The reverberations of the “Men and Nations” style of knowledge-making privileges systems of extraction and erasure. In focusing only on the genius of the artist and the artist’s art object we often neglect the channels that allow visions to flow, or not flow, as the case may be. We need artists with vision to continue to push us to imagine and feel more than we think possible but we also need channel-makers and channel-tenders who clear the weeds and create the relational networks that circulate and nurture the artists’ work in ways that challenge inherited systems of extraction with an aim to create more just and robust environments for artists, subjects, and the public. Imagination is power and needs the proper support to fully realize its collective potential.

Through personal anecdotes, case studies, and group discussion this workshop will explore distribution as a means through which to renegotiate fossilized systems of extractive exchange. We will discuss the nuts-and-bolts realities of the film distribution landscape as it currently exists and think together about what transformative interventions are possible.

Keisha Nicole Knight is a graduate student in Art, Film, and Visual Studies and Director of Sentient.Art.Film a collectively and curatorially focused distribution initiative committed to expanding the field of the cinematic imagination. Sentient.Art.Film was founded in 2018 and has worked with films such as “August at Akiko’s,” “No Data Plan,” “Island of the Hungry Ghosts,” “In My Blood It Runs,” and “So Pretty.”

This workshop is limited to 20. Priority is given to CMP students and FSC fellows. Kindly RSVP and a Zoom link will be sent before the event.