Artists and film professionals and enthusiasts from around the globe discussed a wide range of documentaries at the recent Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, hosted for the second year in a row at Colgate University.

For the second year in a row Colgate University will host the prestigious Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. The seminar, now in its 55th year, will run June 20-26.

"We are thrilled to once again be holding the Flaherty at Colgate," said the seminar's executive director, Mary Kerr.

Independent filmmaker Alan Berliner, who is not afraid to point the camera at himself for his experimental documentaries, will spend a week on campus teaching, showing his films, and discussing an exhibition of two of his installations.

The film screenings, lecture, and exhibition are all free and open to the general public during Berliner's visit, which runs from March 30 to April 3.

Berliner garnered widespread attention for his personal documentaries The Sweetest Sound and Nobody's Business, which he followed with Wide Awake, a uniquely personal tour through his lifelong obsession with insomnia.

Two student clubs associated with academic departments collaborated recently on their version of dinner and a movie.

The Sociology and Anthropology Club hosted a special dinner of Middle Eastern food before one of the movies sponsored by the Middle Eastern Studies and Islamic Civilization Club.

A cultural cornucopia is available for members of the campus and local communities as authors, filmmakers, and musicians from around the world will visit Colgate in the coming days.

The university is hosting two longtime events -- the Colgate Writers' Conference and the Chenango Summer MusicFest -- and, for the first time, the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar.

An interdisciplinary symposium -- Nature/Place/Cinema -- will be spread out over two weekends and two campuses (Colgate University and Hamilton College) providing students with behind-the-scenes access to filmmakers and film scholars.

The series of screenings and lectures will draw attention to the depiction of place and the environment, as well as the history of the nature film. It will also examine cinematic manifestations of place, as it relates to contemporary culture, history, and habitat.

Nature/Place/Cinema begins this Friday at 4:15 p.m. at Hamilton College with a screening of John Gianvito's Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind.