Blog post written by Haley Stearns, Film, Photography & Visual Arts ’15, FLEFF Blogger

Dr. Dale Hudson works as a digital curator for the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival. This year marks his seventh year participating in FLEFF. His Dr. Hudson is currently living and teaching at New York University Abu Dhabi. Check out the following interview to learn more about FLEFF’s fantastic digital curator!

Where are you from originally?

I think that anyone who has moved often will understand why this question is very difficult to answer. I have lived places that have changed so much that they are no longer recognizable. They have become invisible cities, so to speak. For the past fifteen years, I've lived mostly in Amherst (Massachusetts) and Abu Dhabi, but I still go to my dentist in midtown Manhattan.

How is your experience living and teaching in Abu Dhabi?

I feel very lucky to live in Abu Dhabi. It's inspiring to hear people speak English, Arabic, Hindi-Urdu, Tagalog, Malayalam, Tamil, Amharic, Chinese, and other languages every day on the streets. Every taxi driver is fluent in multiple languages plus speaks enough Arabic and English to communicate with customers. There is a really active arts scene in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Dubai, as well as in Doha (Qatar), so there are always film festivals, plays, arts exhibition, and concerts.

When did you begin working with FLEFF?

I started working with FLEFF in 2004 when I was teaching at Ithaca College. Lisa Patti and I curated a performance of live music with archival film in 2006, and Sharon Lin Tay and I co-curated our first digital exhibition in 2007. This year's exhibit will be my seventh for FLEFF. 

What originally attracted you to FLEFF?

I have loved FLEFF ever since it has moved to Ithaca College. The co-directors Tom Shevory and Patty Zimmermann have brought the idea of an environmental film festival into the twenty-first century by looking at the environment from more holistic and global perspectives, especially through the variety of events, fellowships for graduate students, workshops for undergraduate students, and dialogues with festivals in Bangalore, Jakarta, and elsewhere.

Can you explain the intricacies of your job as a digital curator for FLEFF?

As digital curators, our work is to locate artists, particularly ones whose work might not be as well known by programmers. In addition to finding artists through word-of-mouth, we publish open calls for submissions through various arts and media organizations around the world. We've been thrilled to receive submission to our open calls from artists at SARAI in Delhi and by the duo JODI, among others.

How do you feel about this year’s theme: dissonance?

I like the theme, which seems to resonate with ways that people have transformed dissatisfaction into something productive. 

What are some of your interests outside of FLEFF?

I've always been incredibly interested in thinking about what gets left out of conventional stories. For example, histories of film used to focus on work from Hollywood, a few countries in Europe, and a few token Japanese and Bengali filmmakers. Most of the world was overlooked, including places like Brazil, Egypt, and México. I'm also very interested in what happens to people and to films when they cross borders. 

Blog posting written by Chloe Wilson, Television-Radio ’14, FLEFF Intern, Ashland, Massachusetts.

Hey FLEFFers! 

So I'm going to liveblog a FLEFF session that is for the interns, but I figured all you interested FLEFFers will get a kick out of this info too.  This session is focused on The Concert for Microtopias and is hosted by two of the musicians performing in the concert.

Here goes!

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6:58 PM- Patty Zimmerman (FLEFF Festival Coordinator and Ithaca College professor) is introducing "The Concert for Microtopias" and it sounds fantastic!  Turns out we're using the Whelan School of Music for a concert location.

6:59 PM- Ann and Phil get a shout-out from Patty!  #Awesome

7:01 PM- The actresses involved in the performance are loving the microtopia theme!  The concert has been commissioned by FLEFF and is free!

7:05 PM- Patty Zimmerman is introducing pianist Debbie Martin and baritone Brad Hougham.

7:07 PM- Brad has the floor!  (He loves FLEFF because he gets to pick what he sings.)

