Can we generate a public space for a better conversation around documentary film?
ARTISTIC DIFFERENCES, co-curated with programmer Cíntia Gil, is a monthly sequence of interlocking events— online film programs and study groups, along with physical screenings and public dialogues— bringing a diverse, international audience on a journey to many places and new contexts, welcoming many different films, voices, ideas and visions. Along the way, it makes room for brave questions and candid responses to challenging documentary art, and invites the voices of the audience to the stage of a public dialogue after taking time to think together.
This drifting cineclub is an experiment in building an inclusive international community in partnership with some of the most exciting documentary events and spaces around the world. We screen singular films that open questions about the possibility of collective transformation, about forms and practices of togetherness, and speak to filmmakers and authors that bring those notions into the core of their own artistic interrogations.
It’s all about spiraling together, being generous with our differences, and finding a shared focus, through reading, listening and responding in small, self-organized groups that together form a larger collective experience that can exist both in the World Wide Web and in the embracing darkness of a nearby cinema.
Join us!
Besim Sahatçiu’s 117 (1976) part of August ’22 UNDO Study Group with DokuFest
Presented with
William Greaves’ In the Company of Men (1969) part of August ’22 UNDO Study Group with Open City Docs
Past Events
Under A Roof, Partnership with DokuFest
Featuring films—
117 by Besim Sahatçiu
O Movimento das Coisas (The Movement of Things) by Manuela Serra
Conversation with Boris Buden, Manuela Serra & Cíntia Gil
It has to Feel Real, Partnership with Open City Documentary Festival
Featuring films—
Special Features by James N Kienitz Wilkins
Tester by James N Kienitz Wilkins
In the Company of Men by William Greaves
Conversation with James N. Kienitz Wilkins & Morgan Quaintance and Cíntia Gil
Making A Face & A Fist, Partnership with DocLisboa & FICValdivia
Featuring films—
Cosas de Mujeres by Rosa Martha Fernández
Y si eres Mujer… by Guadalupe Sánchez
Vicios en la Cocina by Beatriz Mira
No es Por Gusto by Maricarmen de Lara & María Eugenia Tamés
Conversation with Karina Solórzano & Cíntia Gil
Means of Ordinary Disruption, partnership with Taiwan International Documentary Festival.
Featuring films—
Dry Ground Burning by Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós
Temporary 臨時工 by HSU Hui-ju
Conversation with Joana Pimenta, Adirley Queirós, HSU Hui-ju, Christopher Allen, Jenny Miller, Cíntia Gil & Wood Lin.
Ghosts of a Damned Earth, Partnership with Berlin Critic’s Week (Woche Der Kritik)
Featuring films—
La Formula Secreta by Rubén Gámez
The White Death of the Black Wizard (A Morte Branca Do Feiticeiro Negro) by Rodrigo Ribeiro-Andrade
Lavra Dor by Ana Carolina and Paulo Rufino
O Tigre e a Gazela by Aloysio Raulino
Conversation with Victor Guimarães & Cíntia Gil
Haunting Archive, Partnership with Looiersgracht 60
Featuring films—
Like The Glitch of a Ghost (2023) by
Paula Albuquerque
Recollection (2015) by Kamal Aljafari
BODY OF THE BODY, BODY OF THE MIND, Partnership with Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (International Short Film Festival Oberhausen)
Featuring films—
The House of Science: A Museum of False Facts by Lynne Sachs
Drawn and Quartered by Lynne Sachs
Maya at 24 by Lynne Sachs
A Biography of Lilith by Lynne Sachs
Violently Honest, partnership with FICG (Guadalajara International Film Festival) & Seminario El Publico del Futuro with FICUNAM
Featuring films—
Les Ludiones by Anne Claire Poirier
A Scream From Silence by Anne Claire Poirier Les Filles du Roy by Anne Claire Poirier
Let Me Go by Anne Claire Poirier
Series Title, Partnership with Name of Partner
Featuring films—
Film 1 by Filmmaker
Film 2 by Filmmaker
Film 3 by Filmmaker
Conversation with Filmmaker & Cíntia Gil
How it Works
Watch
View films and access readings on our MEMBERSHIP SITE, in the cinema with our partner that month or if you are nearby on-site at UnionDocs.
Study
If you are joining the Study Group, you’ll receive extra resources and context to help stoke new ideas and understandings
After watching and reviewing, we’ll gather together ONLINE with the Study Group to share epiphanies, exchange knowledge, debate and contribute together to form a collective video essay. The group as a whole is invited to add their voices and perspectives to the public dialogue.
Listen
We’ll bring your ideas from the Study Group back to the invited artists and writers for a conversation that foregrounds your inquiries from the larger collective to explore these topics as a community.
What is a study group?
It’s a kind of grassroots book club, but for documentary art, focused on sharing ideas, urgent issues, and inventive approaches. We’ll stream cutting edge, powerful and poetic features and shorts, pulling out trenchant examples from deep in the archive or resonant works from recent years. It’s all about sparking discussion and deeper investigation, through reading, listening and responding in small, self-organized groups that together form a larger collective experience.
Co-Programmer, Cíntia Gil
Born in Portugal, Cíntia Gil is a film programmer. She studied at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema (Lisbon Theatre and Film School) and holds a degree in Philosophy from the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto (Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Porto), where she has also taught seminars on aesthetics. She directed DocLisboa Film Festival from 2012-2019 and Sheffield Doc Fest from 2019-2021.
UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art
UnionDocs is a Center for Documentary Art that presents, produces, publishes, and educates. We lead a diverse community on a search for urgent expressions of the human experience, practical perspectives on the world today, and compelling visions for the future.
FAQs
Everything can be accessed online! But if you are nearby we encourage you to attend screenings IRL on the ground with our partners, with many programs also available live at UnionDocs.
Memberships have a 30 day trial so your first time participating is totally free. If you enjoy your experience, we ask you to pay $7/month for these programs next time in addition to the other perks and work available to UNDO members. It’s a pretty great deal!
We all know how the work that challenges us most is sometimes the most difficult to watch on your own; that was pretty much the impetus for starting our little cinema. Not only is it hard to locate physically, the motivation and mental energy required to watch can be tough to muster without a shared commitment of attention. That’s why we are organizing this social way of watching together with lots of resources to help us approach the relevant questions and meaningful insights that these films have to offer.
