Since 2009, LEF New England has partnered with the Flaherty to support the participation of 4-5 New England-based nonfiction filmmakers at the Flaherty Film Seminar each year.
The Flaherty Film Seminar is a weeklong event held every June that invites a new film programmer each year to select film/video works to be viewed and discussed together by a gathering of over 160 filmmakers, curators, scholars, students, and media professionals from around the world. A central tenet of the Flaherty Film Seminar is non-preconception: filmmakers and films are not revealed until they are screened.
About the Flaherty Seminar
The Seminar began in the 1950s – before the era of film schools-when Robert Flaherty’s widow, Frances, convened a group of filmmakers, critics, curators, musicians, and other film enthusiasts at the Flaherty farm in Vermont. For more than sixty years the Flaherty Seminar has been firmly established as a one-of-a-kind institution that seeks to encourage filmmakers and other artists to explore the potential of the moving image. The films of such directors as Louis Malle, the Maysles brothers, Mira Nair, Satyajit Ray, Agnés Varda, John Cassavetes, Marlon Riggs, Yasujiro Ozu, Pedro Costa and Joris Ivens were shown at the Seminar before they were known generally in the American film community. New cinematic techniques and approaches first presented at the Seminar have routinely made their way into mainstream film.
About the Fellowship Program
The Flaherty offers a limited number of fellowships and grants to a range of participants who would be unable to attend the Seminar without financial support.
LEF New England funds 4-5 LEF New England Fellowships awarded to New England-area filmmakers attending the Flaherty Seminar each year. LEF New England Fellowships cover the registration fee, which includes room, board, and other special events throughout the week.
The fellows’ program is rigorous and rewarding and is designed to encourage diversity of geography, ethnicity, class and experience levels within the participant pool, which is essential in providing the unique critical experience of the Flaherty.
The fellowship program provides an extraordinary opportunity for selected fellows to energize their creativity and further their professional development. They will share and build on their Seminar experiences after they return home for years to come. Many of the filmmakers and fellows who have attended the Flaherty have frequently referred to the Seminar as the place where their ideas took shape, their work began to be recognized, and they found important collaborators; in brief, they consider the Flaherty as a watershed experience in their careers.
Eligibility
To apply for a LEF New England Fellowship to attend the Flaherty Seminar, you must be a nonfiction filmmaker living/working in one of the six New England states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or Vermont). If you have received a LEF New England fellowship to attend the Seminar in the past, or if you are enrolled in an undergraduate or master’s degree program at the time of application, you are ineligible to apply.
How to Apply
Applicants should apply via the Flaherty Seminar website. If you have any questions about this opportunity, please reach out to the Flaherty team.
Application Deadline
Friday, March 29, 2024
Selection Process
The Flaherty team is responsible for managing the application process, reviewing applications, and making final selections of fellows. LEF New England does not take part in the selection process.
Current and Past Fellows
2018
- Mary Jirmanus Saba
- Jesse Lockwood Kreitzer
- Erin Murphy
- Nerissa L. Williams Scott
2012
- Garth Donovan
- Jules Rosskam
- Tara Nelson
- Alexandria Halkin
2011
- Mike Stoltz
- Jesse Epstein
- Julie Mallozzi
- Katherine Dollenmayer
2010
- Cozette Carroll Russell
- Melissa Davenport
- Ann Kim
- Rhonda Moskowitz
2009
- Alan Dater
- Bob Nesson
- Kavita Pillay
- Paige Sarlin
- Jeff Daniel Silva
- Alexandra Sherman
