In her keynote address, Jemma Desai will question the role of integrity in the documentary field. James Baldwin understood the integrity of artists as an analogue for the integrity of being human. During a time of live streamed genocide, institutional indifference and collective grief, to what extent can we say that formalized infrastructures for the giving and receiving of images are life-affirming—that they are integral to life? How (and where) do we practice dignity, solidarity and resolve in systems that excel in transforming such political desires into content while remaining resilient against the emancipatory transformation they invite?
Biography (submitted by the speaker):
Jemma Desai stands against the genocide of the Palestinian people and is a cultural worker and somatic facilitator whose work spans artistic and administrative practice, writing, curation, performance, and other forms of articulation. She is (re)searching new ways to make and circulate outside and inside cultural production, with and against institutions in order to question the role of testimony, desire and political commitment in the social relations that make cultural work. Her current collaborations include Blackstar and BAM and she is the programmer of the 2025 edition of the Flaherty Seminar.
In her keynote address, Jemma Desai will question the role of integrity in the documentary field. James Baldwin understood the integrity of artists as an analogue for the integrity of being human. During a time of live streamed genocide, institutional indifference and collective grief, to what extent can we say that formalized infrastructures for the giving and receiving of images are life-affirming—that they are integral to life? How (and where) do we practice dignity, solidarity and resolve in systems that excel in transforming such political desires into content while remaining resilient against the emancipatory transformation they invite?
Biography (submitted by the speaker):
Jemma Desai stands against the genocide of the Palestinian people and is a cultural worker and somatic facilitator whose work spans artistic and administrative practice, writing, curation, performance, and other forms of articulation. She is (re)searching new ways to make and circulate outside and inside cultural production, with and against institutions in order to question the role of testimony, desire and political commitment in the social relations that make cultural work. Her current collaborations include Blackstar and BAM and she is the programmer of the 2025 edition of the Flaherty Seminar.