Each summer the Storytellers’ Institute hosts four documentary artists. In 2017, the Institute welcomes Betty Yu, Daesha Devón Harris, Gedney Barclay and Asa Horvitz, Harjant Gill.
BETTY YU
Betty Yu is a Chinese-American NYC based filmmaker, multi-media artist, media educator and social justice activist. Her works have shown at national and international film festivals including the Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival and Tribeca Film Institute’s Interactive 2014. She is the recipient of the Union Square Award for grassroots activism and a semi-finalist of the National Brick “Do Something” Award for community leadership in Chinatown. She holds a B.F.A. from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and a M.F.A. from Hunter College…
DAESHA DEVON HARRIS
Daesha Devón Harris, a Saratoga Springs native and documentary photographer, creates powerful multimedia pieces that speak to social issues in a creative and compelling way. Her photos depict subjects not as victims, instead showing them in a light of determination that illuminates Daesha’s relentless optimism. Harris discusses her practice, which includes individual and collective portraits of African-American and other often-unrecognized communities in Saratoga Springs, and use of archival and historical research and images…
GEDNEY BARCLAY & ASA HORVITZ
Gedney Barclay and Asa Horvitz’s collaboration goes back ten years, beginning with the founding of an experimental performance group at Wesleyan University. Since then they have made a number of large-scale performances together on both coasts of the US as well as individually presented performances, concerts, and exhibitions across the US and Europe. Their work weaves firsthand testimony with music, film, and performance to explore the role of ideology, imagination, and fantasy in contemporary life…
HARJANT GILL
Harjant Gill is an award-winning filmmaker and visual anthropologist whose work casts a spotlight on urgent and often overlooked social issues, helping marginalized members of society feel less isolated and more understood. Gill’s research and films explore the intersections of gender, sexuality, religion, citizenship, transnationality, and notions of belonging with a particular focus on Indian and diasporic masculinities. Gill studied visual anthropology at San Francisco State University and has a PhD in Anthropology from American University…
