Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies

Ross McElwee has often set out to make a film about one thing, only for it to become about something else entirely. Perhaps the best example is his 1986 film “Sherman’s March.” It started as a Civil War documentary but switched focus to his own love life...

To welcome new students, staff, faculty, and artists in the AFVS, FSC, and CMP community, please join us for an introduction to the Harvard Film Archive focused on the HFA’s collection. We’ll go over how to find material and arrange use for classroom...

Robb Moss Is Still Going with the Flow The documentarian returns to the Grand Canyon for “The Bend in the River,” the third film in his unofficial series on friendship, nature, and the passage of time. Read more.

The Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies congratulates faculty member Matt Saunders on the opening of his solo exhibition, On an Overgrown Path , at Marian Goodman Gallery in New York, on view June 25–August 7, 2026. The exhibition features a new...

The exhibition “The Space of Appearances: A Shared Tongue” is an excerpt from Yulia Spiridonova’s ongoing project “Wayward Son,” which examines contemporary displacement of people from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, and Central Asia. The...

Kathryn Abarbanel, Lecturer in Art, Film, and Visual Studies, has work currently on view at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College through May 24 as part of the exhibition In Focus. First Aid, a sculptural installation, explores themes of fragility, force...