Flaherty Film Seminar is revered as one of the most significant convenings around non-fiction cinema in the world. Each year filmmakers, scholars, students, curators, critics, archivists, and cinefiles gather for an immersive, week-long program of film screenings, in-depth discussions, artist talks, installations and/or performances around a theme. Unique in its rigor and scope, “the Flaherty Seminar has got to be the toughest, most valuable, most stimulating arena in which a filmmaker can present his or her work.” (William Greaves, 1991). The Flaherty occupies a unique space within the non-fiction film ecosystem, one where artists and audiences are asked to confront the core of the creative process itself – independent of both social agenda and industry trends – to explore film as a pure expression of our complex humanity, and to challenge filmmakers to push the limits of the medium itself. Through thoughtful curation, exhibition and discussion, we strive to understand the impact of the moving image on each of us as individuals as well as on the greater global society. In all our programming, we work to elevate the human experience, expand consciousness, and encourage critical thought about the world in which we live.
The Flaherty
Poster for the 67th Annual Flaherty Film Seminar, Continents of Drifting Clouds. Poster design by Caroline Monnet
Original photographic print by Flaherty of the filming Nanook of the North in Inukjuak, part of Community Archiving Workshop.
Original photographic print by Flaherty of the filming Nanook of the North in Inukjuak, part of Community Archiving Workshop.
Original photographic print by Flaherty of the filming Nanook of the North in Inukjuak, part of Community Archiving Workshop.
See Also
“The terrific range of project proposals we receive each year speaks to the mobile and porous disciplinary boundaries of contemporary art practice, and to the rich and inventive ways writers approach art today. They are alert to the urgent need to expand the conventions of art history and criticism with ideas from other discourses, such as black studies, transnational and diaspora studies, gender and women’s studies, and LGBT studies. The work of lesser known and overlooked artists and art communities continues to be mined, with writers articulating new ways to counter the striking imbalances of race, class and gender that continue to affect the arts and the culture industry.”