Professor directs Latin American Studies Association Film Festival
You don’t have to be a student in Latin American and Iberian studies professor Claudia Ferman’s classes to be educated by her about film. Ferman’s insight into film as communication, her passion for what film is capable of and her deep respect for the language of the medium can turn any listener into a gladly captive audience. The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) seems to feel the same way. In 2003, the association, of which Ferman is a member, offered her the directorship of its film festival.
For Ferman, film is rarely spoken of without mentioning its relevance to the classroom, so her first order of business, after committing to take on five festivals for LASA, was to find a way to involve her students in the process. She put out the word in her Latin American Film class, introducing an independent study that offered students the opportunity to watch and discuss films submitted to the festival.
In the months before each of the three film festivals Ferman has directed thus far, she and her students would meet weekly to divide up and watch the submissions. The films, submitted from filmmakers in countries around the world, all focus on subjects connected to Latin America. The majority of the submissions are documentaries, films that take topics and images and from real life—everything from the environment to child labor.
Students would watch two or three films per week and present them to the group. To prepare for these presentations, students were instructed by Ferman to pay attention to defining elements in each film such as who is the director, the country of origin, who produced it, year of production, and the formal features, that is, the specific language of the film—aspects that inform viewers about the film’s perspective beyond the subject matter or the story narrated.
“I try not to influence my students when we’re discussing the films,” said Ferman, who watches every submission. “I use their opinions as a way to get acquainted with these films.”
There are many films to get acquainted with. The last festival that Ferman directed featured 43 films, carefully chosen from over 100 submissions. But the process encompasses more than just watching the submissions—throughout the year Ferman travels to other film festivals to gauge what’s being shown and which films will work for her audience.
The LASA Film Festival is attended by scholars and students in the field of Latin American studies, so documentaries are usually at the center. Ferman believes, however, that fiction should not be thought of as a second choice for academics.
“Sometimes fiction allows you to think and feel in a deeper manner than a documentary,” said Ferman. “Documentaries, in their style, form and language, can be very evocative and effective, but they can also keep the audience at an emotional distance. Fiction is not, as some may think, less serious. Both forms have their place in the classroom.”
Throughout the selection process, Ferman’s audience is foremost on her mind, and she decides on the festival’s direction based on topics that are new in the field, currently sparking debate or not getting the attention that, Ferman thinks, perhaps they should.
“I can’t say that I pick the best films—that term is too relative,” Ferman said. “I look for films of good quality that fulfill some clear objective. Sometimes subject matter takes precedence over quality, but the subject matter of a film speaks to you because the film is good.”
The LASA members that attend the festival come from all academic disciplines, from the fine arts to anthropology, so Ferman looks for films that will cater to these various perspectives. This year she placed extra emphasis on Bolivia, environmental issues and Indigenous film and video production.
To ensure that there are a good number of films to choose from, Ferman has spent much of her time making sure filmmakers and distributors know that this festival exists. Since inheriting the festival from its previous director, she has put an enormous amount of time into research and advertising.
“It’s crucial to advertise, so that you can be choosy with submissions and select what you want, not just accepting films because they’re sent in,” Ferman said.
In the years before she was called on to direct the festival, Ferman, a filmmaker herself, won three awards at the LASA Film Festival. Having been on the other side of the submission process, she knows that rejection is something every filmmaker must be ready for. Film festivals have their own logic, she says, and having directed three festivals and finishing her fourth, she has learned a lot and gained a new perspective on the process.
This year, the festival, which takes place every 18 months, will be in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ferman had considered not directing the 2009 festival, as she was taking her teaching sabbatical in Argentina and the considerable workload seemed too much to do by herself. But LASA, happy with the work Ferman has done in growing the festival in size and recognition, offered her additional support staff while in Argentina.
“It’s a very intense year of work,” she said. “Everything needs to be ready about four months before the festival so that filmmakers can make plans to attend.”
In 2006, the University of Richmond community was fortunate enough to have a part of the LASA Film Festival come to campus. Thanks to a Tucker-Boatwright grant, Ferman was able to bring some of the directors from that year’s film festival to Richmond, where they presented their films to students and faculty, and taught a master class to students taking her Latin America Cinema class. A few years earlier, Ferman had brought a portion of the festival to the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies conference hosted by VCU.
The 2009 LASA Film Festival will run from June 11-14, after which Ferman will immediately begin planning for the 2010 festival. She’ll be back on campus by then and looks forward to once more including her students in the planning process.
“Film is a very diverse media that holds a lot of possibilities,” said Ferman. “It’s a language in and of itself—a discourse of images. In this digital era, it’s a form of communication that’s important for students to be able to understand and use.”