Ithaca College

Patricia R. Zimmermann, professor of screen studies and codirector of the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, delivered a series of invited lectures and workshops in Ukraine from May 17-May 27, 2016. Her lectures and workshops were sponsored by the US State Department’s American Film Showcase Program, where Zimmermann serves as an appointed Film and New Media Envoy. 

Zimmermann delivered a lecture, “Open Space Documentary: Participation and New Media,” at the American Independence Film Festival in Kiev on May 22.  She also delivered a lecture at Kyiv Mohyla University entitled “Thinking Through Digital Media:  Transnational Environments and Locative Places” on May 24.  In Lviv, she did a lecture called “Open Spaces of New Media: Collaborative Practices,” at Media Teka Lviv.  

She also conducted a series of workshops with Ukrainian independent filmmakers and film archivists in Kiev. As part of Indie Lab, a special initiative of the American Independence Film Festival in Kiev, she conducted a workshop called “The Histories and Practices of Film Festivals,” which shared programming strategies of the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival with emerging makers.  She also conducted a shot by shot analysis with documentary film director  Jesse Moss on his feature-length film, The Overnighters. She also participated in critique sessions of Ukrainian emerging documentary and new media makers at Indie Lab.  

At the Alexander Dovshenka Film Archive in Kiev, she conducted a workshop with archive staff, programmers,and researchers entitled “The Archive Live,” where she elaborated the process of working with archival material, live performance, and live music original commissions at the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival.