Flaherty Seminar Audio Recordings

New York University’s Division of Libraries today announced the public release of more than 700 audio recordings from the Flaherty Seminar, the longest continuously running film event in North America.

The annual event’s fifty-year history is captured through recordings of various activities and discussions, joining collections in the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives and the University Archives chronicling the evolution of the moving image in the 20th century. The Flaherty Seminar recordings are held within the special collections of NYU’s Fales Library.

Founded in 1955, the Flaherty Seminar began before the era of film schools and has since been established as a one-of-a-kind institution that seeks to encourage filmmakers and other artists to explore the potential of the moving image through new cinematic techniques and approaches. The recordings provide scholars and students with unabridged access to candid discourse that championed unique and diverse voices and helped to shape the film industry.

The recordings captured in-depth discussions with the cinematic firebrands of the time, including Satyajit Ray, Agnès Varda, Mira Nair, John Cassavetes and Yasujirô Ozu.

The content can be accessed by navigating Series I of the The Flaherty Film Seminar finding aid.