Welcome to the RAI Film Festival Programme 2019!
Explore the 2019 programme below, either by browsing the separate sections, or looking at the timetable view.
Student showcases films made by the new generation of ethnographic filmmakers, often as part of doctoral projects
RAI/Basil Wright features the films competing for the top prizes at this year’s festival
Material Culture focuses on films with something to say about the way we engage with our material world
Intangible Culture explores worlds of music, dance, performance, and ritual
Special Interest explores a range of fascinating topics, including programmes with a special director or thematic focus
Shorts is new for 2019, and celebrates the best in short-form ethnographic filmmaking as a cauldron of innovation
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Wednesday
27 March-
Cinema 1
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Queer Brazil! Programme 1
1:30 PM - 2:40 PM
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King On, Brasil!Directed by Luiza Folegatti
King On, Brasil! is a short documentary featuring six Brazilian Drag Kings and their use of social media to share their work, knowledge and performances which in turn strengthen their community. The video consists of screen cast footage of uploaded videos, photos and Skype interviews while they are involved in the transformation process of becoming their drag selves.
King On, Brasil! screens as part of Queer Brazil! Programme 1.
Duration 15 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Germany Brazil
Location(s) depicted Social Media (Instagram, Facebook) and Skype.
Language(s) of film subjects Portuguese
web site http://cargocollective.com/lfolegatti/King-ON-Brasil
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SundayDirected by Paulo Mendel Vitor Grunvald
A colourful and noisy encounter with Família Stronger, a LGBTQIA+ collective in the neighbourhood of Jardim Nazaré, on São Paulo’s periphery. Across a split screen, Sunday portrays a single day in which the collective gather for a lively lunch get-together, then head out into the streets for a protest against the conservative forces behind the 2016 coup d'état. The camera moves freely amongst the boisterous group, capturing spirited banter amongst this alternative queer family (“hey DJ, why the fuck you changed the Spice Girls Song? I’m a fag and I want to party dammit”“), and the force of their political will against a state that seeks to repress their voice.
Screening in Queer Brazil! Programme 1
Duration 25 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Brazil
Location(s) depicted Sao Paulo
Language(s) of film subjects Portuguese
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Positive Youtubers – A Machinima DocumentaryDirected by Leandro Goddinho
An experimental documentary made with footage material recorded from the computer desktop screen, about four Brazilians who have created Youtube Channels to talk openly about their HIV status. They explain how this platform disseminates information, counter prejudice, and offers positive images of those living with HIV. A fresh an inventive look at activism in the Web 2.0 era.
Positive YouTubers screens as part of Queer Brazil! Programme 1.
Duration 15 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Germany Brazil
Location(s) depicted ONLINE
Language(s) of film subjects Portuguese
web site https://www.facebook.com/cinematransgenero/
RAIFilm web page /films/positive-youtubers-a-machinima-documentary
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Queer Brazil! Programme 2
3:15 PM - 4:45 PM
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Knots and Holes. An Essay Film on the Life of Nets.Directed by Mattijs Van de Port
A singular anthropological essay film that observes the various nets we find across different contexts in Bahia (from fishing nets to delicate nets of lace), and the emotions and sensations associated with them. It continues to ponder how these nets materialize principles of connection, of filtering and of patterning. As the scope widens to the nets of longitude and latitude that encircle the globe, and of virtual networks like Grindr, Van de Port wonders aloud how connection, filtering and patterning play themselves out in his own life – as a filmmaker, as an anthropologist, as a-gay-man-in-love.
Director Mattijs Van de Port will take part in a Q&A following this screening.
Duration 74 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Netherlands
Location(s) depicted Bahia, Brazil
Language(s) of film subjects English, Portuguese
RAIFilm web page /films/knots-and-holes-an-essay-film-on-the-life-of-nets
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Opening Night
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
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Opening Night Screening: Edge of the KnifeDirected by Gwaai Edenshaw Helen Haig-Brown
We are delighted to open the 16th RAI Film Festival with Edge of the Knife, the recipient of this year's President's Medal.
Edge of the Knife is the first feature film in the endangered Haida language, spoken in the Haida Gwaii archipelago off the coast of Canada and on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska. The film is a historical tale based on Haida oral story-telling and mythology. Set in a seasonal fishing camp, Edge of the Knife centres on the relationship between the nobleman Adiits’ii and his best friend Kwa. After Adiits’ii causes the accidental death of Kwa’s son, he flees into the rainforest, descending into madness and transforming into Gaagiixid – “the Wildman.” When the families return in the spring, they discover Adiits’ii has survived the winter. Can he be rescued and returned to his humanity? Meanwhile, Kwa wrestles with his deepest desire – revenge.
Having survived decades of hardship and cultural genocide, Haida today are reclaiming their language with hard work and dedication. The film is part of thriving cultural and language revitalisation programme; fluent elders carefully translated the script into three Haida dialects and trained the fully-Haida cast in memorizing, pronouncing, and expressing their lines.
William Mitchell Russ - one of the film's lead actors - will attend this screening to accept the Award, and take part in a Q&A.
