Ithaca College

Patricia Zimmermann, Professor of Screen Studies and Co-director of the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, was an invited featured speaker at the Gender/Diversity/Democracy: Arts and Humanities Research during the COVID-19 Crisis symposium at the University of Hong Kong. The event was live broadcast on Zoom and live streaming on Monday, June 22.

Zimmermann was asked to explain and showcase the different ways that the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) pivoted to more international and new media activities during the pandemic.  The FLEFF projects during COVID-19 included the Radical Infiltrations Exhibition of New Media Art, the FLEFF/Park Center for Independent Media online exhibition Infiltrations: A New Media Environment, and the FLEFF partnership with Cinemapolis to show films through the Virtual Cinema project.  

The presentation also featured the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) playlist project on COVID-19 that featured many works in FLEFF, and also the First Wave COVID-19 Playlist: Information, co-curated by Zimmermann and Dale Hudson, from New York University Abu Dhabi and also FLEFF Curator of Digital Art.

The interdisciplinary event was hosted by the Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures at the University of Hong Kong. It featured an infectious disease medical humanities specialist, a scholar working in Latin American studies, and Zimmermann.  

The symposium probed the impact of COVID-19, the challenges facing women, and the resilience of the arts and humanities during this global crisis.