Bard College Student Melonie Bisset ’24 Wins Critical Language Scholarship for Foreign Language Study Abroad
Bard College senior Melonie Bisset ’24, a film and electronic arts major, has won a highly selective Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) for the 2024 summer session. CLS, a program of the US Department of State, provides recipients with overseas placements that include intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences designed to promote rapid language gains. Bisset will study Portuguese at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Bard College Student Melonie Bisset ’24 Wins Critical Language Scholarship for Foreign Language Study Abroad
Bard College senior Melonie Bisset ’24, a film and electronic arts major, has won a highly selective Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) for the 2024 summer session. CLS, a program of the US Department of State, provides recipients with overseas placements that include intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences designed to promote rapid language gains. Each summer, American undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at US colleges and universities across the country, spend 8 to 10 weeks learning one of 13 languages at an intensive study abroad institute. The CLS Program is designed to promote rapid language gains and essential intercultural fluency in regions that are critical to US national security and economic prosperity. The languages include Arabic, Azerbaijani, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu.
Bisset will study Portuguese at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The CLS Program in Rio de Janeiro provides a language learning environment designed to cover the equivalent of one academic year of university-level Portuguese study during an eight-week period. While in Brazil, Bisset will live with a local host family, eating breakfast with them each morning and spending free weekends with them. Host families help students integrate into daily life in Rio de Janeiro, introduce them to their extended networks, and create opportunities for them to practice their Portuguese in a more relaxed setting. Students also meet with a language partner several hours per week to practice conversational language skills and explore the city, planning their own activities with their language partners based on their interests.
Bisset writes that her interests have always been at the intersection of multiple cultures. That is where she feels most like herself—where she belongs. Accordingly, that is why Brazilian culture has always captivated her: its intense mix of diverse cultures. Aside from music and dance, she is also attracted to Brazilian filmmakers engaged in debates surrounding ecocinema, poverty, and multiculturalism. Her ultimate goal is to create a US-based nonprofit that facilitates cross cultural exchange and understanding through language and art.
“I am extremely grateful to receive the Critical Language Scholarship, and even more excited for the opportunity to study Portuguese in Rio de Janeiro this summer,” says Bisset. “As a multicultural-multiracial English, Mandarin, and Spanish speaker, a certified TESOL instructor, a filmmaker, an Argentine Tango dancer, a translator, and most importantly a story teller, my aspiration has always been to facilitate greater intercultural understanding through engagement with the arts and languages. I hope to establish my own organization dedicated to these dreams one day. This immersive language and cultural experience will undoubtedly have a lasting impact on my personal life and career development.”
The CLS Program is part of a US government effort to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. CLS scholars gain critical language and cultural skills that enable them to contribute to US economic competitiveness and national security. Approximately 500 competitively selected American students at US colleges and universities participate in the CLS Program each year.
“Critical” languages are those that are less commonly taught in US schools, but are essential for America’s engagement with the world. CLS plays an important role in preparing US students for the 21st century’s globalized workforce, increasing American competitiveness, and contributing to national security. CLS scholars serve as citizen ambassadors, representing the diversity of the United States abroad and building lasting relationships with people in their host countries.
For further information about the Critical Language Scholarship or other exchange programs offered by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, please visit http://www.clscholarship.org/ and https://studyabroad.state.gov/.
“James Fuentes Gallery, long a forward-looking presence in the contemporary art scene on New York’s Lower East Side, is the latest space to decamp to Tribeca,” writes Jillian Billard for the Art Newspaper. The eponymous gallery of alumnus James Fuentes ’98, who will be awarded the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters at this year’s Bard College Awards, has long championed “artists with practices outside the commercial conventions of the contemporary art market.”
Art Newspaper Spoke with James Fuentes ’98 About His Gallery’s Move to Tribeca
“James Fuentes Gallery, long a forward-looking presence in the contemporary art scene on New York’s Lower East Side, is the latest space to decamp to Tribeca,” writes Jillian Billard for the Art Newspaper. The eponymous gallery of alumnus James Fuentes ’98, who will be awarded the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters at this year’s Bard College Awards, has long championed “artists with practices outside the commercial conventions of the contemporary art market.” This curatorial focus, Fuentes says, was first furnished at Bard. “I kind of picked up this idea of curating as a profession through osmosis, studying adjacent to the Bard Center for Curatorial Studies and spending time in the library founded by Marieluise Hessel,” Fuentes says. “The program planted a seed.”
