This semester I taught a
Continuing Education course at MassArt modeled after the second semester of an intro film course I taught twice at Harvard. It's called "Group Documentary," and (as you might guess) involves all of the students collaborating on one film. By working together, students are able to learn from each other and to create a more ambitious project than they could individually. And it's a great opportunity to learn about collaboration in one of the most collaborative of art forms.
My class had only three students, which made it quite a heavy workload for them. They chose a compelling subject (though one which - by total coincidence - was for me uncomfortably similar to that of my last feature doc,
Monkey Dance): the Gund Kwok Asian Women Lion and Dragon Dance Troupe based in Boston's Chinatown. They chose to focus on three dancers. What emerges is an interesting story about how this traditionally male dance form helps its members balance work, motherhood, and their own passions.
Please join us for our class screening on Thursday, December 17 at 7pm in Film Screening Room 1 at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, 621 Huntington Ave., Boston. Refreshments will be served.
I was in San Francisco recently and attended the celebration weekend for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's 75th Anniversary show. Wow. Seems like every major artist working in America in the last hundred years is on display, with multiple pieces. And they had 75 artists, critics, and curators giving 7.5-minute talks about specific works of art throughout the museum. Artist Tony Labat (above) spoke about Howard Fried's super-8 film installation (presented in video) Inside the Harlequin: Approach-Avoidance III and II. An interesting piece in which one actor has the ability to cross the frame divide, and the other does not...
