UnionDocs

Projects

Documentary Bodega Series

The Documentary Bodega Series presents over 100 events annually (screenings, lectures, exhibitions, audio listening rooms, panels and workshops) to the general public. It offers an intimate audience size and an open discussion with the director, artist, or producer, promoting dialogue about significant social questions and expanding critical awareness of the documentary arts. This program is made accessible to the local community while only requesting a low suggested donation for admission.

The UnionDocs Collaborative:
A new program for non-fiction media research and group production.

The UnionDocs Collaborative (UDC) is a one year program for twelve emerging media producers, theorists, and curators. It is both a rigorous platform for exploring contemporary approaches to the documentary arts and a process for developing an innovative group project. The program focuses on providing what we believe are the most effective educational resources for individuals at the beginning of their careers:

• direct contact and structured exchange with visiting artists.
• exposure to a wide variety of practices and models.
• dynamic interaction among a network of talented peers.
• regular group critique sessions.
• mentorship toward the production of an original work.
• exposure through a toured exhibition and/or publication.

The UDC has been set up to be affordable and scheduled for individuals who may need to work full-time or freelance while being involved in the program. It offers an intensive learning experience at a price that one might expect to pay for just a single credit at a university. While the UDC may have many parallels to parts of a masters program, it is designed to be an alternative-approach that focuses on inspiration from working artists and self-organization within a group, rather than a teacher-led environment. The UDC does not grant degrees or certificates; instead, the completion of an excellent collaborative project is the goal.

For some, participation in the program may lead to further study. For others, it may lead to independent projects or the beginnings of careers within the industry. For all, it is an unparalleled immersion in the expansive field of non-fiction media and art.
See Program Details

The Commons_Berlin

June 23, 2005 | Volksbühne Berlin

The Commons_Berlin is a performance documentary, which was presented at the Volksbuehne Theater in Berlin for the Rollende Road-Schau festival. The piece consists of short documentary fragments created by the members of UnionDocs . These pieces were presented in a variety of media and were interwoven with a narrative in live performance. More >

Imaginary Berlin

June 21, 2005 | Humboldt University Berlin

Imaginary Berlin is a research and art project aimed at examining Berlin, both at close range and from a distance. This project brings together a group of people with a broad range of experience in Berlin – from self-proclaimed native to total stranger. More >

Fishbird

July 15 – 23 | UnionDocs Brooklyn

The title FishBird comes from the saying “a fish can love a bird but where would they live.” The piece, created by UnionDocs member Katrina Toshiko Grigg-Saito, explores the experience of being multiracial through audio interview pieces edited by Johanna Linsley, projected images by Lindsay Brandon Hunter, and an intimate and experiential installation by Natalia Zubko. More >

Public Pay Telephone

September 14-17, 2006 | Conflux Festival Brooklyn

There is a payphone outside 322 Union Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Like payphones all over, it is a public staging ground for private dramas. Raised voices are not uncommon, and conflicts range from relationship management to business affairs (legitimate and otherwise). For the Conflux 2006, UnionDocs presented two projects which seek to understand the contemporary payphone experience.

More >

Conflux 2007 Film Program

Flag

October 2004 | UnionDocs Brooklyn

In its first event, UnionDocs opened with the US gallery premiere of Flag: An American Story an exhibition by New York-based artist Lauri Lyons.

“Flag: An American Story is a grand journey,” writes Paul Fusco of Magnum Photos, “that opens our eyes and hearts to the inestimable value of each human being and the truths that hold our society together; the foundations and promises of America that live in our constitution and Bill of Rights. Flag is a remarkable achievement.” More >

Resisting Paradise

January 22 – 23, 2005 | UnionDocs & OfficeOps Brooklyn

A screening of Resisting Paradise, the most recent film by prolific avant-garde filmmaker and documentarian Barbara Hammer, was the culminating event in a series of politically-motivated presentations in conjunction with the arts and activism conference And So Forth: A Post-Inaugural Assembly (sponsored by Amnesty International Firefly Project, Theaters Against War, Art Is Permitted Everywhere, and FELT). More >

DisLocation

May – June 2005 | UnionDocs Brooklyn

For three days, UnionDocs welcomed Sudhir Venkatesh, professor of sociology at Columbia University and director of Columbia’s Center for Urban Policy and Research, as he presented his documentary film DisLocation for the first time. The screening included a discussion with several subjects of the film and a photography exhibit which remained installed at UnionDocs through the spring. An interview of Venkatesh was collaged with other UnionDocs audio recordings in a radio broadcast on WKCR FM NY. More >

Janfamily

October – December 2005 | UnionDocs Brooklyn

UnionDocs presented an open studio exhibit of Plans for other days, by the Janfamily, a London-based art collective. Structured as a long list of suggestions for alternative everyday actions, Plans for other days is a kind of whimsical instruction manual. Published in book form in September of 2005 by Booth-Clibborn Editions, it’s full of How-To’s (How to get in touch, How to make an instant shelter), all illustrating practical solutions to too-often overlooked needs. More >

The Commons Radio

2004-2005 | WKCR 89.9 FM

This nine-part series was aired in monthly installments on WKCR 89.9fm. A collaboratively created, layered audio narrative, it weaves together scholarly interviews, dramatic recreations, original music and everyday sounds. All pieces are part of a broad approach to the subject of The Commons (a.k.a. the relationship of the one to the many). More >

OpenDocs

2004-2006 | UnionDocs Brooklyn & Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art

OpenDocs was an ongoing program in which a feature documentary or an individual artist’s work is presented with additional selections made by the evening’s curator. These selections were chosen to augment or provide counterpoint, and include video or audio fragments, live speakers, live performers, food, music and discussion. More >