Duration 100 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Canada
Location(s) depicted Haida Gwaii, Canada
Language(s) of film subjects Haida
RAIFilm web page /films/opening-night-screening-edge-of-the-knife
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Cinema 3
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The Women Weavers of Assam
3:10 PM - 5:10 PM
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The Women Weavers of AssamDirected by Aparna Sharma
The Women Weavers of Assam focuses on the craft, labour and the everyday lives of a group of women weavers in India’s northeastern state of Assam. The weavers belong to a non-profit collective called Tezpur District Mahila Samiti (TDMS), which was founded a century ago by women activists and Gandhian freedom fighters of Assam. The TDMS weavers preserve traditional motifs and methods of Assamese weaving, which have been declining since the introduction of mechanized cloth production in India. Montages of weaving blend with the weavers' accounts of their personal experiences, generating an evocative representation of the environment and the rhythms of TDMS, and the cultural significance of hand-weaving as a craft and industry in Assam.
Duration 98 minutes
Year of production 2019
Countries of production India United States
Location(s) depicted Assam
Language(s) of film subjects Assamese with English subtitles
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Waterside 2
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Creative Mentorship - Session 1
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
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Forum
Creative Mentorship - Session 1Forum
Convened by Caterina Sartori
This special event provides a chance to glimpse exciting new ethnographic film projects in the making. In these sessions, filmmakers will pitch their projects and share a short extract from their works-in-progress. They will have the chance to receive guidance and advice from a panel of experts, and hear audience responses for the first time.
This first session is dedicated to short film projects. The experts providing feedback will be:
Andre Singer - Director and Producer, SpringFilms
Angela de Souza Torresan - Lecturer in Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester
The four short film projects being considered are:
"Komor: Journeys Through the Tajik Underground" by Hattie Brooks-Ward and Negar Behzadi
"A Temporary Home" by Meghanne Barker
"Maquiladora" by Miguel Gaggiotti
"The Third Day" by Patrick Mitri
Duration 105 minutes
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Forum
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Creative Mentorship - Session 2
3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
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Forum
Creative Mentorship - Session 2Forum
Convened by RAI Film Festival
A chance to glimpse exciting new ethnographic film projects in the making. In these sessions, filmmakers will pitch their projects and share a short extract from their works-in-progress. They will have the chance to receive guidance and advice from a panel of experts, and hear audience responses for the first time.
This first session is dedicated to feature film projects. The experts providing feedback will be:
Christopher Hird - Managing Director, Dartmouth Films Andrè Singer - Director and Producer, SpringFilms
The film projects being considered are:
Flotacija by Zoe Aiano
Over My Dead Body
by Anna SaridiUnwritten Letters by Max Bloching
Living Water by Pavel Borecký
Duration 105 minutes
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Forum
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Waterside 3
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Conference
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
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Conference
Panel 01: Indigenous Cinema: past, present and futureConference
Convened by Renato Athias (PPGA / UFPE) Rodrigo Lacerda (CRIA / NOVA FCSH / ISCTE-IUL)
Full title - Indigenous Cinema: past, present and future
Indigenous cinema is a very diverse and global category with more than fifty years of history. The panel seeks submissions to analyze the past, present and future of indigenous cinema, including papers centered on case studies that allow us to think about the general framework, or broad reflections applicable to different contexts.
Speakers will include: Sneha Mundari, in conversation with Ricardo Leizaola (Goldsmiths, University of London), Martha-Cecilia Dietrich (University of Bern).
Further details to follow.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-01-indigenous-cinema-past-present-and-future
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Conference
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Conference
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
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Conference
Panel 02: How to frame a poem in a film with others?Conference
Convened by Roseline Lambert (Concordia University) Rachel McCrum (Mile End Poets Festival)
Full title - How to frame a poem in a film with others? Experiences of translation between different langages, poems, pictures and borders
This panel aims to discuss the realisation of film-poems in a context of intercultural artistic collaboration. The idea of this panel comes from the recent experiment of the project Moving Pictures and Borders, an international writing and film project matching writers with filmmakers across six countries.
Speakers will include: Eric Bent (Artist and Animator), Annie Watson (Sheffield Hallam University), and Katharine Cox (Sheffield Hallam University).
Full abstracts to follow.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-02-how-to-frame-a-poem-in-a-film-with-othersij
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Conference
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Thursday
28 March-
Cinema 1
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Wives
8:50 AM - 10:30 AM
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WivesDirected by Lisbet Holtedahl
Alhajji Ibrahim is an Islamic scholar who has served as judge at the Sultanate of Ngaoundéré in Northern Cameroon for 46 years. The film follows Alhajji during the last years of his life, focusing on the relationships in a polygamous family. Living far away from urban centres, people like Alhaji and his family struggle to adapt to the arrival of modern education, their increasing marginalization, worsening poverty, and, in recent years, the constant threat of the Boko Haram insurgency. Shot over several years, Wives provides rare, intimate glimpses into the dynamics of a West-African polygamous Muslim family, and the challenges faced by an older generation whose norms and values are losing legitimacy in a rapidly changing environment.
