“Objects and Memory”

A presentation about the acclaimed documentary “Objects and Memory,” will be given by its producer-director, Jonathan Fein. The documentary examines how humans preserve the past through the accumulation, cataloguing and display of physical things. The film was screened on PBS to commemorate the seventh and tenth anniversaries of 9/11.

“The film … explores the otherwise ordinary things in our homes and museums that mean the most to us because of what they represent, and about how we respond to momentous events while they are happening,” explained producer-director Fein.

For 13 years, Fein has done research for his film, as well as for an upcoming book. The themes probed by the documentary include: how we navigate through a physical world, how things get into museums, how we recognize history as it is happening, why we make and collect art, how we make sense of turbulent times, how we memorialize the past, what fundamental human qualities drive our responses.

“Objects and Memory” has been screened across the United States, complemented by a lecture-workshop by the filmmaker in venues that include the University of Massachusetts, the New-York Historical Society, Columbia University, the University of Maryland, the School of Visual Arts, the University of Rochester, Rutgers University, the Philbrook Museum, Indiana University, the University of Central Oklahoma, the Brooklyn Museum, St. John’s University, and the Carnegie Institution.

The film was honored with the 2010 American Association for State and Local History Award of Merit and was the opening event of the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums annual conference.

For more information about the film, please visit www.objectsandmemory.org.

Free admission, made possible through NY Council for the Humanities.