Flaherty Seminar
History/Guests

not a festival nor a scholarly conference, the Flaherty seminar focuses on ideas and the creative process rather than on financial or technical concerns.
participants expected to attend all screenings and discussion sessions. (unlike a film festival, the screening schedule is not announced in advance.) rationale - to encourage openness to the experience so that participants can come to the screenings without preconceptions.
gives all participants a common basis for engaging in the dialogue that builds throughout the week. sjc.
gives the programmer flexibility change schedule to accommodate the dynamics of the discussions as issues and ideas surface. cool.
sharing screenings, discussions, and meals as a single group builds a sense of community. sjc.
the profound "Flaherty experience" as past participants phrase it is not simply connected to the content of the seminars not just content - sjc (~ tstones) but to the intensity of the thinking process, which encourages both new and old work viewed ~diff eyes.

Flaherty (1884-1951) was the creator of such classic poetic films as Nanook of the North, Moana, Man of Aran, and Louisiana Story. The seminars began in 1955 before the era of film schools when Flaherty's widow, Frances, and brother, David, convened a group of filmmakers, critics, curators, musicians, and other film enthusiasts at the Flaherty farm in Vermont.
40 yrs the Flaherty Seminar a one-of-a-kind institution to encourage artists to explore further into the potential of the moving image.