Duration 85 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Norway
Location(s) depicted Cameroon
Language(s) of film subjects Fulfulde
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Thinking like a Mountain
11:00 AM - 12:45 PM
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Thinking like a MountainDirected by Alexander Hick
The Arhuacos are the guardians of the forest and the ice of Colombia’s highest mountain - the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. This indigenous community draw a sustained and singular spirituality from this unique environment, in which they have purposely isolated themselves. Whilst this community does not seem to have changed for centuries, its survival has been hard won. Thinking Like a Mountain is an elegant, meditative montage of images that introduces us to the Arhuacos, their cosmology, and their beautiful landscapes - and the shifting political contexts on the fringes of their lands. It is a story of resistance and preservation, through a voyage in space and time: from the shores of the Caribbean to the stars that light up the night on the glacier; from the Arhuacos encounter with the first European colonists, to the homecoming of an Arhuaco guerrillero following the laying-down of arms by the FARC.
Duration 91 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Colombia
Location(s) depicted Sierra Nevada Santa Marta
Language(s) of film subjects Chibcha, Spanish, German
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AWAKE, A Dream from Standing Rock
1:15 PM - 3:00 PM
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AWAKE, A Dream from Standing RockDirected by Josh Fox James Spione Myron Dewey
The native-led resistance to the construction of a pipeline across the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, North Dakota, captured the world’s attention. Awake tells the story of the defiant Water Protectors, moving from summer 2016, when demonstrations over the demolition of sacred Native burial grounds began, to the current and disheartening pipeline status. Awake is a landmark collaboration between Oscar-nominated filmmakers Josh Fox and James Spione and indigenous filmmakers - director Myron Dewey, producer Doug Good Feather, and writer Floris White Bull, who also narrates the film. A powerful visual poem that goes beyond the headlines into the heart of this game-changing protest, in the words of those who led it.
Unfortunately, Executive Producer Doug Good Feather will no longer be able to attend this screening as previously announced.
Duration 89 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production United States
Location(s) depicted Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, North Dakota/South Dakota, Missouri River
Language(s) of film subjects English
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Heartbound
3:40 PM - 5:15 PM
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HeartboundDirected by Janus Metz Sine Plambech
In a small, wind-swept fishing community on the Northern coast of Denmark live 926 Thai-women. 25 years ago there were none. Heartbound is a unique study of this unprecedented network of Thai/Danish marriages. Shot over ten years, it follows four couples and their children, documenting how their lives develop alongside the economic and emotional bonds that tie them together. A fascinating exploration of globalization set on the intimate stage of marriage and family.
Heartbound is the recipient of the Richard Werbner Award for Visual Ethnography 2019. Director Sine Plambech will attend this screening for a discussion chaired by anthropologist Gabriel Dattreyan, who judged the Award this year.
Duration 90 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Denmark
Location(s) depicted Denmark
Language(s) of film subjects DanishThai
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Cinema 2
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Student Programme 1
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
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The Absence of ApricotsDirected by Daniel Asadi Faezi
In the Hunza Valley in the northern Pakistan there is a magnificent turquoise lake. But the lake hasn’t been always there: it is the result of a massive landslide that blocked a river, causing massive floods which immersed fields and entire village. Thousands of people got dislocated and had to look for different places where to live. All that remain are memories, passed to the new generation in stories. The Absence of Apricots surveys this haunted landscape, sketching everyday life of its inhabitants, as it is interwoven with memory, myth, and loss.
Duration 49 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Pakistan Germany
Location(s) depicted Hunza-Valley
Language(s) of film subjects Burushaski
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Paani: of women and waterDirected by Costanza Burstin
Against the bleached sky of Rajasthan, we encounter the women of a small Muslim village as they engage in their work. Here, water binds their daily labour rituals: they collect and carry water in massive urns, they clean plates and clothes with it, water their animals, and even maintain their homes with it (we see them churn mud to smear across their floors). A record of the ongoing cycles of women’s labour (“we make food, we eat, we sleep, we wake up…”), their sense of humour and resilience, and the ways the community co-operate to deal with scarcity.
Duration 22 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production India
Location(s) depicted Rajasthan
Language(s) of film subjects HindiMarwari(English subtitles)
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Student Programme 2
11:15 AM - 12:50 PM
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Walker'sDirected by Kyle Myers-Haugh
In this portrait of a historic black barbershop in Wilmington, North Carolina, we witness the everyday rituals that bind the men in this community together. Tight close ups illuminate intimate physical interactions in this space, and the craftsmanship of the barber; an evocative soundtrack mingles the buzz of shears with the gentle chatter between customers and those who tenderly shave, wash and groom them. Walker’s, the eponymous barbershop, emerges as a key social institution, at heart of a community.
Duration 11 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production United States
Location(s) depicted
Language(s) of film subjects English
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Niishii | Night WorldsDirected by Saranya Nayak
What happens to a town after sunset? What happens to life and light?
Niishii is an evocative tour through the night time hours in the town of Dubrajpur (West Bengal, India). Here, amidst inky darkness, faces are illuminated by cool fluorescent light. Their owners tell stories of night - as it used to be, prior to electrification, as it is now, and the ghosts one may encounter in it. We see families gather to eat, we visit amusement parks, markets and “drinking dens” (where, one drinker tells us, “darkness is best”), and witness the labour that continues through the night.