7:09 PM- Debbie says that she loves working with dead people (musicians, I hope/am pretty sure of).  Debbie shares a story about a man and his fabric collection (and Brad bought the guy's house and it's full of fabric) and his fabric room.

7:11 PM- Debbie: "We thought we'd start off my choosing some of our favorite things to play.  Different things that make you happy or inspired or feeling feelings at the most extreme levels.  That's what you'll find here.  You'll find everything from different countries to different takes on spiritual things to ethnic things.  Old, old-old music, new music, it's really a lot of different things."

7:14 PM- Debbie made us stand up and clap/dance along to music! It was hard to liveblog...

7:15 PM- Brad is playing us a German song with lyrics from a sacred text.  As somebody who has sung in German, it's really hard!  Gotta give the singer props.

7:16 PM- Recording isn't working... bummer.

7:17 PM- FLEFF Team Leader springs into action!  She saves the day!

7:18 PM- Discovering a love for German opera right now.

7:20 PM- The title of the song (when translated) is "I Have Enough," as it "I have enough knowing that I'll go to heaven."  What a great aria!  (Guess my older brother's interest in Gilbert and Sullivan is rubbing off on me!  Even though this particular opera is from Bach...)

7:21 PM- Brad gets to sing this piece? He mus be so excited!  (He is.  He also just said so.)

7:24 PM- Debbie is playing the piano for us.  It's such a soft melody.  Makes me wish I was that talented...

7:27 PM- Brad is playing a recording of the piece that Debbie just played.  The soprano is amazing and its such a soft lullaby!

7:30 PM- This soft opera lullaby is going to be followed up by Maurice Ravel's "Pavane pour une infante defunte."  I recognize this!  (I used to study at the New England Conservatory.  It was all music all the time!)

7:34 PM- Debbie says that the challenge will be to take these orchestral pieces and adapt them fully to piano.  It's going to be hard to adapt harp for two pianos!

7:35 PM- Next on the program?!  "Wade in the Water!!!!"  I'm so excited!  I performed to this in high school and am obsessed with this song. 

7:36 PM- Listening to Big Mama Thornton's cover!

7:38 PM- I always get chills listening to this song!  This cover is by the African American Choral Ensemble.  Loving the alto line in this!

7:40 PM- Brad says that microtopias occur all over the IC campus... when professors teach in their classroom, in organizations, etc.

7:42 PM- From Debbie: The word "tarantella" comes from "tarantula." Ew...

7:43 PM- Listening to "Anytime" by William Finn.

7:45 PM- Somebody is asking a great question about how to collaborate over long distances!  Brad is saying that they owe a lot to Patty and that she helps bring everyone together.

7:47 PM- Debbie is going to Berlin to practice with her fellow pianist!  I'm jealous, it's such a beautiful city and there's so much history. 

7:50 PM- Debbie: "If you really sit and think about it... these small moments of every aspect of who we are and what we are and it's fragmented and yet it can come together... That's what we're aiming for.  This should be a new experience!  Something that you don't do all the time."

7:51 PM- Brad: "I feel that FLEFF has opened my boundaries greatly... Just knowing that this is Ithaca, it's a really tremendous and wonderful safe place where you can expand yourself as an artist."

7:52 PM- Brad: "I love music and I love pushing the limit.  I love having the music speak to people."

7:55 PM- Art Jones is the VJ for the concert!  According to Patty, he has never worked with classical musicians.  This will be a cool experience for everyone!

8:00 PM- Brad: "It's interesting to wonder what brings people to the concert.  I think it's great that people are there because of music and their appreciation and love of music.  I think that having a response is also really important.  Not applause at the end, it's about the sense of something being given and something being received."

8:03 PM- And that's a wrap!  Brava!  Thank you!  Encore!  Many other words to express the thanks of the FLEFF interns.

What music would you want to hear at a FLEFF concert?  What if it could be anything (Britney Spears, Sutton Foster, Jarhand... literally, anyone!)? Sound off below!