Pleased to announce another showing of the 360º documentary short, “the root is more important than the flower” at Virginia Tech University’s Virginia Dares Cinematic Arts Award for Decolonizing / Re-Indigenizing Media.
"the root is more important than the flower" playing November 2-7 in Immersive Media Program of Aesthetica Film & Media Festival in the UK
Cristina’s 360º documentary short, “the root is more important than the flower/”la raíz es mas importante que la flor” will have its European premiere November 2-7. 2021 in their immersive/VR lab program.
Cristina Presents Masterclass on Immersive Media Sponsored by Government of San Juan, Argentina
The government of San Juan, Argentina and the Secretary of Science, Technology and Innovation have invited Cristina to present the inaugural Virtual Masterclass for the first Immersive Media Course on September 23, 2021 at 7pm.
Cristina presents her two projects, her personal 360 documentary film, “the root is more important than the flower” and her work in progress, “Magic in the Desert.” Cristina’s Indigenous ancestral connection to the San Juan region frames her talk. She is joined by her collaborators, artist and filmmaker, Damián Turkieh and photographer, Maria Beatriz del Rio.
For more information: Government of San Juan Science, Technology and Innovation.
"the root is more important than the flower" to play Canada's Indigenous Asinabka Film & Media Festival 360 Program
Wild Wimmin Films is pleased to announce that "the root is more important than the flower,"* the 360º documentary film, directed, filmed and edited by Cristina Kotz Cornejo and made in collaboration with María Beatriz “Carri” Del Rio, will have its European premiere at the Asinabka Film & Media Festival on September 17th. This 360º documentary was shot in the Cuyo region of what is now San Juan, Argentina, connecting Cristina to her Indigenous ancestral roots and to Huarpe leader, Maria Zalazar.
Thank you to the Huarpe Community Cacique Colchagual: Veronica Lujan, Aldo Zalazar and to Olga Rodriguez and Rosa Del Valle Ferrer!
Estamos contentos de anunciar que "la raíz es más importante que la flor,"* el documental filmada en 360º en San Juan con la Referente Huarpe, Maria Zalazar y el apoyo de la Comunidad Huarpe Cacique Colchagual se estrena en Inglaterra en Noviembre en el Asinabka Film & Media Festival. Gracias a colaboradora, Maria Beatriz "Carri" del Rio!
* Huarpe Poet Armando Gomez Tejada
"the root is more important than the flower" to play in the UK at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival 360 Film Program
Wild Wimmin Films is pleased to announce that "the root is more important than the flower,"* the 360º documentary film, directed, filmed and edited by Cristina Kotz Cornejo and made in collaboration with María Beatriz “Carri” Del Rio, will have its European premiere at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival in November. This 360º documentary was shot in the Cuyo region of what is now San Juan, Argentina, connecting Cristina to her Indigenous ancestral roots and to Huarpe leader, Maria Zalazar.
Thank you to the Huarpe Community Cacique Colchagual: Veronica Lujan, Aldo Zalazar and to Olga Rodriguez and Rosa Del Valle Ferrer!
Estamos contentos de anunciar que "la raíz es más importante que la flor,"* el documental filmada en 360º en San Juan con la Referente Huarpe, Maria Zalazar y el apoyo de la Comunidad Huarpe Cacique Colchagual se estrena en Inglaterra en Noviembre en el Aesthetica Short Film Festival. Gracias a colaboradora, Maria Beatriz "Carri" del Rio!
* Huarpe Poet Armando Gomez Tejada
Kotz Cornejo Wins Grant to Make Virtual Reality Documentary
Photo by Maria Beatriz Del Rio
Visual and Media Arts (VMA) Chair Cristina Kotz Cornejo was in Patagonia last spring when COVID-19 began tearing through country after country.
She was on a Presidential Leave from Emerson to do research for her latest project, a virtual reality/augmented reality film examining a complicated and difficult chapter in Argentina’s history.
She had to cut her research trip short and head back to Buenos Aires, and eventually Boston, as the pandemic gripped much of the world. But she got some good news last week, when the Online News Association (ONA) and Knight Foundation awarded Kotz Cornejo and her production company, Wild Wimmin Films, a $10,000 Journalism 360 Challenge Award for Magic in the Desert.
“The challenge now is going to be moving the project forward without being able to travel back to Patagonia in the near future,” Kotz Cornejo said. “This generous award, along with a Faculty Advancement Fund Grant I was awarded, will help facilitate the work. I am grateful to Lee [Pelton, president] and Michaele [Whelan, provost] for their continued support.”
Magic in the Desert is a virtual exploration of the history of Argentina’s attempt to form its national identity on the extermination of the Indigenous people during the rise of physical anthropology and racial science theories in the mid-19th to early-20th century.
