Tuesday, September 29, 2020, presented at the International Documentary Association’s (IDA) Getting Real conference.

While much has been written about the colonial history of documentary filmmaking, far less is known about the canon of oppositional cinema created by Black, Indigenous, and other filmmakers of color. There is a rich tradition of oppressed peoples subverting the colonial gaze: from early works by Zora Neale Hurston and William Greaves, to the filmmakers who formed the Iranian New Wave, to the Latin American and African filmmakers behind the Third Cinema movement. This panel featured BIPOC creators discussing the political and aesthetic motivations of liberatory cinema movements and why we must reconstitute the canon with BIPOC-created media.

The panel discussion featured Stanley Nelson, award-winning filmmaker and Firelight Media co-founder; with filmmaker Heather Rae, curator Janaína Oliveira, and moderator Yasmina Price.