Ithaca College

ITHACA, NY—The 24h annual Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) will be 100% virtual this year. The theme is “INFILTRATIONS.”

It will feature three weeks of film screenings, talkbacks, roundtables, conversations, presentations, and discussions running from March 22–April 11. The events will take place on Zoom and film screenings through Cinemapolis’ Virtual Cinema platform. Cinemapolis is a major festival partner.

Exploring the theme of “Infiltrations,” this 24th annual edition of FLEFF offers:

• 1 international new media art exhibition
• 15 post-screening talkbacks  
• 18 conversations and panels and salons
• 21 film screenings;
• 100-plus archivists, activists, artists, film directors, makers, musicians, scholars
• 100% community, debate and discussion

Attendees can watch films from anywhere at anytime, and are welcome to join the live sessions for robust discussion and exchange.

All of the FLEFF events are open to the public. All presentations and talkbacks are free. 

Cinemapolis Virtual Cinema screenings will require tickets. Festival passes (good for five films) are $35 for adults. Individual tickets are $10. All Access Passes to all 21 films are $100. Go to www.cinemapolis.org for detailed ticket information.

FLEFF 2021 HIGHLIGHTS

Registration links to the 18 roundtables and presentation events are on the FLEFF website: https://www.ithaca.edu/finger-lakes-environmental-film-festival

Registration links to all the films and talkbacks on the film are on the FLEFF Cinemapolis site: https://watch.eventive.org/fleff

Twenty-one films from around the globe will be screened at Cinemapolis, with directors, producers, archivists, scholars and distributors on hand to take part in moderated talkbacks. The films are from Argentina, China, Czech Republic, France, Korea,  Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, US, Vietnam. Films are narrative, documentary, and experimental, spanning feature-length to shorts programs.

“Entangled Infiltrations: New Media Art” panel with digital curators Dale Hudson (New York University Abu Dhabi) and Claudia Pederson (Wichita State University) and five international new media artists on Monday March 22 at 3 -4:30 p.m. Eastern

“Infiltrating News: The Intercept,” Raza Rumi, Park Center for Independent Media, in a special salon with editors and writers from the online news magazine The Intercept, including IC alum Rodrigo Brandao ’01,, Wed March 24, 5 -6:30 pm. Eastern Time

“A Conversation with Pedro Molina,” Barbara Adams (Ithaca College) interviews editorial cartoonist and Ithaca City of Asylum artist in residence Pedro Molina, Friday March 26 12-1:15 Eastern

“Why Opera? Why Now?” salon with opera singers from across the country including Ithaca College alums and Opera Ithaca discussing how they have been navigating the pandemic in imaginative ways, Tuesday, March 30, 7-8:30 Eastern

“Swampscapes: VR, New Media, New Environments” with new media designer Liz Miller and team, moderated by Tom Shevory (Ithaca College), Wednesday March 31 4-5:15 p.m. Eastern

“Art and Environmental Infiltrations,” featuring visual artists Paloma Barhaugh Bordas and Ash Arder, moderated by Jennifer Jolly (Ithaca College) Thursday April 1 7 -8:30 p.m. Eastern

“From the ADA to AI to Outer Space: Celebrating 30 years of the American with Disabilities Act, NASA, and innovation,” featuring NASA scientists, disability video producers Ann Michel and Phil Wilde, and inventors, Friday April 2, 5-6:30 p.m. Eastern

“A Conversation with Stephanie Rothenberg,” featuring Claudia Pederson (Wichita State University) in conversation with the feminist environmental new media artist, Tuesday April 6, 7-8:30 p.m. Eastern

“Vaccines and Masks: Front Line COVID,” a panel of public health experts, front line workers, and health care analysts, Wed April 7, 7-8:30 p.m. Eastern

“Winding Pathways Album Launch,” celebrating the new album by tuba player David Earl (Ithaca College), Thursday, April 8, 5 -6:30 p.m. Eastern

A detailed schedule and description of events and participants is available at www.ithaca.edu/fleff

Launched in 1997 as an outreach project from Cornell University’s Center for the Environment, the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival was moved permanently to Ithaca College in 2005. It is housed in the Office of the Provost as a program to link intellectual inquiry and debate to larger global issues.

Presenting sponsors and partners of the 24th edition of FLEFF include the Park Foundation, The Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, the Park Center for Independent Media, MDOCS Cocreation Initiative at Skidmore College, Center for the Study of Globalization and Culture at the University of Hong Kong, Central New York Humanities Corridor and New York Six Global Cinema Working Group, Engage Media (Indonesia), the Health Promotion and Physical Education Department at Ithaca College, UniFrance (France), F2F: Feminist to Feminist Speaker Series, Conversations Across Screen Cultures (Central New York Screen Studies Consortium), Opera Ithaca, The Cherry Arts, Media + Environment Journal,  The Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures at the University of Hong Kong, Fanhall Films (China/US), Ithaca City of Asylum, The Cocreation Documentary Working Group (US/Canada/UK), and Museo del Cine de Buenos Aires (Argentina).

For more information, contact FLEFF co-directors Patricia Zimmermann at patty@ithaca.edu; or Tom Shevory at shevory@ithaca.edu.

FLEFF: A DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT

WE ARE THE SCREEN