A sensuous ethnography, Niishii richly evokes the lightscapes and soundscapes that characterise this affective, and highly active, zone of life.
Director Saranya Nayak will attend this screening and take part in a Q&A.
Duration 22 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production United Kingdom
Location(s) depicted Dubrajpur, West Bengal (India)
Language(s) of film subjects Bangla (Bengali)
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This is My FaceDirected by Angélica Cabezas Pino
In Chile, people living with HIV fear stigma, and often conceal their condition and remain silent about what they are going through. This is My Face explores what happens when a range of men living with the virus open up about the illness that changed their life trajectories. It follows a creative process whereby they produce photographic portraits that represent their (often painful) memories and feelings, a process which helps them challenge years of silence, shame, and misrepresentation. A lesson in the power of collaborative storytelling.
Duration 57 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Chile
Location(s) depicted Chile
Language(s) of film subjects Spanish
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Cinema 3
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Horror in the AndesZahida
9:15 AM - 10:40 AM
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Horror in the AndesDirected by Martha-Cecilia Dietrich
Horror in the Andes is a behind-the-scenes documentary that follows the process of making a horror movie in Ayacucho, Peru. Directed by audio-visual anthropologist Martha-Cecilia Dietrich, it explores how Andean filmmakers use the horror genre as a means to revive stories of a pre-colonial past. Appropriating a global cinematic language to tell local (hi)stories, our attention is drawn to contemporary social issues and the legacies of violent pasts. Infused with warmth and affection, Horror in the Andes pays testament to the craft of filmmaking and its community.
Duration 33 minutes
Year of production 2019
Countries of production Peru United Kingdom
Location(s) depicted Ayacucho
Language(s) of film subjects SpanishQuechua(English subtitles)
web site https://filmmakingforfieldwork.co.uk/horror-in-the-andes
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ZahidaDirected by Seemab Gul
Zahida is a unique woman in Pakistan: she is the nation's only female taxi driver. This sensitive film provides fascinating insight into the personal and professional trials faced by this strong woman, who will not take no for an answer.
Director Seemab Gul will attend the screening to take part in a Q&A.
Zahida screens in a double bill with Horror in the Andes.
Duration 28 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production United Kingdom
Location(s) depicted Pakistan
Language(s) of film subjects Urdu
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Student Programme 3
1:20 PM - 3:00 PM
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LegaciesDirected by Clair Maleney
The pioneering approach of Jubilee School in West Philadelphia seeks to empower its students (mainly black, and from low-income households), via a curriculum which highlights the arts, social justice, and Black History. In an approach reminiscent of Frederick Wiseman’s (though more modest in scope), Legacies surveys this institution from top to bottom. Filming over several months, the filmmaker present in the daily life of the school; footage of everyday classroom interactions and staff meetings mixes with interviews with students, past students, teachers and parents. The result is a fascinating examination of critical pedagogy, and what it takes to enact it on a day to day basis.
Director Clair Maleney will attend this screening and take part in a Q&A.
Duration 34 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Netherlands United States
Location(s) depicted Philadelphia, USA
Language(s) of film subjects English
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IT WAS TOMORROWDirected by Alexandra D'onofrio
After living in Italy for almost ten years without documents, three Egyptian men - Ali, Mahmoud and Mohamed - are suddenly awarded legal residence. As a whole new world of opportunities opens up to them, they revisit the ports where they arrived in Italy as teenagers after hazardous journeys across the Mediterranean. Here, difficult memories are intertwined with fantasies about what could be, or could have been, and their possible new lives. Through creative collaborative filmmaking that weaves animation, theatre and storytelling with documentary images, we are able to delve deep into the memories and imaginations of these young men.
Duration 53 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Italy United Kingdom
Location(s) depicted Milan Lampedusa Sicily Porto Nogaro (Udine)
Language(s) of film subjects ItalianArabicEnglish subsArabic subsSpanish subs
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Student Programme 4
3:30 PM - 5:10 PM
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Welcome Valentine 2017Directed by Dhruv Satija
In a temple dedicated to Hanuman in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, a priest flouts convention by marrying couples who are shunned elsewhere: mostly those who have eloped from families who disapprove of their union, but also, even more controversially, same-sex couples. A portrait of a staggeringly progressive and liberal institution, that counters the conservatism and orthodoxy found elsewhere in India’s religious communities.
Duration 16 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production India
Location(s) depicted Ahmedabad
Language(s) of film subjects Hindi with English subtitles
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The world is round so that nobody can hide in the corners – Part II: The KissDirected by Leandro Goddinho
The second instalment in a series of shorts that explore LGBTQ+ experiences across the globe, envisioning a queer diasporic community. The Kiss stages an act of public sensuality at the Gay Holocaust memorial in Berlin, celebrating romance whilst considering the possible hate and terror this simple gesture can inspire.
Duration 5 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Germany
Location(s) depicted Berlin
Language(s) of film subjects English
web site https://www.facebook.com/cinematransgenero/
RAIFilm web page /films/the-world-is-round-so-that-nobody-can-hide-in-the-corners-part-ii-the-kiss
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The world is round so that nobody can hide in the corners – Part I: RefugeDirected by Leandro Goddinho
The first instalment in a series of shorts that explore LGBTQ+ experiences across the globe, envisioning a queer diasporic community. In Refuge, we hear the moving account of a young man forced to flee Nigeria, and seek asylum in Germany, because of his sexuality.
