Real or art? or both?

Skidmore College's John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative is exploring the relationship between reality and representation in its second Storytellers' Institute, May 31–July 1. "Walking the Line: Fact and Fiction in Documentary Storytelling" focuses on genre-bending documentary work by artists who are pushing the ethical and aesthetic boundaries of fact and fiction.

In residence for this MDOCS institute are four documentary fellows: Iranian American filmmaker Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz, exhibition director Courtney Reid-Eaton, and interdisciplinary artists Amanda Dawn Christie from Canada and Brooklyn-based Jake Nussbaum. The fellows are working with Skidmore professors Rik Scarce (sociology) and Erika Schielke (biology) as well as eight students majoring in American studies, anthropology, art, dance, English, and social work. Projects use a range of techniques to tell stories on topics and issues ranging from racial relations on campus and family loss and memory to poetry, machismo and flamenco, mind-altering drugs, and more.

As Institute Fellows and Scholars dig into this summer’s projects, MDOCS invites the community to join in the exploration and debate.  “Twenty-first century storytellers grapple daily with how much editing and invention belong in documentary,” notes director Jordana Dym.  “We are excited to share our Institute Fellows’ new perspectives in an exhibition at the Spring Street Gallery.  In addition, we welcome the community to a Point of Departure (June 2) and this week’s inaugural Festosium, a Storytellers’ innovation.” All events are free and open to the public and feature award-winning visiting artists with roots ranging from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to Russia, Sweden, and Iran. Highlights include:

Fact or Fiction? Adapting Reality for Stage or Screen
On June 2, acclaimed filmmaker and photographer Chip Duncan (The Duncan Group) led producing and directing colleagues Dan Markley (New York Musical Festival) and Jonathan Burkhart (Nantucket Film Festival) in an engaging discussion about the challenges of representing “real” stories after a screening of his new film Tolkien & Lewis: Myth, Imagination & the Quest for Meaning.  Duncan’s film highlighted how myth and emotional truths play an important part in meaning and storytelling, and all three drew on experience to bring the audience into a dialogue filled with humor and sharp asides.

Festosium, June 9–12. 
This weekend, MDOCS’s inaugural festival/symposium hybrid, hosted at the Tang Museum, features cutting-edge documentarians presenting work and discussion on podcasting that explores "the truth that fiction can (and cannot) reveal," expectations of truths and fictions in the Borrowed Light photography show at Skidmore's Tang Museum,and an exhibition opening by a 2015 student participant in the Storytellers’ Institute.

Guest curators Jeff Silva (film) and Ann Hepperman kick off a remarkable lineup of screenings, including Maxim Pozdorovkin (Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer), Stephanie Spray (Manakamana), Nicolas Pereda (Summer of Goliath), Martin Johnson (Serendipity), and Kaitlin Pres (Moviews in Your Head). 

In between events and panels, visitors are invited to sample The Unknown Photographer, a virtual-reality experience based on World War I photographs, with Marc Beeaudet and Loïc Suty of Turbulent.

Exhibition, June 16–29. 
Saratoga's Spring Street Gallery presents work from this summer’s Institute Fellows and from students in the 2015 Storytellers’ Institute. The June 16 exhibition opening includes artists' talks, and there will be screenings on June.21 and 23.

Full information is available here.