A. Sayeeda Moreno, assistant professor of Film and Electronic Arts at Bard, was honored with a one-week residency to develop her upcoming feature film, Out in the Dunes, a coming-of-age romance set in 1990s Provincetown on Cape Cod. Immersing herself in the locale, she explored Provincetown to seek enrichment for her screenplay.
Bard Film Professor A. Sayeeda Moreno Awarded Residency by Provincetown Film Institute
A. Sayeeda Moreno, assistant professor of Film and Electronic Arts at Bard, was honored with a one-week residency to develop her upcoming feature film, Out in the Dunes, a coming-of-age romance set in 1990s Provincetown on Cape Cod. Immersing herself in the locale, she explored Provincetown to seek enrichment for her screenplay. Sayeeda also showcased three of her short films, Sin Salida, Bina, and White, at the Provincetown International Film Festival followed by a Q&A session, sharing the intricacies of her creative process as a writer and director with an engaged audience. The Provincetown Film Institute Women’s Residency Program offers established women-identifying filmmakers from around the world the opportunity to work in Provincetown during the off-season alongside other artists and writers who use the solitude of the outer Cape Cod area as inspiration for their work. Residents are selected by a panel of film industry professionals and given a small travel stipend, lodging, and roundtrip travel from Boston.
Dune shack on Cape Cod where Moreno spent her residency. Photo by A. Sayeeda Moreno
A. Sayeeda Moreno is a director and screenwriter whose award-winning short films and screenplays are nourished by the mythology of the New York City metropolis where she was born, and the exhilarating cast of characters that filtered through her bohemian home. She documents and filters this World through her own body and a body of work that is character-driven, utilizing genre to illuminate our human experiences: how we survive, what is in opposition to us, what our mind grapples with, and how we love. Sayeeda is a Film Independent, Sundance Women in Finance, and Tribeca All Access Fellow and earned her MFA in Film from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts as a dean’s fellow. She is developing her feature film Out in the Dunes and has been an assistant professor in Film and Electronic Arts at Bard College since 2018.
Bard Film Professor Ephraim Asili Wins $50,000 Creative Capital Award
Ephraim Asili MFA ’11, associate professor of film and electronic arts and director of the Film and Electronic Arts Program, has won a 2024 Creative Capital Award for $50,000 to support his documentary film Eternal Rhythm. Creative Capital Awards provide artists with unrestricted project funding up to $50,000, bespoke professional development services, and community-building opportunities.
Eternal Rhythm explores the personal and artistic relationship between Don and Moki Cherry after the couple moved from New York to Moki’s native Sweden in 1970. There they began a decade-long collaboration that merged multicultural expressions of art, music, and radical living into a synergetic model for communal creativity.
Creative Capital’s “Wild Futures: Art, Culture, Impact” Awards in Visual Arts and Film/Moving Image total $2.5 million in grants to artists for the creation of 50 groundbreaking new works. Chosen from 5,600 applications, this year’s awards will fund 28 innovative visual arts projects and 22 film/moving image projects, representing 54 artists in total.
Bard Faculty Members and Alumni/ae Awarded 2023 MacDowell Fellowships
Two Bard faculty members and two alumni/ae are recipients of MacDowell Fellowships. Carl Elsaesser, visiting artist in residence at Bard College in Film and Electronic Arts, has been awarded a MacDowell Fellowship to MacDowell's Residency Program in the Film/Video Artists category for fall/winter 2023. Elsaesser’s residency will support the completion of his project, Coastlines, a feature-length film that intertwines the ethnographic intricacies of Maine’s coastline with the intimate video diaries of a Portland family, inviting a reevaluation of evolving identities and artistic representation within the private and public spheres. Drawing from queer phenomenology and traditional historical narratives, the film challenges perceptions and redefines the boundaries of storytelling, revealing Maine’s dual role as a backdrop and active participant in shaping inhabitants’ sense of self.
Daaimah Mubashshir, playwright in residence at Bard, received a MacDowell Fellowship in MacDowell’s Artist Residency Program for fall 2023 in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in support of their work on a new play about their great grandmother, Begonia Williams Tate, who defied all odds in Mobile, Alabama, in the late 19th century. Chaya Czernowin, a composer and Bard MFA ’88 in Music, and Bard alumna Hannah Beerman ’15, are also 2023 MacDowell Fellowship recipients. The MacDowell Fellowships are distributed by seven discipline-specific admissions panels who make their selections based on applicants’ vision and talent as reflected by work samples and a project description. Once at MacDowell, selected Fellows are provided a private studio, three meals a day, and accommodations for a period of up to six weeks.
The World’s UnFair: Public Exhibition by New Red Order, Cofounded by Alumni Adam Khalil ’11 and Zack Khalil ’14, Profiled in the New York Times
“Give it back.” These are the first words seen by visitors to The World’s UnFair, the newest multimedia work by New Red Order (NRO), a “public secret society” cofounded by brothers and Bard alumni Adam Khalil ’11 and Zack Khalil ’14. World’s Fairs “have historically presented a theory of progress, technological advancement, imperial advancement,” Jackson Polys, who cocreated NRO with the Khalil brothers, told the New York Times. The World’s UnFair, by contrast, subverts expectations with an animatronic beaver who speaks about private land ownership and satirical real estate ads featuring “comically small” portions of land given back to Native groups. The exhibition, curated by Bard alumna Diya Vij ’08, is meant to be provocative, asking questions about not only Native sovereignty, but also performances of Indigeneity and art’s place (or lack thereof) in the pursuit of decolonization. The World’s UnFair is on view now through October 15 in Long Island City, Queens.
Bard Alumna Stephanie Harris ’08 CCS ’13 Serves as US Diplomatic Security Service Liaison at FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand
Stephanie Harris ’08 CCS ’13 is a special agent with the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) currently serving as a liaison at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Harris is embedded with the US Women’s National Team and is responsible for ensuring the safety of players as they travel across the region to compete with teams from around the world. Along with her fellow DSS agents, she collaborates with US Soccer, FIFA, host-nation counterparts, and colleagues across the United States Government to identify and address potential threats to players and their staff.
At Bard, Harris majored in film and human rights as an undergraduate then went on to study curating at the Center for Curatorial Studies. She credits her experiences at Bard for inspiring a love of analysis and problem solving and writes: “Bard taught me to love learning and left me with an intellectual curiosity that is at the core of everything I do—whether it is art, diplomacy, or global security.” In her first year with DSS, Harris has traveled to more than 10 countries and empowers US and foreign dignitaries to conduct diplomacy safely around the world.
“America’s finest observer of ordinary grit.” Artist in Residence Kelly Reichardt Profiled in the New Yorker
Kelly Reichardt, S. William Senfeld Artist in Residence at Bard College, spoke with the New Yorker about her life and process as a filmmaker and faculty member at Bard. “Reichardt is this country’s finest observer of ordinary grit, an American neorealist to place among the likes of Robert Bresson, Yasujirō Ozu, and Vittorio De Sica,” writes Doreen St. Félix for the New Yorker. “The regard for her takes on a hero aspect. It can often feel dazed because of the deep reserve of Reichardt’s stamina, which has carried her through her singular three-decade career.” Her eighth and latest feature film Showing Up, set in Portland about a sculptor named Lizzy, is a rejoinder to the trope of the artist at work and “projects the air of an encompassing thesis, an artist’s statement” by Reichardt.
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.
Filmmaker Jon-Sesrie Goff - Screening of After Sherman followed by Q&A
Avery Art Center; Ottaway Theater in the Ottaway Film Center5:30 pm – 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Synopsis Filmmaker Jon-Sesrie Goff returns to the coastal South Carolina land that his family purchased after emancipation. His desire to explore his Gullah Geechee roots evolves into a poetic documentary weaving stories about generational wisdom, inheritance, faith, survival, and the tensions that define our collective American history, especially Black history. www.aftersherman.com
Bio Jon-Sesrie Goff is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and arts administrator. His creative practice explores the intersection of race, power, identity, gender, and the environment by unearthing the visceral representational value and authenticity behind the images propelled across varying diasporas. His body of work includes extensive institutional, community, and family archival research, visual documentation, and oral history. Jon engages with his work from the paradigm of a social change instigator. He studied sociology, economics, and theater at Morehouse College, completed his BA at The New School, along with an MFA from Duke University in experimental and documentary arts.
