Loading Events
  • This event has passed.

Feb 23, 2017 at 7:30 pm

Terra Femme: Early Travelogues by Women

Discussion following the presentation with Courtney Stephens and Mathilde Walker-Billaud

Filmmaker Courtney Stephens presents a selection of 16mm “home travelogues”: amateur films shot by Americans abroad in the 1920s-40s, with a focus on footage by women. These films, intended to be screened for the friends and family of their makers, occupy a space between home movie and accidental ethnography, and reveal the Western gaze at a time of transition. They present a new type of traveler, no longer a (generally male) seeker of conquests or literary renown. The new traveler might be a divorcee on a tour of biblical gardens or a widow on a chartered cruise to the North Pole.

Through these early female filmmaker’s eyes, we get a glimpse of a newly mobile type of woman, conveying her point of view by how and where she looks; and by looking through others back at herself. These optical autobiographies are as gorgeous as they are challenging, raising questions not only about the travelers’ gaze and the politics of images at a distance; as they represent some of the earliest images of foreign lands to enter the American living room.

This program will feature selected footage from the Harvard Film ArchiveUniversity of Pennsylvania’s Film Archive, and The Academy Film Archive, along with commentary and short readings. The presentation will be followed by discussion with Courtney Stephens and Curator Mathilde Walker-Billaud.

Program

A collection of amateur films shot by American women abroad in the 1920s-40s

60 min

14642070_10154597054206624_5727413878000249771_n

Courtney Stephens is a filmmaker and writer based in Los Angeles.  Her films have screened internationally, most recently in the 2016 Flaherty NYC series. She attended the American Film Institute, and is the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to India.  She has lectured on subjects related to film and geography at the Royal Geographical Society, the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Princeton University and elsewhere, and is completing a feature length film essay on the subject of female travel.  She co-programs Veggie Cloud, an ongoing film and lecture series in Los Angeles.

+ Get Tickets

Tickets

The numbers below include tickets for this event already in your cart. Clicking "Get Tickets" will allow you to edit any existing attendee information as well as change ticket quantities.
Tickets are no longer available

Details

Date
Feb 23, 2017
Time
7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Cost
Free – $10.00
Program:
,

Address

352 Onderdonk Avenue
Ridgewood, NY 11385 United States
+ Google Map

Support UnionDocs’ next phase and new building by becoming a member

Peek in the window of our bustling building in NYC and tune into the ideas and energy bubbling up from the UNDO Center.

Tune into cutting-edge, powerful and poetic documentary programs and connect to conversations with the artists and thinkers passing through.

Now available at the Apple Store.

MONTHLY

 

Unlimited access to all of our monthly offerings for the price of two espressos.

ANNUALLY

 

Keep it simple and save. Unlimited access to our sweet offerings for a reduced, annual fee and receive some added benefits.

LOCAL, ARTIST, STUDENT OR SENIOR

 

In the neighborhood, a working artist, student or senior? This membership is for you. Fill out a quick form for a discount code to an annual membership.

ANNUAL EDITIONS MEMBERSHIP

 

Get all of the benefits of the Annual UNDO Membership plus an annual subscription to UnionDocs Editions, a set of publications, merchandise or special objects.

UnionDocs is grateful for support from:

We have two new limited editions out now that have grown out of our UNDO FELLOWSHIP

FORMS OF ERRANTRY delves into the mesmerizing and haunting films of Miryam Charles and is edited by Lakshmi Padmanabhan. GEOLOGIC LISTENING centers the monumental and expansive work of filmmaker Deborah Stratman and is edited by Sukhdev Sandhu.

Summer Documentary Labs

Join a select group of emerging filmmakers to think through every aspect of your work-in-progress in this tightly structured program.