VMA Associate Professor Anya Belkina, left, and Kotz Cornejo at the La Plata Museum in June 2019. Photo/Maria Beatriz Del Rio
The film is centered on Cacique (Chief) Antonio Modesto Inacayal, a leader of the Mapuche-Tehuelche people. Inacayal was taken prisoner in 1884, held with his family, and died in captivity as part of Buenos Aires’ Museum of la Plata’s anthropological “collection,” Kotz Cornejo explained.
Magic in the Desert is Kotz Cornejo’s first immersive film, but it’s a medium she’s been exploring for a few years. In 2018, she attended the Sundance Film Festival specifically to experience the VR/MR films exhibited.
“I became convinced that the project I was exploring was not only best suited to a 360[-degree] spatial experience, but that interactivity within this spatial world could create a deeper and more impactful connection to the subject matter,” she said.
Kotz Cornejo has been collaborating with VMA Associate Professor Anya Belkina, an artist/animator, on the project. Belkina traveled to Argentina in June 2019 to visit the Museum of la Plata and conduct some tests with the Leica BLK360 scanner that the department purchased for Emerson’s Emerging Media Lab.
The Journalism 360 Challenge Award looks to support projects and best practices in immersive journalism. Magic in the Desert was one of 12 projects from around the world selected for a grant.
Cristina Kotz Cornejo Journalism 360 Challenge Winner
2020 Journalism 360 Challenge
The winners of the 2020 Journalism 360 Challenge have been announced! Winners plan to experiment with immersive storytelling techniques to advance the field of journalism and will receive a share of $100,000 for early-stage projects that help expand best practices for technologies, including but not limited to: 360° video, spatial audio, augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality.
Magic in the Desert
Project lead: Cristina Kotz Cornejo • Boston, MA • @ckotzcornejo
MAGIC IN THE DESERT is an immersive VR/MR journey through the complicated history of Argentina’s attempt to form its national identity on the extermination of Indigenous people told through Mapuche/Tehuelche leader Antonio Modesto Inacayal’s time in captivity with his family in the Museum of La Plata and the eventual return of his remains to his birth place in Patagonia.
Lockdown in Argentina: The Wait
On March 20th at midnight, the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez, ordered the unprecedented shutdown of the entire nation including international borders and domestic flights. That Friday the 20th and that Saturday, large numbers of citizens packed up their cars and headed to Mar del Plata and Pinamar, both resort towns that are the center of weekend vacations by Porteños (those who live in Buenos Aires). Once the news and social media started reporting that large amounts of people were headed to these beach towns, the local authorities of these beach towns blocked entry into their communities. The standoff between beach goers and town officials grew heated and ultimately drew the attention of the President who took to making another national address. He immediately announced that he was signing a decree making staying at home mandatory since some people didn’t get the message. In his address to the nation he let everyone know that the decree is law and that it falls under a public health emergency within the parameters of the democratic Republic. He made clear it is not martial law but a law that protects the health of all Argentine citizens and prohibits people from leaving their homes except to buy food, go the pharmacy and hardware stores. The period of this mandatory quarantine or aislamiento social preventivo y obligatorio would last until March 31st.
Read the rest of the story on Medium here, Lockdown in Argentina: The Wait.
Lockdown In Argentina: Against Time
Like most other people who are in some form of isolation or mandatory quarantine, I have found it difficult to focus, especially in the first few days of the Argentine lockdown. Anxiety found its way infiltrating my body and mind in the most unwelcome and uncontrollable manner.
I began the mandatory quarantine or isolation as they call it here in Argentina (aislamiento social preventivo y obligatorio/mandatory and preventive social isolation) on March 20th after “making a run for it” from Villa La Angostura near Bariloche to Buenos Aires.
Read the rest of the story on Medium here, Lockdown in Argentina: Against Time.
Patagonia y Los Mapuche
I was granted a Presidential Leave to spend the Spring 2020 semester researching and traveling in Patagonia, Argentina for work on Magic in the Desert.
Me otorgaron un sabático presidencial para pasar el semestre de primavera de 2020 investigando y viajando en la Patagonia, Argentina para trabajar en Magic in the Desert.