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Avery Art Center; Ottaway Theater in the Ottaway Film Center
Avery Room 1167:00 pm – 10:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Part of a semester-long series presenting classics of American avant-garde cinema. All films will screen on their original 16mm format unless otherwise noted.
(nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton, 1971, 36 mins) 4891 (Toney Merritt, 1970, 5 mins) I Change I Am the Same (Alice Ann Parker aka Anne Severson, 1969, 1 mins) Dufus (Mike Henderson, 1970, 8 mins) Serene Velocity (Ernie Gehr, 1970, 23 mins) Near the Big Chakra (Alice Ann Parker aka Anne Severson, 1972, 17 mins, digital)
Please note that tonight's screening will include material some might consider sexually explicit. Approximate running time 106 mins.
Thursday, December 8, 2022
Chapel of the Holy Innocents6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EST/GMT-5 PASOLINI AND THE SACRED
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) was an Italian filmmaker, poet, journalist, and public intellectual. Contradiction defined his life and work: he was a communist who rejected and was rejected by the Italian communist party, a gay man who refused to be a spokesperson for the gay community, a bourgeois intellectual who idealized the subproletariat. He was also an avowed atheist whose gaze was turned obsessively toward representations of the sacred. He sought out the sacred in lands far removed from his own—places like Yemen and Tanzania—while still hoping to find traces of it in the fast-paced world of his native Italy during the post-War economic boom. The figure of Christ was omnipresent in his works, as was the ambiguous specter of the Catholic Church. He invested in the sacred as a language, an aesthetic, a currency, a lost past, and a fading present. In this discussion, we will explore Pasolini’s complex, often contradictory views on the sacred.
Véronique Aubouy Olin Humanities, Room 1025:30 pm – 7:00 pm EST/GMT-5 In this performance, I try to summarize Proust's beloved In Search of Lost Time with my own words, as a story of another time which reveals itself contemporary.
Véronique Aubouy has directed numerous short fiction films and documentaries (Albertine a disparu, 2018; Micaëla Henich, 2017; Je suis Annemarie Schwarzenbach, 2015, among many others). Since October 1993, she has been working on Proust Lu, and films people from all walks of life as they read Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, page after page, in a large array of settings. The first six volumes have been recorded to date, for a total of 140 hours and more than 1300 readers. Since 2011, Abouy has performed various versions of “Proust in One Hour”, in French and in English, in France, Italy, the UK and the USA.
Thursday, December 1, 2022
Avery Room 1167:00 pm – 10:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Part of a semester-long series presenting classics of American avant-garde cinema. All films will screen on their original 16mm format unless otherwise noted.
--- ------- (aka Short Line Long Line or Rock and Roll Movie, Thom Andersen & Malcolm Brodwick, 1966-67, 11 mins) Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1966-7, 45 mins) Hand Tinting (Joyce Wieland, 1967, 6 mins) T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G, (Paul Sharits, 1968, 12 mins) Surface Tension (Hollis Frampton, 1968, 10 mins) Hand Catching Lead (Richard Serra, 1968, 3 mins) Runaway (Standish Lawder, 1969, 6 mins)
Please note that some films will include extensive use of strobe effects. Total running time approximately 93 mins.
Thursday, November 17, 2022
Avery Room 1167:00 pm – 10:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Part of a semester-long series presenting classics of American avant-garde cinema. All films will screen on their original 16mm format unless otherwise noted.
Remembrance: A Portrait Study (Edward Owens, 1967, 6 mins, digital) Walden (Jonas Mekas, 1968-69, 180 mins)
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Avery Room 1167:00 pm – 10:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Part of a semester-long series presenting classics of American avant-garde cinema. All films will screen on their original 16mm format unless otherwise noted.
