Athens Ciné Athens, GA
Katherine Melcher
Landscape Architect; Associate Professor, University of Georgia’s College of Environment and Design
moderated byKeith Wilson
Filmmaker/Producer
I Didn't See You There— Perception IN the urban environment
Program Description
In conversation with the film's producer Keith Wilson, landscape architect Katherine Melcher shares how she uses her philosophy and aesthetic theory to inform and inspire urban design practices, with a special focus on participatory design and community-built places.
Presented At
Athens Ciné Athens, GA
Film Synopsis
When a circus tent goes up outside of his apartment, a disabled filmmaker must confront the legacy of the Freak Show and whether his past autobiographical filmmaking has fit into its tradition.
Spurred by the spectacle of a circus tent that goes up outside his Oakland apartment, a disabled filmmaker launches into a meditative journey exploring the history of freakdom, vision, and (in)visibility. Shot entirely from director Reid Davenport's physical perspective—mounted to his wheelchair or handheld—the film serves as an unequivocal rebuke to the norm of disabled people being seen and not heard. I Didn't See You There expands on the tradition of point-of-view cinema by incorporating a disabled aesthetic generated through Davenport's own embodiment.
About the Speaker
Katherine Melcher is a landscape architect and Associate Professor at the University of Georgia’s College of Environment and Design. Her research uses philosophy and aesthetic theory to inform and inspire urban design practices, with a special focus on participatory design and community-built places. She is the co-editor of the book Community-Built: Art, Construction, Preservation, and Place, published by Routledge in 2017.
Keith Wilson is a filmmaker and visual artist based in San Francisco and Athens, Georgia. His films have screened at Sundance, the Berlinale, South by Southwest, the U.S. National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. For his in-progress film and interactive project, the Untitled Frank Moore Project, he was a 2019 North Points Fellow and a 2018 BAVC Mediamakers Fellow. He was the recipient of two Kenneth Rainin Foundation grants from the San Francisco Film Society