Our film series is created in consultation with our Curator-at-Large for Film, Maori Karmael Holmes, Artistic Director and CEO of BlackStar Projects.
For fall 2021, we delve into environmental topics, leading up to our outdoor performance by Alarm Will Sound at the Morris Arboretum. We continue our Pew Fellows X Penn Live Arts focus with selections by guest curator, filmmaker and 2016 Pew fellow, Heidi Saman. Three additional films round out the fall, connecting film to music and live performance. For spring 2022, we begin in March with an exploration on themes of migration and crossing borders with dreams of a better life. We conclude the series in May with a focus on independent filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul and the exclusive Philadelphia premiere of his 2021 film, Memoria.
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Memoria (2021) |
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Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) |
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Tropical Malady (2004) + |
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La Casa de Mama Icha (2021) |
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Chèche Lavi (2019) |
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Mija (2022) |
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Landfall (2020) |
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Titixe (2018) |
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On the Environment Short Films* When the Lionfish Came (2015) |
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Personal Affairs (2016) |
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Cactus Flower (2017) |
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Pew Fellows X PLA Short Films** Oranges (2009) |
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Poly Styrene: I am a Cliché (2021) |
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No Ordinary Man (2020) |
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The Conductor (2021) |
Maori is a curator, filmmaker and writer. She founded BlackStar in 2012 and serves as its Artistic Director and CEO. She has organized programs in film at a myriad of organizations including Anthology Film Archives, Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), The Underground Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. As a director, her works have screened internationally including her feature documentary Scene Not Heard: Women in Philadelphia Hip-Hop (2006). She has also directed and produced works for Colorlines.com, Visit Philadelphia, and singer-songwriter India.Arie. Her writing has recently appeared in The Believer, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, and How We Fight White Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance. Maori received her MFA in film & media arts from Temple University and her BA in history from American University. She currently serves on the board of American Documentary (POV), the advisory boards of Ulises, Vidiots, and Lightbox Film Center. Maori is a 2019 Soros Equality Fellow and serves as Mediamaker-in-Residence at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, Curator-at-Large at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, and a Creative Executive with Blackbird.