Flaherty x Boulder
MDF 2020

The Unwriting of Disaster

Flaherty x Boulder at MDF 2020

Curated by Devon Narine-Singh, Suneil Sanzgiri, and Alia Ayman

For the first ever retrospective of films screened across the 66-year history of the Flaherty Seminar, this online program brings together films that work in opposition to the spectacularization of tragedy. 

To write the disaster, to document the catastrophic, to bear witness to the unbearable event all seem to have become default impulses in times of crises.  Luckily, this fervor to record has not remained unchallenged. Image-makers from all over the world continue to create works that overhaul the free-floating belief in the merits of visibility, archiving and inscription, thereby favoring the poetic to the sensational. This retrospective of previous films screened at the Flaherty Seminar looks to how these artists and filmmakers have responded to the explosive, destructive and inescapable forces of their times.

About Flaherty x Boulder

The Center for Documentary and Ethnographic Media at the University of Colorado Boulder, host of the Mimesis Documentary Festival, has partnered with the Flaherty media arts organization to create Flaherty x Boulder, a new series showcasing important works of historical and contemporary documentary media art.

Flaherty x Boulder operates year-round, with its premier event at the annual Mimesis Documentary Festival. Inspired by the famed Flaherty Seminar, FxB programs are thoughtfully curated to foster deep conversations and provide interactive experiences for artists, scholars, and audiences.

About Flaherty

Flaherty is a media arts organization that brings together diverse, curious minds to foster an in-depth discourse on film and the creative process. Flaherty is dedicated to the proposition that independent media can illuminate the human spirit. Its mission is to foster exploration, dialogue, and introspection about the art and craft of all forms of the moving image.