4th April 2011: Upcoming film treats care of the festival and Migration Week at UCL

Lucy Special: 12th RAI Film Festival

Image from About a Village
(dir. John.C.Swanson 2011)

The 12th RAI film festival is fast approaching, hosted by University College London between 23-26th June 2011. Until the 15th May, it’s possible to get a special ‘early bird’ rate, along with in-depth detail of films being shown and associated events. Details can be found at www.raifilmfest.org which is being constantly updated as information comes in ‘on the wire’. I checked it out and got a flavour of the global filmic delights in store and started planning!


As films are grouped according to categories of professional and student prizes, I started by looking at the general areas of anthropological discussion represented. Engagement with the experience of globalised humanity is a definite thread; reaching far beyond any sense of holism to explore the play of social and cultural mixing and movement. The strand which most speaks to this addresses migration which I’ll be following throughout Friday. This is, appropriately enough, moving around the venues, creating a journey within the journeys and travels from Italy with ‘Me, My Gypsy Family and Woody Allen’ (Laura Halilovic) and ‘Other Europe’ (Rossella Schillaci) through Germany and Hungary in ‘About a Village’ (John.C.Swanson) to arrive in Switzerland and ‘For Love’ (Isabelle Stuessi). For me, though, the ‘must-see’ looks fascinating as well as having a clever play on a mainstream title, which is ‘No Country for Young Men’ (Sadaf Javdani) which is shot across multiple sites of migratory experience in Iran, Berlin and London.

All the films, made over the past couple of years, tie-in nicely with UCL’s ‘Migration Week’ event (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/intercultural-interaction/migration-week) which started on Monday and has a series of lectures, panel discussions, and conferences exploring topics ranging across the fields of health, economic and social challenge, policy, and the EU Migration Package. An accompanying exhibition explores, amongst other things, the contagious-sounding ‘Egyptomania’ and the ‘Filming Migration’ event on 6th April 2011 is showing five films with a panel discussion. All events are free, requiring no registration so I’m going to brush up on my migration knowledge before I pack my anthro passport and hop on board the good ship RAI film fest ;)

Asia House talk today-update!

Hi everyone, just to let you know, the talk is on at 18.45 tonight at Asia House-I noticed that the website doesn't have the time so I rang them-hope to see you there!

29 Mar 2011: George Magnus and Gideon Rachman on rising Asian economic power

See you down at Asia House this evening to get up-to-date  analysis on the realignment of world powers after the  economic meltdown has finished biting chunks out of former centres of power in the U.S and Europe. George Magnus and Gideon Rachman discuss rising Asian prosperity in the 'Post Crisis World', following the publishing of George Magnus'  book 'Uprising' in which he discusses how in 'the East' could well soon be putting 'the West' in the economic shade. 

  

http://georgemagnus.com/books 

http://www.asiahouse.org/net/home.aspx

26th March 2010: Youth Producing Change film screenings 3.30pm at the ICA

Calling all film-lovers and lovers of freedom of expression! Join me in this great opportunity to see 11 short films made by young people from across the globe as part of Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Their rarely-seen perspective encompasses a range of issues affecting the social, cultural, political and physical environments that they both come from and film in.

It is a chance to gain a particular 'view from within', as well as voice, on the personal issues and concerns that face the young film-makers in relation to their locality but which is inevitably linked to the bigger social and cultural pictures in which they are played out. Issues explored include resource scarcity and the impact on Ngarrindjer community values and customs in Australia, toxic waste affecting community health in the U.S, the challenges that curfews and containment pose for Palestinian teenagers, caste system restrictions on an Indian girl's education, a Haitian's experience of non-entity through lack of birth certificate, and an Afghan young man seeking asylum in the U.K. Referencing themes from sex to death, all of human life is here, as seen and presented by young people producing documentary material which could easily double as visual anthropology.

Some of the film-makers are going to be present and talking about their work and the whole 72 minute extravaganza can be had for the bargain price of £5 if the word 'CHANGE' is mentioned when ordering tickets at the ICA box office in person. Tickets can also be ordered over the phone on 0208 7930 3647.

Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH

View the trailer online here.

Listen to a podcast interview with the Youth Producing Change Filmmakers.

Afghanistan's hidden treasures at the British Museum

It's finally here! I've been waiting with eager anticipation to get to see the treasures of Afghanistan in this new exhibition at the British Museum. This amazing folding crown belonged to a nomadic group buried at Tillya Tepe in Afghanistan in the 1st century. Designed to be portable to suit the nomadic lifestyle, it's 21st century travels have brought it to the UK to become a star exhibit in the 'Afghanistan' exhibition, running until 3rd July 2011. Spanning the centuries BC to AD, the material culture exhibited describes both diverse and mingled cultures within a region that historically provided one of the meeting points of East-West travel, trade and conquest. The existence of the exhibition's collection in itself tells a story as objects were secretly stored to save them from destruction in recent histories of civil war and Taliban rule. This risky venture ensured their survival, preserving a cross-section of lives and times descriptive of Afghanistan's cultural, historical and geographical place and space. They also provide a window through which to consider wider, present-day experiences, and their expression in material cultures, of political and economic movements, cultural mixity, ways of living, and forms of belief and power.

For more details go to http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/future_exhibitions/afghanistan.aspx

Lucy's Back!

Hello and welcome back to regular updates from Anthropologist About Town! I am fresh back from my holidays and ready to unearth anthropological happenings all over the country!

As I can't physically be 'about town' throughout the UK, I welcome your input to update me on the many and various events, exhibitions, film-screenings, festivals and celebrations or general occurrences that you feel relate to anthropology. Many ears to the ground are better than one and I want to gain a rich mixture of UK-wide material, reflective of the many areas and aspects of anthropological interest and investigation. Simply by getting involved, you will be actively participating in an area which is of great interest to anthropology-a system of exchange, circulating information through communication.

If you are a student let us all know about the events happening at your school, college or university as well as anything locally you think would be of interest to fellow anthropologists. If you're not a student but connected to the world of anthropology in any way, shape or form or simply interested and intrigued by the subject, please join in the adventure of sharing and exploring all things anthropological. There is so much out there of interest for the anthropologically-minded, it would be great for us to pull together to form our own interactive community. So, whatever it is, if it hits your anthropological 'spot' and provides a useful resource for others, please send in your links and suggestions via the contact info provided, preferably with your thoughts on how they relate to this fascinating and diverse subject. Also, let me know what's working and what's not on the blog and get commenting!

As I am just back, I will just post this one event for the moment with more to follow. However, this one is happening today so is hot off the press-hope those of you in London can join me there! More very soon, Lucy.

Wed 16th March: Jean Rouch screenings at the BFI

As part of the BFI Essential Experiments strand at BFI Southbank, NFT2, two films by Jean Rouch will be shown. The first is 'Les Maître Fous' (1955), depicts a Hauka ceremony in West Africa. The second is his first , influential film 'Moi, un noir' (1958) which blends fiction with documentary devices. Screenings are Introduced by Dr Lucy Reynolds, lecturer, artist and film curator and cost £9.50 (Concs. £6.75, BFI Members pay £1.50 less). For more detail visit http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/bfi_southbank/events/essential_experiments/two_by_jean_rouch and if you want more information about Jean Rouch, there is 'The Adventure of the Real: Jean Rouch and the Craft of Ethnographic Cinema', published in 2009 by Professor Paul Henley for University of Chicago Press (http://www.press.uchicago.edu).