In some cultures, there is a belief that to take one’s picture is to steal one’s soul. Documentary filmmakers must be particularly mindful of the ethical dilemmas that arise when working with real people in real situations. Jan Krawitz will screen her films Styx, Mirror Mirror, and Big Enough (excerpts) and talk about her production process and the implicit contract between the filmmaker and her subjects.
Jan Krawitz is a documentary filmmaker who began her teaching career at The University of Texas at Austin before becoming a Professor at Stanford University in 1988. Her documentaries have been shown at festivals here and abroad including Sundance, The New York Film Festival, South by Southwest, and the London Film Festival. Four of her films have been broadcast nationally on PBS. Her 2004 film, Big Enough, was shown on television in 18 countries. Krawitz has had retrospectives of her films at the Portland Art Museum, Hood Museum of Art, the Austin Film Society, and the Ann Arbor Film Festival. She has been awarded a one-year Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard and an artist’s residency at Yaddo.