We’re thrilled to unveil the official trailer for Art of the Real: Counter Encounters, taking place on November 19-21! This year’s edition features a vibrant collection of works by acclaimed filmmakers from around the world and encompasses works by historical and contemporary filmmakers, artists, collectives, and communities. Their practices not only disturb classical ethnographic paradigms, but also reinvent an art of the real in itself. Watch the trailer above or below and explore the full lineup and get tickets, including All-Access Passes here.

On Saturday, November 20 at 4pm, join us in the Amphiteather for a Free Talk between curators Laura Huertas Millán and Rachael Rakes and filmmakers from the program, Carlos Motta, Basel Abbas, and Ruanne Abou-Rahme. Click here for more information.

Counter Encounters is a cinephilic letter to ethnography, one of rupture and reignition, inviting consideration by everyone interested in building visual cultures of mutual recognition. Almost since its inception, ethnography has reckoned with its own complicated foundations, among them its roots in colonialism, and the imbalanced and troubled relations inherent in a one-sided narrative of encounter. Through this self-reflection and reinvention, new forms of cinema have been devised by ethnographers and artists, which have helped to question and reinvent the languages representing alterity.