Schmeerguntz (Gunvor Nelson & Dorothy Wiley, 1965, 15 mins) The Flicker (Tony Conrad, 1966, 30 mins) Piece Mandala / End War (Paul Sharits, 1966, 5 mins) Film in Which There Appear Edge Lettering, Sprocket Holes, Dirt Particles Etc. (George Landow aka Owen Land, 1965-66, 4 mins) Third Eye Butterfly (Storm de Hirsch, 1968, 10 mins, double projection) Additional film TBA
Please note that tonight's screening will include extensive use of strobe effects. Approximate total running time 89 mins.
Thursday, November 3, 2022
Avery Room 1167:00 pm – 10:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Part of a semester-long series presenting classics of American avant-garde cinema. All films will screen on their original 16mm format unless otherwise noted.
Rat Life and Diet in North America (Joyce Wieland, 1968, 16 mins) Invocation of My Demon Brother (Kenneth Anger, 1969, 12 mins) My Name is Oona (Gunvor Nelson, 1969, 10 mins) Experiments in Motion Graphics (John Whitney, 1968, 12 mins) Permutations (John Whitney, 1968, 8 mins) Billabong (Will Hindle, 1969, 9 mins) Blazes (Robert Breer, 1961, 3 mins) 69 (Robert Breer, 1969, 5 mins) 70 (Robert Breer, 1970, 5 mins)
Bard's first ever student film showcase with Upstate films will be held November 2 at 7:45 pm at the Starr Cinema in Rhinebeck! It's your friends films on the big silver screen—come out and support 'em! The showcase will last approximately 69 minutes. How great is that? Seating is limited, so arrive 15–20 minutes early if you can. Entry is free. Yes, free. Can't wait to see you there!
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Avery Room 1167:00 pm – 10:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Part of a semester-long series presenting classics of American avant-garde cinema. All films will screen on their original 16mm format unless otherwise noted.
Please note that tonight's screening includes sexually explicit material. Approximate total running time 110 mins.
Thursday, October 13, 2022
Avery Room 1167:00 pm – 10:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Part of a semester-long series presenting classics of American avant-garde cinema. All films will screen on their original 16mm format unless otherwise noted.
Puce Moment (Kenneth Anger, 1949, 7 mins) Kustom Kar Kommandos (Kenneth Anger, 1965, 4 mins) Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1963, 30 mins) Blow Job (Andy Warhol, 1963, 40 mins, 18 fps) Screen Tests, Reel 25 (Andy Warhol, 1964-66, 10 mins, 18 fps) #1 Beverly Grant (Hair) (1964) #2 Chuck Wein (1965) #3 Peter Hujar (1964) #4 Ed Hood (1966) #5 Ivy Nicholson (1964) #6 Jane Holzer (1964) #7 Brooke Hayward (1964) #8 Sally Dennison (1964) #9 Susanne de Maria (1964) #10 Ann Buchanan (1964)
Approximate total running time 90 mins
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Avery Room 1167:00 pm – 10:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Part of a semester-long series presenting classics of American avant-garde cinema. All films will screen on their original 16mm format unless otherwise noted.
The Last Clean Shirt (Alfred Leslie, 1964, 40 mins, digital) Meat Joy (Carolee Schneemann, 1964, 11 mins, digital scan of 8mm) Christmas on Earth (Barbara Rubin, 1963, 30 mins, double projection)
Please note that tonight's screening includes sexually explicit material. Total running time approximately 78 mins.
Thursday, September 29, 2022
Avery Room 1167:00 pm – 10:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Part of a semester-long series presenting classics of American avant-garde cinema. All films will screen on their original 16mm format unless otherwise noted.
Prelude to Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage, 1962, 25 mins) Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage, 1962, 13 mins) Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, 1963, 4 mins) Little Stabs of Happiness (Ken Jacobs, 1959-63, 15 mins) Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, 1963, 43 mins) Filmmaker’s Showcase (Francis Lee, 1963, 3 mins)
Total running time approximately 103 mins
Thursday, September 29, 2022
Film screening and discussion with director Ghassan Halawani Upstate Films, Rhinebeck4:00 pm – 6:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 “Thirty-five years ago, I witnessed the kidnapping of a man I know. He has disappeared since. Ten years ago, I caught a glimpse of his face while walking in the street, but I wasn’t sure it was him. Parts of his face were torn off, but his features had remained unchanged since the incident. Yet something was different, as if he wasn’t the same man.”
