White River Indie Festival

Artist Q&A: Director John Gianvito on "Her Socialist Smile"

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Please join us for a discussion with filmmaker John Giatano about his documentary Her Socialist Smile, which is screening virtually from May 28-30. We will discuss his unique approach to his subject, Helen Keller, and how he created a film that brings issues of accessibility in cinema to the forefront.


Director: JOHN GIANVITO is a director, teacher, and curator, based in Boston, Massachusetts. His films have screened widely at top festivals and cinematheques, including the Toronto International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, BAFICI, London Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art (NY), Centre Pompidou, Cinematheque Francaise, the Tate Modern, and Pacific Film Archives. Retrospectives of his work have been presented at the VIENNALE Film Festival, the I Mille Occhi Festival, Cinéma du Réel, and Seoul Independent Documentary Festival. Gianvito is the editor of the book Andrei Tarkovsky: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi) and served for five years in the 1990s as the film curator of the Harvard Film Archive. He is currently a Professor in the Visual and Media Arts Department at Emerson College.

  • Runtime
    60 minutes