Join AAFF Special Programs curators Ariel Dougherty, Emily Martin, & Julia Yezbick for a conversation about programming with diverse perspectives in mind. Together we’ll look at how the role of curator has evolved and continues to expand in light of an enhanced focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the film festival community worldwide.
Ariel Dougherty as an activist media maker is always seeking opportunities to bring a diverse collection of media works to new audiences. In the 1980s she curated the series "Women Work in Film & Video" at the Women's Studio Workshop in the Mid Hudson region often with a filmmaker present. Before covid hit for a few years she ran a monthly micro cinema, Movies & Discussion, in her community in Truth or Consequences, NM.
Emily Martin currently works as the Distribution and Communications Assistant at the Video Data Bank and as a Curatorial Research Associate at the The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, assisting in their current exhibition, “A Site of Struggle: American Art Against Anti-Black Violence”. She is a recent graduate from the Dual MA in Contemporary & Modern Art History and Arts Administration & Policy program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her past experience includes various administrative, programming, and research activities at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Chicago History Museum, the Chicago Park District, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Julia Yezbick is a filmmaker, educator, and anthropologist with a PhD in Media Anthropology and Critical Media Practice from Harvard University. Her creative work has shown internationally at festivals including the Berlin International Film Festival and the 54th Ann Arbor Film Festival. Currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Studies and Production at Oakland University, Yezbick is also the founding Editor of Sensate, an online media-based journal, and co-directs Mothlight Microcinema in Detroit.