FACT OR FICTION? FACT AND FICTION?
Film Class: Investigating Documentary Practices
Kites Nest and Basilica Hudson Film and Media program co-present a documentary film workshop for teens. The workshop is lead by Basilica Hudson Film and Media Curator Aily Nash. The class description and registration info are below:
Class Description
“All great fiction films tend towards documentary, just as all great documentaries tend toward fiction.” – Jean-Luc Godard
Is there a distinction between reality and fiction? How do we define those boundaries and what are the responsibilities of filmmakers and viewers to reality? How do we make sense of the overwhelming amount of images and stories that we’re exposed to? And what is the relationship between our personal politics of representation and what we encounter in films? In a film culture that conditions us to think of fiction and documentary as distinct forms, what tools can we develop to read works that complicate our definitions of genre?
Exploring experimental documentary and narrative forms, in this workshop we will expand our idea of the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction cinema. We’ll watch films that give a broad historical overview of the evolution of the essay film and documentaries, spanning from early cinema to today. The selection will be international in scope, and touch on ethnographic filmmaking, social documentary, feminist perspectives, and non-western storytelling approaches. The workshop will be seminar-style, and based around weekly film screenings and a discussion group. (This is not a production workshop.) Some appearances by special guest experts and filmmakers.
The course will include films by Jean-Luc Godard, Agnes Varda, Chantal Akerman, Chris Marker, Joshua Oppenheimer, Sensory Ethnography Lab, Abbas Kiarostami, Kidlat Tahimik, Jean Rouch, Robert Flaherty, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Andy Warhol and others.
About the instructor, Aily Nash
Aily Nash is a curator based in Hudson and Brooklyn, New York. She is a curator of Projections, the New York Film Festival’s artists’ film and video section, and has curated programs and exhibitions for MoMA PS1 (NYC), FACT (Liverpool), BAM/Brooklyn Academy of Music (NYC), Anthology Film Archives (NYC), Northwest Film Center (Portland), Image Forum (Tokyo), and others. Her writing has appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, Artforum.com, Film Comment, de Filmkrant and elsewhere. Speaking engagements include Centre Pompidou (Paris), Harvard University, Cornell University, The New School, Universität der Künste (Berlin). She has served on the jury at Media City Film Festival and on the FIPRESCI Jury at Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen. Nash is the Film/Media curator at Basilica Hudson, is co-editor of a film criticism program at the Berlinale Film Festival, and has taught at Parsons and Bruce High Quality Foundation University in New York.
Schedule + Registration Info
Screening Dates: Tuesdays 7 – 8:30pm, April 7 – May 26
Seminar Dates: Wednesdays 4 – 7pm, April 8 – June 9
To register, go to http://kitesnest.org/fact-fiction
Image Credit: Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, William Greaves, 1968 (still)
2014 IN FOOD, COMMUNITY + EDUCATION
Season Four: Year in Review
John Waters popped our fundraiser cherry! October 18th, 2014, marked our first, major annual fundraiser event. Inspired and lead by our daring guest of honor John Waters, who offered gracious support of Basilica and the AIDS Council of Northeastern New York. Photo above of the simply stellar turnout with special guests Amanda Palmer, Jemima Kirke, Sarah Sophie Flicker, Jennifer Venditti, Jesse Peretz, Natasha Lyonne, Fred Armisen, and the man himself – you don’t want to miss next year! (more…)
DURABLE LIVING IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Award-winning biologist, Dr. Guy Mcpherson to discuss climate change ,energy decline and designing community resilience.
EDUCATIONAL LECTURE
FRIDAY, MAY 17 | 7 PM | $5-10 suggested donation
PUBLIC WORKSHOP hosted by Kite’s Nest
SATURDAY, MAY 18 | 12 PM | $5-10 suggested donation
The American Empire has been fueled by fossils: our current mainstream food, housing, energy and economic systems rely on the plentiful availability of cheap oil. What happens when a system consumes resources at a faster rate than can be replenished? Collapse, evolution, or both.
For nearly two decades petroleum geologists and energy-literate economists have been predicting the collapse of the global economic system, based on the growing cost of oil extraction: tar sands, deep water drilling, and fracking are far more difficult, expensive, and risky than rapidly depleting crude. Climate change, largely the result of attempting to generate an infinite-growth economy on a planet with finite resources, threatens the continued mass extinction of plants, animals, and possibly the human species.
The Basilica Hudson is built on a land-fill in the Hudson River Bay. We are aware of these on-going climate and environmental issues and are concerned about the effect on the Hudson Valley. We are grateful to have the opportunity to speak with Dr. McPherson about this, and get his perspective on our own region. Basilica Hudson is proud to launch its Educational Lecture Series with Dr. Guy McPherson, Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources and the Environment from the University of Arizona. Dr. McPherson will be the Basilica Hudson’s first public lecture for the 2013 series.
Dr. McPherson and his family live in an off-grid, straw-bale home, cultivating organic gardens, an appreciation for diversity, and a thriving gift economy within the rural desert Southwest. His most recent book Walking Away From Empire chronicles McPherson’s journey from academia to his pursuit of durable living, as portrayed by documentary filmmaker Mike Sosebee’s film: Somewhere in New Mexico at the End of Time. Dr. McPherson will be delivering a series of presentations in New York and Pennsylvania May 17th – May 26th 2013.
On Friday, May 17th, McPherson will share clips from the new Documentary, Somewhere in New Mexico at the End of Time, his presentation on Global climate change, energy decline and durable living will be followed by a wide-ranging discussion. The event begins at 7:00 p.m.
On Saturday, May 18th, Dr. McPherson will present a workshop for adults and kids hosted by Kite’s Nest. The workshop will focus on ways we can protect and preserve our natural environment, followed by a walk along the waterfront and explorations of the South Bay. The event begins at Noon at Kite’s Nest, 108 South Front st, Hudson, NY 12534 (the annex to Basilica’s main building).
Both events are open to the public with a suggested donation of $5-$10 to help defray Dr. McPhereson’s travel expenses. This event is sponsored by Basilica Hudson and Kite’s Nest.
For More Information, Please visit Guy’s Websites:
Nature Bats Last, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter
+++ PRE-LECTURE FRIDAY FISH FRY
(hosted by the Hudson Sloop Club)
FRIDAY, MAY 17 | 5-7 PM | *bring a dish if you’d like!