Duration 10 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Germany
Location(s) depicted Berlin, Rostock
Language(s) of film subjects English
web site https://www.facebook.com/cinematransgenero/
RAIFilm web page /films/the-world-is-round-so-that-nobody-can-hide-in-the-corners-part-i-refuge
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A very Dai GirlDirected by MengHua Zhang
This film quietly observes her daily life of Xiao Yue, a bright 22-year-old young woman from Yunnan province in the South of China. We see Xiao Yue cook, care for her grandmother, sew, and farm - but also visit an amusement arcade with friends, and talk with her boyfriend on her smartphone. Xiao Yue is of the Dai ethnic group, and whilst she prepares costumes for traditional celebrations, she reflects on her aversion to marrying a fellow Dai, seeking the greater gender equality and modernity she perceives in China’s dominant Han culture. A subtle and affectionate portrait of a young woman embedded in a traditional culture yet networked into the global flows of images and ideologies.
Duration 27 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production China
Location(s) depicted Denghong Autonomous Prefecture Yunnan Province, China
Language(s) of film subjects Dai language, Mandarin
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NHENHADirected by Andre Bahule Karen Boswall
“We work the land and we dance. That’s what we know how to do” explains Maria in this portrait of the lives of three generations of women in southern Mozambique. The dance they dance is the Xingomana: originally a dance of seduction, it grew into one of affirmation of women’s strength during the nation’s fight for independence in the 60s and 70s. Yet despite having won many rights, we find the younger generation of women toiling hard to survive, whilst their husbands work across the border in South Africa (with, they suppose, other wives and children). Through stories, song and dance, this film tells these women’s stories, whilst celebrating their strength and determination - or, as it is called here, their “Nhenha”.
Duration 26 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Mozambique
Location(s) depicted Gaza, Mozambique
Language(s) of film subjects Tsonga
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Waterside 2
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Conference
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
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Conference
Panel 03: Precarious landscapes (Part I)Conference
Convened by Toma Peiu (University of Colorado Boulder)
Full title: Precarious landscapes: forensics and decolonial futures
This panel will be discussing the practicalities and ethics of producing images and sound in vulnerable landscapes. Work coming from ethnographers and media artists researching border areas, diasporas and environmentally, politically or economically exposed geographies is expected to challenge notions of centrality and subalternity.
Speakers will include: Clarisse Destailleur (University of Leipzig), María Fernanda Carrillo Sánchez (UACM), Snezana Stankovic (Humboldt University of Berlin), Pavel Borecký (University of Bern), Pegi Vail (NYU)
Full abstracts to follow.
This is a two-part panel; Part Two will take place 11:00 - 12:30 in Waterside 2.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-03-precarious-landscapes-part-i
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Conference
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Conference
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
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Conference
Panel 03: Precarious landscapes (Part II)Conference
Convened by Toma Peiu (University of Colorado Boulder)
Full title- Precarious landscapes: forensics and decolonial futures
This panel will be discussing the practicalities and ethics of producing images and sound in vulnerable landscapes. Work coming from ethnographers and media artists researching border areas, diasporas and environmentally, politically or economically exposed geographies is expected to challenge notions of centrality and subalternity.
Speakers will include: Clarisse Destailleur (University of Leipzig), María Fernanda Carrillo Sánchez (UACM), Snezana Stankovic, Viadrina Center (Humboldt University of Berlin), Pavel Borecký (University of Bern), Pegi Vail (NYU)
Full abstracts to follow.
This is a two-part panel; Part One will take place 09:00 - 11:30 in Waterside 2.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-03-precarious-landscapes-part-ii
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Conference
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Conference
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
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Conference
Panel 06: Expanding Ethnographic Film: Multimodality?Conference
Convened by Mark Westmoreland (Leiden University) Janine Prins (Leiden University)
This panel seeks to investigate the expansion of ethnographic film practices in cases where a combination of different practice-based methodologies led to a multimodal approach. To what extent does multiplying creative methods improve the anthropological enterprise?
Speakers will include: Mihai Andrei Leaha (University of Sao Paulo), Simon Robinson (Ravensbourne University London)
Further details to follow.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-06-expanding-ethnographic-film-multimodalityij
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Conference
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Conference
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
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Conference
Panel 08: Golden Wing, Silver WingsConference
Convened by Gary Seaman (USC) Zhuang Kongshao (Yunnan University)
Full title - Golden Wing, Silver Wings: Filmic representations of the autobiographical ethnography of Lin Yueh-hwa
This panel will focus on the legacy of the famous Chinese anthropologist Lin Yueh-hwa (aka Lin Yaohua), who authored what would now be characterized as an “indigenous ethnography” of his native village in Fujian Province, southeastern China. Short films produced by the conveners will be screened for discussion.
Speakers will include: Ming He (Yunnan University), Liang Zhang (Yunnan University), and Yueping Wang (Yunnan University) Zhonghao Xie (North Seattle College).
