Nov 8, 2024 at 10:00 am – Nov 10, 2024 at 5:00 pm
From Clue to Chronicle: The Art of the Forensic Documentary
With Lynne Sachs, Miryam Charles, Jennifer Reeves & A.S.M Kobayashi
Join us for an intensive workshop led by renowed filmmaker Lynne Sachs, where we will explore how one of the most challenging yet enthralling aspects of the documentary process can be the investigative nature of the practice.
In this workshop Lynne Sachs will take us on her own journey through the making of her soon-to-be-completed essay film “Every Contact Leaves a Trace”. By laying bare her own revelations and disappointments, she will help us to navigate how the “search” in and of itself can be as interesting as the discovery. While celebrating the shared sensibility of the documentary maker and the detective, Sachs will ask us to expand our understanding of forensics, evidence, and proof within the parameters of her own artistic practice.
On Friday, interdisciplinary artist A.S.M. Kobayashi (Say Something Bunny!) will share her approach to incorporating forensics into performative work, focusing on how research can function as a form of proof and artistic expression. On Saturday, Jennifer Reeves (The Time We Killed, When It Was Blue) will discuss the psychological dimensions of her filmmaking process, shedding light on how she navigates the inner lives of her subjects while investigating deeper themes of introspection. On Sunday, director, producer and cinematographer Miryam Charles (Cette maison) will explore how filmmakers can refract aspects of reality, offering innovative ways to think about representation and storytelling.
Over the course of the workshop, we will engage in discussions about hybrid approaches to depicting reality, experiment with techniques that challenge conventional expectations of documentary, and reflect on the role of performance in the creative process. Whether you are just beginning a project or are already in the midst of production, this workshop provides a space to investigate your own work through new and creative methods.
The workshop is open to filmmakers, media artists, scholars, and creatives at any stage of their projects. It will offer practical tools, fresh ideas, and a supportive environment for those eager to explore the investigative aspects of documentary filmmaking.
Seats are limited, so be sure to sign up soon. Please note that this workshop requires in-person participation, and all attendees must present proof of vaccination. For any questions, feel free to reach out to [email protected].
Details
Open to everyone, though the workshop setting is best suited for filmmakers, film producers, journalists, curators and media artists.
Give us an idea of who you are and why you are coming. When you register you will be asked for a short statement of interest that should briefly describe your experience and a film project (it would be great if you have a project in progress that you would present to the group during the work-in-progress critique sessions), plus a bio. There’s a spot for a link to a work sample (and CV, which would also be nice, but is not required).
$350 early bird registration ends on November 1st, 2025.
$400 regular registration.
The deposit is non-refundable. Should you need to cancel, you’ll receive half of your registration fee back until November 1st. After November 1st, the fee is non-refundable.
In order to keep costs down, this workshop is a BYOL, i.e. bring your own laptop. Students must be fully proficient using and operating their computers.
To register for a workshop, students must pay in full via card, check, or cash . After the early bird registration deadline of November 1st, course fees are not refundable or transferable and any withdrawals or deadlines will result in the full cost of the class being forfeit. There will be no exceptions. To withdraw from a course please email info-at-uniondocs.org.
In the event that a workshop does not receive sufficient enrollment, it may be canceled. Students will be notified at least 48 hours prior to the start of a cancelled workshop and will be refunded within 5 business days. If we reschedule a workshop to another date, students are also entitled to a full refund. UnionDocs reserves the right to change instructors without prior notification, and to change class location and meeting times by up to an hour with 48 hours prior notice.
Please note: Participants are accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Schedule
Friday, Nov 8
10:00am – 10:30am Welcome & intros
(1’ video exercise screening)
10:30am – 12:30pm Intro session with lead instructor
12:30am – 2:00pm Lunch
2:00pm – 4:00pm Session with ASM Kobayashi
4:00pm – 4:30pm Wrap Up Discussion with LEAD additional exercises / discussion
Saturday, Nov 9
10:00am – 10:30am Warm up, inspiring references, case studies
10:30am – 12:30pm Work-in-progress with lead instructor
12:30am – 2:00pm Lunch
2:00pm – 4:00pm Session with Jennifer Reeves
4:00pm – 4:30pm Wrap Up Discussion with LEAD, additional exercises / discussion
Sunday, Nov 10
10:00am – 10:30am Warm up, inspiring references, case study, eye training.
10:30am – 12:30pm Deep dive into Lynne’s current work-in-process Every Contact Leaves a Trace
12:30am – 2:00pm Lunch
2:00pm – 4:00pm Session with Miryam Charles
4:00pm – 4:30pm Wrap Up Discussion with LEAD, additional exercises / discussion
Each day follows this general structure, with some minor variations and substitutions:
Warm up, inspiring references, case study, eye training.
