69th Flaherty Film Seminar
June 27–July 2
Thai Film Archive, Salaya, Thailand

The Flaherty’s mission is to bring Socratic dialogue to the moving image, fostering collective inquiry, exchange, and introspection.

Propelled by a desire to upend entrenched norms and unequal power dynamics, we champion new models of nonfiction filmmaking, curating, and theorizing.

We cultivate an ever-expanding community of filmmakers, scholars, curators, and cinephiles around a shared belief in the transformative, world-building power of independent non-fiction cinema. 

Recent Flaherty Film Seminars

2024 | #69 To Commune programmed by May Adadol Ingawanij & Julian Akira Ross
2023 | #68 Queer World-Mending programmed by Jon Davies & Steve Reinke
2022 | #67 Continents of Drifting Clouds by Almudena Escobar-López & Sky Hopinka
2021 | #66 Opacity programmed by Janaína Oliveira

Our annual 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 cinephiles 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.

FNYC (Flaherty NYC)

Since 2008, The Flaherty’s year-round programming has included FNYC, an established film screening and discussion series held each spring and fall in New York City.  The series uses film to challenge the way we see the world and to foster critical dialogue about politics, art, and the moving image. FNYC is an opportunity for emerging curators to work with established mentors and engage with The Flaherty’s unique interactive programming model, exhibiting rarely-seen films. The format seeks to break down traditional barriers between creators, scholars, critics, and the general public, fostering an expanded community around the creative process and facilitating in-depth discussions between some of the world’s finest filmmakers and diverse New York audiences.

Fall 2023 | MAKA: Many Eyed Vessel
Fall 2022 | let’s all be lichen
Spring 2022 | Opacity Spirals
Fall 2021 | Transformation and Renewal

History

Robert Flaherty | Our organization is named after Robert Flaherty (1884-1951), considered by many to be the father of the American documentary. Flaherty's seminal film, the 1922 Nanook of the North, is a work that history has recognized as the first documentary film, a cornerstone of ethnographic cinema, a modern art masterpiece, a racist fantasy, and an indefensible work of indigenous appropriation. He was also the creator of such classic poetic films as Moana, Man of Aran, and Louisiana Story. The Seminar began in 1954, when Flaherty's widow, Frances, convened a group of filmmakers, critics, curators, musicians, and other film enthusiasts at the Flaherty farm in Vermont.

Legacy | For almost seven decades, the Flaherty Film Seminar has been firmly established as a one-of-a-kind institution that seeks to encourage filmmakers and other artists to explore the potential of the moving image. The films of such directors as John Akomfrah, John Cassavetes, Shirley Clarke, Pedro Costa, Harun Farocki, Coco Fusco, William Greaves, Mona Hatoum, Sky Hopinka, Arthur Jafa, Isaac Julien, Barbara Kopple, Alanis Obomsawin, Yasujiro Ozu, Satyajit Ray, Jean Rouch, Agnès Varda, Bill Viola, and Frederick Wiseman (to name but a few!), were shown at the Seminar before they were known generally in the wider North American film community. New cinematic techniques and approaches first presented at the Seminar have routinely made their way into mainstream film.

For a list of all films shown at past seminars, see here.

Code of Conduct

The Flaherty Film Seminar provides a safe and open forum for an international community of filmmakers, participants, and audience members. The Flaherty is committed to encouraging a robust conversation, and ensuring a positive experience for all, free of harassment, discrimination, sexism, and threatening or disrespectful language or behavior regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, or religion. The Flaherty reserves the right to condemn such behavior and revoke access, without notice or refund, to seminar events and venues for those who engage in such conduct. We expect all seminar staff, contractors, event volunteers, and attendees to cooperate with this code of conduct. Anyone who witnesses behavior that is in opposition to this code of conduct should immediately notify a seminar staff member or email info@theflaherty.org.