Further details to follow.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
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Conference
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Waterside 3
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Conference
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
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Conference
Panel 04: Indigenous CaliforniaConference
Convened by Teri Brewer (Archaeoikon) Sue Giles (Bristol City Museum and Galleries) Wendy Teeter (Fowler Museum at UCLA)
Full title- Indigenous California: A Forum on Collaborative Archaeological and Ethnographic Visual Media Projects
In recent years there have been an increasing number of productive visual media collaborations between indigenous Californian scholars and regional or international scholars, curators and filmmakers from a number of disciplines. This two part forum will discuss several ongoing museum and archaeological collaborative projects including Unearthed, one of the a planned multimedia outcomes of the Windwolves Archaeological Project, The Pimu Catalina Island Archaeological Project, and Donation to the Museum, a film and research collaboration with the Bristol City Museum and Galleries.
Speakers will include: David Robinson (Lancaster University), Cindi Alvitre (CSU Long Beach), Desiree Martinez (Cogstone Archaeology).
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
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Conference
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Conference
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
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Conference
Panel 05: Haptics and Visual AnthropologyConference
Convened by Aparna Sharma (UCLA) Arine Kirstein Høgel (Aarhus University)
Full title - Haptics and Visual Anthropology: Audio-Visual Dialogues and Non-Verbal Forms of Knowledge Construction
In this workshop, filmmakers and researchers Sharma and Høgel explore how haptic approaches may provide the means to address nonverbal and embodied forms of knowledge through film. They will outline the techniques they use in their own practice as a prompt for further discussion of how haptic audio-visuality can be applied within ethnographic film.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Sharma's film The Women Weavers of Assam screens on Weds 27 March 15;10 in Cinema 3 (Watershed).
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-05-haptics-and-visual-anthropology
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Conference
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Conference
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
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Conference
Panel 07: From the Field to the Screen (Part I)Conference
Convened by Angélica Cabezas Pino (University of Manchester) Mattia Fumanti (University of St. Andrews)
Full title - From the Field to the Screen: Reflexive Practices and Collaborative Methods in Ethnographic Film.
This panel includes contributions from visual anthropologists and filmmakers of contemporary ethnographic films that explore the challenges and opportunities of collaborative and/or reflexive methods, and the limits of these practices when presenting that cinematic work to an audience.
Speakers will include: Onyeka Igwe (University of the Arts London), Ines Ponte (ICS-ULisboa), Sophie Schrago (University of Manchester), Robert Eagle (University of the West of England), Hugo Montero (Université Lumière Lyon 2)
Further details to follow.
This is a two-part panel; Part II will take place 15:30 - 17:00 on Thu 28 March in Waterside 2.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-07-from-the-field-to-the-screen-part-i
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Conference
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Conference
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
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Conference
Panel 07: From the Field to the Screen (Part II)Conference
Convened by Angélica Cabezas Pino (University of Manchester) Mattia Fumanti (University of St. Andrews)
Full title - From the Field to the Screen: Reflexive Practices and Collaborative Methods in Ethnographic Film
This panel includes contributions from visual anthropologists and filmmakers of contemporary ethnographic films that explore the challenges and opportunities of collaborative and/or reflexive methods, and the limits of these practices when presenting that cinematic work to an audience.
Speakers will include: Onyeka Igwe (University of the Arts London), Carlo Cubero (Tallinn University), Ines Ponte (ICS-ULisboa), Sophie Schrago (University of Manchester), Robert Eagle (University of the West of England), Hugo Montero (Université Lumière Lyon 2)
Full abstracts to follow.
This is a two-part panel; Part I will take place 13:30 - 15:00 on Thu 28 March in Waterside 2.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-07-from-the-field-to-the-screen-part-ii
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Conference
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The Great Hall
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Kim Longinotto
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Book ticket via eventbrite (non Festival Pass Holders only)-
Gala event
Kim LonginottoGala event
Convened by Angela Piccini (University of Bristol)
This year, the RAI Lifetime Achievement Award will be awarded in 2019 to multi award winning filmmaker Kim Longinotto. Marking this occasion, Longinotto will give the 2019 George Brandt Lecture at a special event staged in collaboration with the University of Bristol.
In the spirit of documentary encounter, this event will take the form of a conversation between Longinotto and Angela Piccini, of the Department of Film and Television and the gathered audience. We will screen and discuss film excerpts spanning Longinotto’s 42-year career and encourage the audience to challenge, provoke and celebrate with us.
This is a free event RAI Film Festival Pass Holders can just show their Pass at the venue. Those who wish to attend who do not have a Pass should register via the eventbrite link.
About Kim Longinotto Kim Longinotto began her journey into filmmaking with the foundation course at Bristol University, which was set up by George Brandt. From there she went to the National Film and Television School, which enabled her to make her first film, Pride of Place (1976), a critical portrait of her former boarding school in Coventry. Longinotto’s films are characterised by a passionate commitment to the lives of women who struggle against myriad forms of oppression – by families, partners, schools, institutions, the law, sexual and gendered norms. Longinotto’s participatory, intimate and joyful filmmaking shines a light on the ways in which women navigate these spaces and relationships and on their unswerving attempts to change the world, one small act of repair at a time.
