FLEFF and the Park Center for Independent Media Present an online exhibition of Place-Based Documentary and Experimental Media
ITHACA, NEW YORK, March 23, 2020–As its 23rd annual edition migrates to virtual spaces to respect public health guidelines to contain Covid-19, the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) presents “Infiltrations: A Different Media Environment,” an online media exhibition.
This newly-launched, rapid-response exhibition of place-based, participatory documentary and experimental media underscores the galvanizing power of the international independent media scene during this unprecedented global public health emergency. It is a co-production between FLEFF and the Park Center for Independent Media.
The exhibition can be accessed on the FLEFF website at www.ithaca.edu/fleff/differentenvironment/
“International independent documentary, experimental work, and new platforms hold the potential to stop the spread of panic. Our FLEFF motto “A Different Environment” has accrued new significance. And so has our 2020 festival theme, INFILTRATIONS.,” said Patricia Zimmermann, FLEFF codirector
The exhibition features eight different independent media groups from the Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, and the US with mostly short analog community-produced, participatory, micro-local, modestly-resourced videos.
These works confront urgent unresolved environmental, health, and political issues. These on-the-ground reports from the frontlines bypass mainstream media narratives by insisting people, places, and new ways of seeing and infiltrating the world matter.
Exhibition featured groups and projects include:
- 1Point3Acres.com (US/China/UK) with their Coronavirus Dashboard
- Cinema Politica’s (Montreal)“Indigenous Led Blockades in Canada Video Playlist
- dGenerate Films (US/China) with free one-month access to Chinese independent films
- EngageMedia (Indonesia/Australia) with works on the pandemic, migrants, and Papua
- Insights International “Infiltrating Work” videos on people with disabilities in the workplace
- Labor Beat (Chicago) chronicling workers’ struggles
- Scribe Video Center (Philadelphia) with participatory community media from people in neighborhoods
- Wenhua Shi (US/China) experimental media exploring the interstices between east/west art practices
- Launched in 1997 as an outreach project from Cornell University’s Center for the Environment, the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival was moved permanently to Ithaca College in 2005. It is housed in the Office of the Provost as a program to link intellectual inquiry and debate to larger global issues.
For more information, contact Patricia Zimmermann at patty@ithaca.edu