarcerated, Russ has enrolled in courses towards earning his bachelor’s degree, worked as a teacher's assistant for other incarcerated individuals seeking their GED, become an accomplished legal researcher, and earned a paralegal certification. His counseling and volunteer work includes being  a facilitator of anti-violence and aggression replacement programs and a participant in Rehabilitation Through the Arts. With his wife, Russ also started an initiative, which has become an annual event, to raise donations to buy backpacks and school supplies for New York State children in need. Upon release, Mr. Russ will live with his wife.

Bard’s Human Rights 321, Advocacy Video is an Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences class cotaught by Thomas Keenan, professor of comparative literature and director of the Human Rights Program, and Brent Green, visiting artist in residence. The course is cross-listed with Film and Electronic Arts. 

For further reading:
Bard Students in Human Rights Course Produce Videos for People in Prison Seeking Clemency
Gregory Mingo Pardoned in One of Andrew Cuomo’s Last Acts as Governor of New York State, with Support from Bard-CUNY Clemency Team

 

Post Date: 04-10-2023