Longinotto's films include Hidden Faces (1990, CableACE award), Shinjuku Boys (1995, San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Outstanding Documentary), Divorce Iranian Style (1998, BAFTA Flaherty Documentary Award), Gaea Girls (2000), The Day I Will Never Forget (2002, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Humanitarian Award), Sisters in Law (2005, Cannes, C.I.C.A.E. Award), Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go (2007), Rough Aunties (2008, Sundance, Grand Jury Prize), Pink Saris (2010, CPH:DOX, Amnesty Award), Salma (2013), Dreamcatcher (2015, Sundance, Directing).
The RAI Lifetime Achievement Award has been given at RAI Film Festivals since 1990 to honour outstanding contributions to ethnographic documentary film-making or academic visual anthropology. The George Brandt lecture commemorates the founder of Film and Television Studies at the University of Bristol.
Duration 120 minutes
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Gala event
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Friday
29 March-
Cinema 1
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Elder sister
9:00 AM - 10:45 AM
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Elder sisterDirected by Zheng Long
From the 1970s, the "family planning" policies of the Chinese state limited its citizens to having one child. These policies are well-known. Lesser known are the smaller stories of how families sought to evade these policies, and the lasting impact on the children and parents affected by them. Elder Sister focuses on a spirited young teacher who was given away to a family in a neighbouring village 20 days after her birth. Now a mother herself, and expecting her second child (which has been allowed since 2016), she reflects on her experiences. We also hear stories from her family; no-nonsense mothers, grandmothers and aunts recalling their memories of the adoption with a frankness which is often surprising. With intimate access to the daily lives, memories, and emotions of its female subjects, Elder Sister provides a fascinating insight into attitudes to kinship in China, in the context of a now-historic state policy that still reverberates through families and communities today.
Duration 96 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production China
Location(s) depicted China
Language(s) of film subjects Chinese
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Kalès
11:15 AM - 12:35 PM
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KalèsDirected by Laurent van Lanker
A film of wind and despair, of fire and solidarity, of hope and hell.
An intimate and inside perspective of the ‘jungle’ of Calais, evoked through a polyphony of bodies, tales, and atmospheres. So familiar to us from news reports, van Lancker helps us see the “jungle” anew, providing an immersive, sensory journey through the social life and survival strategies of migrants. Shot on numerous visits during the entire duration of the ‘jungle’s’ existence, and often using a collaborative methodology - images and narrations are partly produced by the migrants - Kalès is a film that is both poetic and political; it is a visceral document to the everyday life of migrants, and their capacity for creating new social network and for adaptation.
Duration 63 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Belgium
Location(s) depicted Calais
Language(s) of film subjects
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ABU
1:30 PM - 3:05 PM
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ABUDirected by Arshad Khan
Arshad always knew he was different. Soon after emigrating from Pakistan to Canada with his family, Arshad realized he was gay. With Abu, Arshad tells his own story self discovery at a cultural crossroads, and explores his complex relationship with his father - a man who was at once extremely modern, but also rigidly traditional and unaccepting of his son’s true self. Merging clips from Bollywood films, animation, and home movies, Abu is an intimately open and dazzling visual memoir about migration, family, and a young man’s search for a new identity that is at once Pakistani, Canadian and queer.
Duration 80 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Canada
Location(s) depicted Canada Pakistan
Language(s) of film subjects EnglishPanjabiUrdu
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The Raven and the Seagull
3:30 PM - 5:15 PM
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The Raven and the SeagullDirected by Lasse Lau
Denmark and Greenland have been tied together by a complex colonial relationship for centuries. Today, Greenlanders fight for autonomy, whilst acutely aware of their economic dependence on the “mother country.” Danish artist and filmmaker Lau reflects on an emerging postcolonial consciousness in Denmark’s northern empire, and on the possibility of knowing Greenland. How can a Dane know Greenland, enshrined as it is in myth and fantasy? How can the native Greenlander know its own land, after so many generations of foreign rule? Lau attempts to represent an authentic Greenlandic experience by watching and listening intently to its natives over the course of a long-term research project, crafting a film rich with their voices, their beautiful landscapes, and an emerging political awareness.
Duration 70 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Denmark
Location(s) depicted Greenland
Language(s) of film subjects Danish
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Cinema 2
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Pedagogy & Public Anthropology: Legacies of Marshall's and Asch's Ethnographic Films
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
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Seminar
Pedagogy & Public Anthropology: Legacies of Marshall's and Asch's Ethnographic FilmsSeminar
Convened by Nancy Lutkehaus (University of Southern California)
This panel reflects on the role of ethnographic film in pedagogy and public anthropology past, present, and future. It explores the introduction of ethnographic film into school curricula in the 1960s, the emergence of institutional centres in the 1970s (such as Documentary Educational Resources (DER), founded by filmmakers John Marshall and Timothy Asch), the establishment of the first university programs that sought to teach and research ethnographic film in the 1980s (such as Center for Visual Anthropology at the University of Southern California, led by Asch until his death in 1994), the impact of increased access to digital video from the 1990s, and the landscape today, in which there are many graduate and undergraduate programs that incorporate ethnographic media production.
