Duke’s first MFA program invites the public to showings of the documentary works-in-progress of the fifteen students from the inaugural class. The students are all enrolled in the first year Documentary Fieldwork seminar taught by Alex Harris. The work of three students—Philip Brubaker, Wolfgang Hastert, and Jolene Mok was shown on Tuesday, December 6 (see end of post). The remaining works will be shown on Tuesday, December 13.
Tuesday, December 13, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Carpentry Shop, 2nd Floor
1509 Campus Drive, Durham, North Carolina
“Ruby,” Braxton Hood, 9–9:30 a.m.: A portrait of Ruby
“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” Marika Borgeson, 9:30–10:00 a.m.: Tracing the visual trajectory of tobacco cards from lascivious photographs to a symbol of America’s favorite pastime
“Heart of Durham,” Joel Wanek, 10:00–10:30 a.m.: A film about some of the histories and mysteries of Durham, set at the Durham Bus Station, the site of the former Heart of Durham Hotel
BREAK 10:30-10:45 a.m.
“Disciplined Surrender,” Lisa McCarty, 10:45–11:15 a.m.: A photographic convergence of chance operations and desire
“Truly,” Natalie Minik, 11:15–11:45 a.m.: My Mother, Music, and Motherhood
“Amanda,” Laura Doggett, 11:45 a.m.–12:15 p.m.: From a project about teenage girls and love, a November portrait of one girl’s story
LUNCH BREAK 12:15–1:30 p.m.
“Occupy Charlotte,” Annabel Manning, 1:30–2:00 p.m.: A photographic exploration of the occupy protests
“Intimacy,” Laurenn McCubbin, 2:00–2:30 p.m.: A series of interviews about performative emotionality vs. intimacy in contemporary sex work
“It’s so damn personal,” Talena Sanders, 2:30–3:00 p.m.: Media and a proposal for a collaborative experimental documentary installation about memories of shared experience
Break 3:00–3:15 p.m.
“Around and About: A Formal Investigation of Sampson County,” Peter Lisignoli, 3:15–3:45 p.m.: How photography negotiates place through texture, composition, and motif
“A Family Event,” Eric Barstow, 3:45–4:15 p.m.: A dad and his two girls embark on a 10-hour journey from North Carolina to Upstate New York to visit the children’s estranged mother who just had a new baby, giving them a brand-new half-sister
“You Must Remember This,” Elizabeth Landesberg, 4:15–4:45 p.m.: Perhaps the medium really is the message.
The MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts at Duke University brings together two forms of artistic activity—the documentary approach and experimental production in analog, digital, and computational media—in a unique two-year program that will foster collaborations across disciplines and media as it trains sophisticated, creative art practitioners. MFAEDA students work with faculty from the program’s three founding units: the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, the Center for Documentary Studies, and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, as well as from the University at large.
The work of three students—Philip Brubaker, Wolfgang Hastert, and Jolene Mok was shown on Tuesday, December 6.
“Observing Animals,” Philip Brubaker: “People come from all over to observe the animals at the North Carolina Zoo. What they don’t realize is that the people are being observed as well….”
“JUXTAPOSSE,” Wolfgang Hastert: A portrait suite of the inaugural Duke University MFAEDA student cohort
untitled, Jolene Mok: A video presentation
