NOV. 21: "Blessed Unrest: The World of Documentary Film Making" with Director Shirley Abraham

Department: Literary Journalism

Date and Time: November 21, 2019 | 5:00 PM-6:30 PM

Event Location: Humanities Instructional Building 341

Event Details


"Blessed Unrest: The World of Documentary Film Making" with Director Shirley Abraham

Thursday, November 21, 2019
5 PM
Humanities Instructional Building 341
UC Irvine School of Humanities

Free and open to the public; all welcome!  For more information or for disability accommodations, contact Patricia Pierson at piersonp@uci.edu.  Reservations are recommended but not required.

Join the Literary Journalism Program and the Humanities Center for a discussion with award-winning documentary film maker Shirley Abraham.  In this wide-ranging session, Abraham will screen the openings of two of her films -- The Hour of Lynching, supported by Pulitzer Center for Documentary Journalism -- and The Cinema Travellers, which premiered at Cannes and has won 19 awards. Both films were made in collaboration with co-director Amit Madheshiya.

In between screening the clips, Abraham will discuss documentary film making practice, looking at both sides: the art of it, and the mechanics of production and funding that is essential to putting out work.  This will be followed by a Q and A with the audience.

Special thanks to the Pulitzer Center for Documentary Journalism for their support of this event.

ABOUT SHIRLEY ABRAHAM:

Shirley Abraham is a Cannes prize-winning Indian documentary film maker. Her work is supported by the Sundance Institute, Pulitzer Center, New York Times, MacArthur Foundation, IDFA Bertha Fund, Bertha Foundation, BBC, Filmmaker Fund, Catapult Film Fund and Field of Vision. She has been a fellow of Sundance Labs, Cluster of Excellence Heidelberg, India Foundation for the Arts, and Goethe-Institut.

The Cinema Travellers is the debut feature of Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya. It premiered as an Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival 2016, to a standing ovation. It has played 125 film festivals worldwide. It is the first Indian documentary to have achieved the rare festival trifecta of Cannes, Toronto, and New York Film Festival. The film has won 19 awards, including the President’s Medal in India.

Shirley and Amit have also made Searching for Saraswati, India’s first Op-Doc for the New York Times. Their recent film, The Hour of Lynching: Vigilante Violence in India, is supported by Field of Vision, the Pulitzer Center, and The Guardian.

ABOUT THE LITERARY JOURNALISM PROGRAM:

The Literary Journalism Program is home to the Literary Journalism major and, as of 2013, the Literary Journalism minor.  The program was created to meet the needs of a growing number of students who wish to read, study and write nonfiction prose that has transcended the limits of daily journalism.  Read about our current projects, including our plans for a Storytelling Lab and Center for Storytelling here.

This browser does not support PDFs. Please download the PDF to view it: Download Abraham Flyer.