From left to right: Janaína Oliveria, Carlos A. Gutiérrez, and Richard Herskowitz
Two prominent Latin American programmers have been selected as curators for the 70th anniversary edition of the prestigious Flaherty Film Seminar. Brazilian film scholar and programmer Janaína Oliveira and Carlos A. Gutiérrez, co-founding executive director of Cinema Tropical, will join veteran American curator Richard Herskowitz in programming Onward!, the collaborative seminar taking place June 26–29 in New York City, replicated simultaneously in global pods around the world. The selected films and programs will also be available to stream online.
This marks a watershed moment for Latin American cinema’s influence on one of the film world’s most important forums—where filmmakers, scholars, and cinephiles have gathered for seven decades to push the boundaries of nonfiction storytelling.
Oliveira brings scholarly rigor and an activist vision that has already transformed how we think about Black and African cinemas. A professor at the Federal Institute of Rio de Janeiro and a consultant for JustFilms at the Ford Foundation, she has spent over a decade challenging the traditional boundaries of film curation. In 2021, she became the first Brazilian to program the Seminar; her edition, Opacity, offered a rigorously conceived space for rethinking visibility, power, and representation in nonfiction cinema.
Since co-founding Cinema Tropical in 2001, Gutiérrez has been one of the key architects of Latin American cinema’s growing presence in U.S. cultural discourse. His curatorial work at The Museum of Modern Art, Film at Lincoln Center, and as artistic director of Houston’s Latin Wave festival has introduced countless audiences to the richness of Latin American storytelling. Returning to Flaherty 18 years after South of the Other—which challenged and upended notions of otherness in cinema—Gutiérrez brings not only expertise but also a deep understanding of how the region’s cinema has evolved. Latin American filmmakers are no longer asking for inclusion—they’re defining the conversation.
Herskowitz—who has programmed the Seminar four times (in 1987, 1990, 1999, and 2004), served as president of its board, and chaired its 50th Anniversary Committee—is a longtime media arts curator and administrator. He has directed Cornell Cinema, the Ashland Independent Film Festival, the Virginia Film Festival, and the Houston Cinema Arts Festival. He has taught film studies and curated media art exhibitions at the University of Virginia, Cornell, and the University of Oregon, and has written extensively on film and culture.
The three curators are joined by Programming Collaborators Zaina Bseiso, Christopher Harris, and Louis Massiah. This year’s Seminar breaks from tradition in several ways. Instead of the typical weeklong intensive, Onward! will unfold over four days across multiple New York City venues: opening at MoMA, continuing at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium, and concluding at Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film.
The Seminar will also take place simultaneously in Global Pods located in Salaya, Thailand; New Delhi, India; Warsaw, Poland; Porto and Lisbon, Portugal; Bogotá, Colombia; Toronto, Canada; and Los Angeles, USA. In addition to the official Seminar Pods, a series of smaller-scale, self-organized Gatherings will take place worldwide between June 26–31.
Past Latin American Flaherty curators include Cuban-American artist Coco Fusco (1991); Mexican-American scholar Chon Noriega; Colombian scholar Margarita de la Vega (1993); and Mexican artist Gabriela Monroy (2014).
The 70th Flaherty Film Seminar takes place June 26-29, 2025, in New York City and Global Pods worldwide. For more information and participation details, visit the official Flaherty website.
