Walker Art Center Presents Screening and Artist Talk with Filmmaker Astra Taylor
The Walker Art Center presents a Raising Creative Kids screening and lecture featuring filmmaker Astra Taylor. The two-evening engagement brings back Taylor’s film Examined Life, which was screened as part of this year’s Women with Vision festival, on Wednesday, October 21, 7:30 pm. The documentary asks nine of today’s most influential thinkers to express their views on existence and the moral dilemmas of modern life in 10 minutes. The following evening, Thursday, October 22, 7 pm, features the free artist talk Astra Taylor on the Unschooled Life, where she discusses being home-schooled by independent parents and how this has shaped her educational philosophy and development as an artist.
Astra Taylor, a writer and documentary filmmaker, was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 2001 she produced, directed, and edited The Miracle Tree: Moringa Oleifera, a documentary commissioned by a non-governmental organization to record efforts of a sustainable development project in Senegal to alleviate the plight of infant malnutrition. Taylor also directed Zizek!, about the famous Slovenian cultural theorist. One of Filmmaker magazine’s 2006 “25 New Faces to Watch,” Taylor currently runs Hidden Driver Productions—which specializes in intellectual, cultural, and political issues—with Laura Hanna.
Film: Examined Life
Directed by Astra Taylor
Wednesday, October 21, 7:30 pm
$8 ($6 Walker members)
Cinema
Referencing Socrates’ quote “The unexamined life is not worth living,” Astra Taylor gives nine influential thinkers—Cornel West, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Hardt, Slavoj iek, Judith Butler, and Sunaura Taylor—10 minutes each to express their views on existence and the moral dilemmas of modern life. A witty and insightful journey through these spheres of thought, the film screened to a sold out audience as part of the Walker’s 2009 Women with Vision festival. Now it’s back as a prelude to Taylor’s talk on October 22. 2008, 35mm, 87 minutes.
Artist Talk: Astra Taylor on the Unschooled Life
Thursday, October 22, 7 pm, Free
Cinema
Raised by independent-thinking bohemian parents, Taylor was unschooled until age 13. Join the filmmaker as she shares her personal experiences of growing up home-schooled without a curriculum or schedule, and how it has shaped her educational philosophy and development as an artist.
Tickets to Examined Life are $8 ($6 Walker members) and are available at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling 612.375.7600. Screening takes place in the Walker Cinema.