Presentation by guest speaker + individual work-in-progress critique
Share / Discussion / Exercise
Presentation by guest speaker + individual work-in-progress critique
Workshop Exercise + Critique
Lynne Sachs is a filmmaker and poet living in Brooklyn. She has produced over 50 films as well as numerous live performances, installations and web projects. Sachs creates cinematic works that defy genre through the use of hybrid forms and cross-disciplinary collaboration, incorporating elements of the essay film, collage, performance, documentary and poetry. Her films explore the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences. With each project, Lynne investigates the implicit connection between the body, the camera, and the materiality of film itself. Lynne discovered her love of filmmaking while living and studying in San Francisco. During this time, she produced her early, experimental works on celluloid which took a feminist approach to the creation of images and writing— a commitment which has grounded her body of work ever since. Sachs’s films have screened at MoMA, Wexner Center for the Arts, New York Film Festival, Sundance, Punto de Vista, and DocLisboa. Retrospectives of her work have been presented at MoMI, Ambulante, Sheffield Doc/Fest, BAFICI, Cork, Costa Rica Int’l Film Fest, Cámara Lúcida, and China Women’s Film Festival. In 2021, Edison and Prismatic Ground Film Festivals honored her body of work in the experimental and documentary fields. Tender Buttons Press published Lynne’s book Year by Year Poems (2019) and Punctum Books will publish her book Hand Book: A Manual on Performance, Process and the Labor of Laundry (2025) written by Sachs and playwright Lizzie Olesker.
Miryam Charles is a Canadian director, producer and cinematographer of Haitian origin. Her shorts films have been showcased in various festivals worldwide. In 2022, her first feature film, Cette maison, was premiered at the Berlinale also screened at the AFI, IndieLisboa, Viennale, Art of the Real, TIFF Top 10 and was named one of the best films of the year by Sight and Sound. The same year, she premiered the short film Au crépuscule at the Locarno Film Festival. She is currently working on her next feature, Le Marabout.
Jennifer Reeves has made 25+ film-works since 1990; from avant-garde shorts to expanded cinema performances and experimental features. Reeves’ work has shown extensively from the Berlin, Toronto, and Hong Kong Film Festivals to the Museum of Modern Art, universities, and microcinemas worldwide. Reeves’ acclaimed visceral and personal works immerse viewers in intricate, unfamiliar cinematic territory. Her work elucidates themes of mental health, feminism and sexuality and the natural world. Reeves’ latest film PIGMENT-DISPERSION SYNDROME is making the festival rounds since the world premiere at Curtas Vila do Conde International Film Festival in July 2022. The film recently received a Director’s Choice award from The Thomas Edison Film Festival. Reeves currently has two long form films in the works. Atelier 105, in Paris, just awarded a post-production residency to Reeve’s in-progress THE GLORIA OF YOUR IMAGINATION, a dual projection performance film (16mm and digital). YANQUIS GO SOUTH, supported by a Princess Grace Awards Special Project grant, is next in line for completion. Reeves started making films in 1990. She continues to do her own writing, cinematography, editing, and sound design. Her subjective and personal films push the boundaries of film through optical-printing and direct-on-film techniques. Since 2003 Reeves has collaborated with celebrated composers/ performers, including Marc Ribot, Skúli Sverrisson, Elliott Sharp, Zeena Parkins, Anthony Burr and Eyvind Kang. As the daughter of a trumpeter, gravitating toward film and music collaborations was quite natural for Reeves. Her most ambitious film and music performance, the feature-length double-projection WHEN IT WAS BLUE (2008), premiered at Toronto International Film Festival with live music by composer/collaborator Skúli Sverrisson. Her multiple-projection films with live music have been performed internationally, from the Sydney Opera House and the Berlinale to RedCat in Los Angeles and the Wexner Center in Ohio. Reeves has taught film and animation courses at The Cooper Union School of Art since 2005.
A.S.M. Kobayashi is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist whose hybrid, interactive work mixes documentary and fiction through videos, performances, installations and illustrations. Her performance Say Something Bunny! received critical acclaim heralded as “The best new theater experience in town” by Vogue, was a NYTimes critics’ pick and received nominations from the Drama Desk and United Solo award. Kobayashi’s videos have been exhibited internationally at museums and festivals. She is a 2024 Creative Capital Awardee, a Yaddo and MacDowell Colony fellow, and was a guest artist at the Flaherty Seminar. She is currently based in Toronto and NYC producing special projects at UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art.
