The Role of the Artist

In Times of Crisis

March 26th 2020

We gathered online for a community check-in followed by a conversation led by Geeta Malik (Troublemaker) and Leah Meyerhoff (I Believe in Unicorns) about the role of the artist in times of crisis. In times of crisis what is the role of the artist? Should the artist inspire, observe, comment? During the uncertain era of covid we discussed how filmmakers should respond to the chaos of the world and how to approach moving through their craft. Can filmmaking be used as a tool for real change during an uncertain time or is it a tool for remembering? Is it both? When the emotional, political, and artistic world is put on hold, what does the artist do?

Details

Start:: March 26, 2020 @ 8:00 am
End:: March 26 @ 5:00 pm
Event Category:: Activism

Details

Start:: March 26, 2020 @ 8:00 am
End:: March 26 @ 5:00 pm
Event Category:: Activism

Panelists

Geeta Malik received her MFA from UCLA’s graduate film program in directing. Her first feature film, TROUBLEMAKER, premiered at the 2011 Cinequest Film Festival, and was distributed by Asian Crush. Her most recent short film, SHAMELESS, played at over 15 festivals, including the Sedona Film Festival, and won the jury award for best comedy at the Long Beach QFilm Festival. Geeta is a winner of the 2016 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting for her latest feature script, DINNER WITH FRIENDS. She is also the winner of the 2016 Austin Film Festival Feature Comedy Screenplay award, also for DINNER WITH FRIENDS. In 2018, Geeta won the inaugural Academy Gold Fellowship for Women, awarded to a female filmmaker as part of the Academy’s Action initiative. In 2019, Geeta directed DINNER WITH FRIENDS, now called INDIA SWEETS AND SPICES, produced by Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Madison Wells Media.

Leah Meyerhoff is the founder of FILM FATALES, a non-profit arts organization which advocates for parity in the film industry and supports a membership community of hundreds of women filmmakers around the world. Meyerhoff wrote and directed the narrative feature film I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS which was released theatrically after premiering at SXSW, winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Atlanta Film Festival and additional awards from Woodstock Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Tribeca Film Institute, IFP, and the Adrienne Shelly Foundation. Meyerhoff’s previous work has screened in over 200 film festivals and aired on IFC, PBS, LOGO and MTV. She is a fellow of the IFP Emerging Narrative Labs, IFP Narrative Finishing Labs, Tribeca All Access Labs, and Emerging Visions program at the New York Film Festival. She holds a BA in Art-Semiotics from Brown University and an MFA in Directing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.