Director Ghassan Halawani takes the viewer on a forensic chase, uncovering, layer by layer, the darkest chapters of Lebanese history on walls, in documents and urban architecture.
The screening will be followed by a conversation with Sabine El Chamaa, filmmaker and a current CHRA research fellow.
The event is free and open to the public.
Copresented with the Middle Eastern Studies Program at Bard.
Avery Room 1167:00 pm – 10:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Part of a semester-long series presenting classics of American avant-garde cinema. All films will screen on their original 16mm film format unless otherwise noted.
A Movie (Bruce Conner, 1958, 12 mins, digital) Early Abstractions (Harry Smith, 1947-47, 23 mins) What Is a Man? (Sara Kathryn Arledge, 1958, 10 mins) Heaven and Earth Magic (Harry Smith, 1959-61, 66 mins)
Total running time approximately 111 minutes
Thursday, September 15, 2022
Avery Room 1167:00 pm – 10:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Part of a semester-long series presenting classics of American avant-garde cinema. All films will screen on their original 16mm film format unless otherwise noted.
Geography of the Body (Willard Maas, 1943, 7 mins) Fireworks (Kenneth Anger, 1947, 20 mins) Visual Variations on Noguchi (Marie Menken, 1945, 4 mins) Hurry! Hurry! (Marie Menken, 1957, 3 mins) The End (Christopher MacLaine, 1953, 38 mins) Eaux d’Artifice (Kenneth Anger, 1953, 15 mins) Desistfilm (Stan Brakhage, 1954, 7 mins)
Total running time approximately 94 mins
Thursday, September 8, 2022
Avery, Room 116 Avery Art Center7:00 pm – 10:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Part of a semester-long Thursday night series presenting classics of American avant-garde cinema. All films will screen on their original 16mm film format unless otherwise noted.
Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943, 18 mins) At Land (Maya Deren, 1944, 15 mins) A Study in Choreography for Camera (Maya Deren, 1945, 4 mins) Ritual in Transfigured Time (Maya Deren, 1946, 15 mins) Petrified Dog (Sidney Peterson, 1948, 19 mins) Lead Shoes (Sidney Peterson, 1949, 18 mins) The Potted Psalm (Sidney Peterson & James Broughton, 1946, 18 mins)
Total running time approximately 107 mins
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Yemane Demissie (filmmaker, NYU) Olin Humanities, Room 1026:30 pm – 8:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 The Quantum Leapers, filmmaker Yemane Demissie’s forthcoming multimedia project, focuses on the buoyant and tumultuous experiences of Ethiopians during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I. Drawing from narratives of more than 500 interviews and thousands of images unearthed from the interviewees’ collections and dozens of international archives, the project considers how the 1935-1941 Italo-Ethiopian War and Occupation compelled the country to reevaluate its age-old traditions in the face of war, fascism and modernity.
At this lecture, Yemane will present stories revolving around the airplane—long an emblem of modernity—to explore the interlinked lives of four individuals who confront, embrace or glide with the sudden and immense changes brought about by war, occupation, and liberation.
Yemane Demissie teaches narrative and documentary filmmaking in the Department of Film & TV at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Please note: Due to copyright reasons, the presentations (in particular, the images) cannot be filmed. Photographs of the images/slides also cannot be taken by audience members during the presentation.
Olin Humanities, Room 1026:30 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Based on the play Boris Godunov by Alexander Pushkin, Stage Russia’s cinematic version of Dmitry Krymov’s Boris (2019) is a metaphor about the fate of Russia, its rulers, and eternal values. Krymov is one of the world’s most renowned stage directors. His theatrical production draws tragic parallels between Pushkin’s text and the current Putin government with its fascination with the imperial past, nationalism, censorship, human rights violations, and blatant propaganda, as well as between the early 17th-century Russia and all the myths on which Russian identity now rests. A flying raven, a poet, a folk choir, saints and sinners, living and dead — all come to life in the twilight of the Provision Warehouses of the Museum of Moscow, the play’s mesmerizing setting.