Announcing the 2019 Women in Film/Media Summit on November 18th, 2019
Excited to have organized again and to announce the 2019 Women in Film & Media Summit at Emerson College taking place on Monday, November 18th from 10:45am-10pm, panels with esteemed female talent: writer/director Nicole Dorsey; writer/director Maryam Keshavarz; art director/production designer & Emerson College alumna Devynne Lauchner; Amazon Studios executive Latasha Gillespie; composer Germaine Franco; producer/distributor Karin Chien; artist/filmmaker Michèle Stephenson; producer & director of MIT Open Doc Lab Sarah Wolozin; creative producer & Emerson faculty Linda Reisman; transdisciplinary artist/filmmaker & Emerson faculty Rashin Fahendej; artist/animator & Emerson faculty Anya Belkina; filmmaker & Emerson faculty Julia Halperin; filmmaker & Emerson faculty Rae Shaw and scholar/artist & Emerson faculty Dr. Sarah Zaidan. The event is sponsored by the Department of Visual and Media Arts; student co-curricular group Women in Motion led by President Susana Obando & Vice President Anna Abbanat; the Office of the President and the Office of Academic Affairs. Culminating the day with an Emerson-only screening of the 2019 TIFF premiered feature film, BLACK CONFLUX, with writer/director Nicole Dorsey in attendance. All PANELS are open to the public! @BlackConfluxFilm is a free non-ticketed Emerson community-only & invited guests screening. #2019ECWomeninMediaSummit For more info visit http://web.emerson.edu/wimfilmsummit/ or contact me at c_kotz_cornejo@emerson.edu
Guest VR Filmmaker @ Mass Art Art's Electric Dreams: Frontiers of the Moving Image Class
Artist and Professor Tammy Dudman invited me to be a guest VR filmmaker and to present my 360 documentary work and the research and development progress on Magic in the Desert for her students in her emerging media course, Electric Dreams: Frontiers of the Moving Image at MassArt in Boston.
Student experiencing the 360 documentary, “the root is more important than the flower”
Student experiencing the 360 documentary, “the root is more important than the flower”
Cristina's Acceptance Speech at Caucus' American Spirit Award
Kotz Cornejo receives American Spirit Award in Los Angeles
From Emerson College website:
Emerson Alumnus Henry Winkler ’67 and Professor Cristina Kotz Cornejo were presented with American Spirit Awards Wednesday, May 29, from The Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors for their storytelling work.
Cornejo, associate chair of production in the Visual and Media Arts Department, was honored for Special Achievement in Educating New Filmmakers. Winkler, an Emmy-winning actor, producer, director, and children’s book author, received a Caucus Legend Award during the ceremony held in Los Angeles.
“We are thrilled that the Caucus has recognized these two outstanding Emersonians,” said Provost Michaele Whelan. “Their considerable talent and their commitment over time to telling stories that enlighten, empower, and entertain, exemplify the College’s mission and make us proud.”
Cristina to receive the Special Achievement in Educating New Filmmakers Award!
The Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors’ 13th Annual American Spirit Awards on May 29th will be awarding Cristina Kotz Cornejo the Special Achievement in Educating New Filmmakers.
Visit to FADU Buenos Aires
Cristina was invited to give a talk to students at the University of Buenos Aires’ School of Architecture, Design and Urbanism on “Preparing for Life, Preparing for Work” after film school.
Directing the Future @ CILECT Congress 2018 in Mumbai, India
Cristina presented at the CILECT Congress 2018 in Mumbai, India (November 11-17, 2018)
Directing is a central function for all screen platforms and content formats, and a constantly evolving craft. Though historically it has been the responsibility of a single individual, directing is a practice defined by networks of cooperation and collaboration. It is fundamental to fiction, non-fiction, and animation storytelling across cinema, television and new media, and serves as a principle organizing parameter for film theory and analysis. The majority of screen education programs include the craft of directing, and make it central to the practical aspect of learning for students enrolled in all the screen specialisations. What directing means for new forms such as virtual reality and augmented reality is currently the subject of considerable debate in both the professional and educational environments. This theme will guide content and discourse at the 2018 CILECT Congress by serving as an axis from which to reflect on every aspect of screen art, craft and business, such as old and new platforms, modalities of expression, narratives, digitisation, and the evolving relationships between directing and other screen crafts.
Paris is Back: Will the Indigenous People of Argentina Be Included in New Immersive Territories?
"Argentina, while very slowly making strides to reckon with its practices of discrimination and exclusion, has an opportunity to change how it approaches who receives support for media projects and who the next generation of media makers will be as technologies evolve." Article written by Cristina Kotz Cornejo
Link: AR/VR Journey
Creating a More Inclusive Film Industry
“The issue of women’s representation in the film industry exploded into public consciousness just last year, but, at Emerson, for a long time, faculty, students, staff, and alumni have worked hard to support women who dream of making films.”
"Transparent" Credit Sequence
Season 3 of Transparent by Jill Soloway premiered yesterday and I'm happy to finally announce that footage I shot in 1993, from my first film, produced with Angela Counts about pioneering African American, LGBTQ rights activist, Jewel Thais-Williams and her groundbreaking club, Catch One was chosen for the opening credit sequence. Watch the series on Amazon Prime Video...
Clip from Transparent Opening Credit Sequence...
