Join us for film screenings and conversation with documentary filmmakers Lagueria Davis, Erin Murphy, Julie Forrest Wyman, and Adam Finchler. The documentarians will present their works in progress then discuss the use of humor as a storytelling device. Sanjna Selva ’21 will moderate the discussion.

The Docs in Progress panel is organized as part of the 2019 MDOCS Forum, presented by the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS). The forum is free and open to the public. Breakfast will be provided.

About the Panelists

Adam Finchler is a songwriter, video-maker, and documentarist from New Jersey. Adam has performed his “laugh-out-loud and introspective” (Razorcake) anti-folk songs throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. In 2015 Adam compiled the zine “What’s Up, Grim?: Haunted Hayriders in Their Own Words.” In 2016 Adam threw the conceptual video party THE CRAZIEST DOG EVER “10K in 10 Years” Anniversary Party with Bellinis. Adam currently lives in Brooklyn.

Erin Murphy is a documentary filmmaker, educator, and freelance videographer based in Portland, Maine. She is in production on her first feature documentary, WAZO:IDEA, which documents the emergence of a diverse group of young activist-artists by exploring the ways that film and social media shape what we know and who we think we are. Her last short film, The Song of the Broad Axe (2016) follows the lives of people who have chosen to live a more purposeful life—one that involves using an axe on a daily basis. The film aired on Maine Public Television and screened at the Maine International Film Festival and the Monadnock International Film Festival. Erin was selected to be a Flaherty Fellow in 2018 by the LEF Foundation. She teaches documentary production as a visiting instructor at Colby. As a freelancer, Erin has shot and produced over 20 documentary shorts for clients in Maine and Massachusetts.

Lagueria Davis graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2007 with a BFA in Media Art. Since graduating, Davis has established herself as an award-winning filmmaker. MAID OF DISHONOR, a feature she co-wrote, was a 2016 Nicholls Fellowship Quarter-Finalist and was a quarter finalist in the 2015 WeScreenplay Competitions. In addition, two of her works placed at the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition: her feature script THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY (in 2013) and her short script LIGHT IN DARK PLACES (in 2016). Her short LIGHT IN DARK PLACES is currently on the film festival circuit, having won best short film at the 2019 ClexaCon Film Festival. Recently, Davis was selected as a 2019 BAVC Media Maker Fellow with her current project in development, BLACK BARBIE: A DOCUMENTARY. In her spare time, Davis moonlights as a Line Producer for commercials, branded content, shorts, and feature films. Currently, Davis resides in LA where she’s on the board of the Alliance of Women Directors.

Julie Wyman is a filmmaker and performer whose work aims to challenge our culture’s narrow range of represented bodies. Her films engage issues of embodiment, body image, gender, and the politics, possibilities, and problems of media spectatorship. Her work has been broadcast on PBS, Showtime, and exhibited at New York’s MoMA, London’s National Film Theater, and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Wyman serves as an Associate Professor in the Cinema and Digital Media Program at UC Davis.

About MDOCS Forum

Each June, as part of the annual Storytellers’ Institute, Skidmore College’s John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS) hosts a weekend-long documentary forum around an annual theme. This year’s theme, Humor: Laughing With Reality, honors the long tradition of non-fiction makers who, through satire and silliness, have employed humor as means to transgress social norms, toy with the taboo, and empower us through laughter. An international group of documentary makers will explore the theme through various mediums and connect with Skidmore and the greater community at locations on Skidmore College campus from June 6–9, 2019.

For more information on the 2019 MDOCS Forum, visit their website.

2019 MDOCS Forum Events

Thursday, June 6:
- 8:00 PM – Performance of “The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller” Sam Green, and Yo La Tengo (at Arthur Zankel Music Center)

Friday, June 7:
- 10:00 AM – The Natural World and Climate Anxiety
- 11:45 AM – Sitting in the Waiting Room
- 3:00 PM – Sam Green Artist Talk
- 4:30 PM – Documentary, Mockumentary and Prank Panel
- 6:00 PM – Keynote: Kristina Wong Performance and Artist Talk (at Filene Auditorium)

Saturday, June 8:
- 10:00 AM – Docs in Progress
- 11:45 AM – Documentary Film Industry and Humor
- 3:00 PM – Land Without Bread Redux
- 4:30 PM – Humor, Memory, Trauma, Loss
- 6:15 PM – Radio Atlas

Sunday, June 9:
- 10:00 AM – Storytelling Workshop with Micaela Blei
- 11:45 AM – Teachings and Takeaways Workshop