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CAMRA FILM SCREENINGS CALENDAR
 
 
September 29th
Nanook of the North (1922) (72 minutes)

 

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. This is one of the most formative films of the documentary genre.
Dir: Robert J. Flaherty
 
 
October 6th
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016) (90 minutes)
 

This drifting, at times dreamy documentary follows the tentacles of the confinement industry to stories that hide in plain sight.
Dir: Brett Story
 
 
October 13th 
Tokyo Waka (2012) (62 minutes)

 
The portrait of a city: ancient yet constantly remaking itself. A poem in images: stillness, patterns, urban motion. And in words: a tofu seller, a homeless woman, a Buddhist priest, contemplating nature, the metabolism of their city, mortality. And 20,000 crows, unruly avatars of the natural world, sardonically observing it all.
Dir: John Haptas, Kristine Samuelson.
 
 
October 20th
KANOPY: Chronicle of a Summer (1961) (91 minutes)

 

Simply by interviewing a group of Paris residents in the summer of 1960--beginning with the provocative and eternal question "Are you happy?" and expanding to political issues, including the ongoing Algerian War--Rouch and Morin reveal the hopes and dreams of a wide array of people, from artists to factory workers, from an Italian emigre to an African student. "Chronicle of a Summer"'s penetrative approach gives us a document of a time and place with extraordinary emotional depth.
Dir: Jean Rouch
 
 
October 27th
FILM: Rouch in Reverse, Manthia Diawara, Dir., 1995 (52 minutes)

 
Manthia Diawara critiques the work of filmmaker Jean Rouch, a French filmmaker and anthropologist. 
 
 
November 3rd
KANOPY: Forest of Bliss (1986) (90 minutes)

Forest of Bliss is an unsparing yet redemptive account of the inevitable griefs, religious passions and frequent happinesses that punctuate daily life in Benares, India's most holy city. The film unfolds from one sunrise to the next without commentary, subtitles or dialogue. It is an attempt to give the viewer a wholly authentic, though greatly magnified and concentrated, sense of participation in the experiences examined by the film.
Dir: Robert Gardner
 
 
November 10th
Workshop
 
November 17th
Workshop
 

 
November 24th – NO FILM (Thanksgiving Break)
 

 
 December 1st
El Velador (72 minutes) (2011)

 
Martin, the night watchman, arrives with the setting sun in his rumbling blue Chevrolet. The cemetery mascots, EI Negro y La Negra, chase his truck down the road and greet him with wagging tails. The sound of construction fades away as the daytime workers leave and Martin is left alone, looking out over the skyline of mausoleums where Mexico's most notorious drug lords lie at rest. Crosses and steel construction bars pierce the purple and pink sky. As night descends luxurious cars fill the dirt roads. Mercedes, a sexy young widow, arrives with her little girl in a pristine white Audi. A portrait of her husband, a corrupt policeman holding a machine gun, watches over them as they sweep and mop the shiny marble floors. The coconut vendor's radio blasts a gory list of the day's murders: "Culiacán has become a war zone." The buzz of cicadas fills the air with anticipation. Through Martin's vigilant eyes we watch time pass in this place where time stands still.
Dir: Natalia Almada 
 
 
December 8th
KANOPY: Waste Land, Lucy Walker, Karen Harley, and João Jardim, Dirs., 2010 (99mins)

 
Located just outside Rio de Janeiro, Jardim Gramacho, Brazil, is the world's largest garbage landfill. Modern artist Vik Muniz works with the so-called catadores, the men and women who pick through the refuse, to create art out of recycled materials. Muniz selects six of the garbage pickers to pose as subjects in a series of photographs mimicking famous paintings. In his desire to assist the catadores and change their lives, Muniz finds himself changed as well.
 

Download Documentary Series Brochure 

  • Projects
    • Past CAMRA Projects
  • People
    • FACULTY/ALUMNI
    • CAMRA MEMBERS IN THE NEWS
  • CAMRA Fellows
  • Media Festival
    • SSMF 2023 SUBMISSION CALL
    • Past SSMFs >
      • SSMF 2022
      • SSMF 2021
      • SSMF 2019 >
        • Program
        • KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
      • Ethnofest 2018
      • SSMF 2017
      • SSMF 2016
      • SSMF 2015
      • SSMF 2014
      • SSMF 2013
  • Initiatives
    • COVID-19 RESOURCES
    • COURSES >
      • Past Courses >
        • Film Sound
        • Social Change through Participatory Filmmaking
        • Seminar in Visual Ethnography (2014)
        • Representing Philadelphia High Schools
        • Urban Ethnography: Documenting City Life
        • Globalization and the City
        • The City in South Asia
        • Communication and Culture
        • Seminar in Visual Ethnography (2013)
        • Documentary, Ethnography, & Research
  • Contact
  • CAMRA 2022-23