Hosted in collaboration with University of Southern California Dornsife, with the participation of Alice Apley (Documentary Educational Resources), Jennifer Cool (University of Southern California), and Nancy Lutkehaus, (University of Southern California)
Duration 90 minutes
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Seminar
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Fad'jal (Safi Faye Special Focus)
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
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Fad'jal (Safi Faye Special Focus)Directed by Safi Faye
The work of pioneering Senegalese filmmaker and ethnologist Safi Faye is the subject of our Special Focus at the 16th RAI Film Festival.
In Fad'jal, Faye tells the story of a Serer village in the groundnut basin of Senegal. Using the words of their ancestors passed on by oral folklore, the villagers trace the history of their village and their difficulties in working their land and living off their produce. Fad'jal is an extraordinary boundary defying film that interweaves ethnographic footage, intimate observation of everyday village life and fictionalised historical scenes. With it, Faye carefully encourages the viewers to reflect both on African history and storytelling, and on the intersection of fiction and documentary.
This screening will be introduced by Caterina Sartori (RAI) and Estrella Sendra (University of Southampton)
Duration 112 minutes
Year of production 1979
Countries of production Senegal
Location(s) depicted Senegal
Language(s) of film subjects Serer
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Cinema 3
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Cantadoras: Musical Memories of Life and Death in Colombia
9:15 AM - 10:45 AM
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Cantadoras: Musical Memories of Life and Death in ColombiaDirected by María Fernanda Carrillo Sánchez
A portrait of life in rural Colombia, towards its Carribean coast, told through the words and songs of the resilient Afro-colombian singers that farm there. Through intimate interviews and the evocative chants of the bullerengeue (cumbia-based style traditionally sung exclusively by women), we learn of their everyday experiences of hardship and survival. They speak movingly of memories of violence at the hands of paramilitaries, and the power of song to build intergenerational strength and give voice to dignity and creativity. Weaving songs, interviews, and archive footage, Cantadoras is a musical journey through ancestral resistance to violence, from working in white-owned mines, civil war in which violence rest heavily on rural communities, and the challenges of today’s situation.
María Fernanda Carrillo Sánchez will attend this screening and take part in a Q&A.
Duration 70 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Mexico
Location(s) depicted Colombia
Language(s) of film subjects Spanish
web site http://cantadorasdocumental.com/
RAIFilm web page /films/cantadoras-musical-memories-of-life-and-death-in-colombia
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A Delicate Weave
11:10 AM - 12:30 PM
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A Delicate WeaveDirected by Anjali Monteiro KP Jayasankar
A fascinating tapestry of four different musical journeys across Gujarat, India: we meet a group of young men in Bhujodi who meet every night to sing the verses of 15th-century Indian mystic and poet Kabir; feisty women from Lakhpat, who quietly subvert gender roles through their music performances; Noor Mohammad Sodha, who plays and teaches exquisite flute music; and Jiant Khan and his disciples, whose love for the Sufi poet Bhitai is expressed through the ethereal form of Waee singing. These remarkable musicians and singers bear testimony to how these oral traditions are being passed down from one generation to the next.
Duration 61 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production India
Location(s) depicted Gujurat
Language(s) of film subjects Hindi
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Resonating Burra - The Story of BurrakathaSakhisona
1:15 PM - 2:45 PM
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Resonating Burra - The Story of BurrakathaDirected by Arjun Chavah
Burrakatha is a storytelling art form in the Telangana and Andhra regions of India. Emerging in the 1940s, amidst the struggle against feudal oppression and the Indian freedom movement, Burrakatha was a medium for dissent. It continued to be used to speak about other social issues after independence, but eventually diminished. This film uses Burrakatha as a narrator to fill in pieces of Telangana’s history, and to celebrate the power of art as a means of dissent. Whilst Burrakatha may have fallen out of favour, it carries on a vibrant tradition that still resonates in contemporary India. This film celebrates its spirit.
Duration 42 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production India
Location(s) depicted State of Telangana, India
Language(s) of film subjects Telugu (English subtitles)
RAIFilm web page /films/resonating-burra-the-story-of-burrakatha
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SakhisonaDirected by Prantik Basu
Near Mogulmari in West Bengal lies a mound known locally as Sakhisona. Stories about it are interwoven with myth and still sung by local musicians. A dig nearby recently uncovered the remains of a monastery as well as some objects dating back to the 6th-century. This highly evocative film re-enacts the folklore of the place in fragments woven around the archeology and objects unearthed.
Duration 27 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production India
Location(s) depicted Mogulmari, West Bengal
Language(s) of film subjects Bengali, Rarh Bangla
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Ballad on the Shore
3:15 PM - 5:15 PM
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Ballad on the ShoreDirected by Chi-hang Ma
On the small isle of Tap Mun, Hong Kong, veteran fishermen sing ballads with pitches and tones that alternate and repeat themselves as if they were synchronising with the ocean waves. But as fewer and fewer know the harsh life at sea, these ballads are being forgotten by new generations. This film documents the fisherman’s way of life, and these unique songs - both on the verge of disappearing.
Director Chi-hang Ma and Producer Han Yuk Han Jack will attend the screening and take part in a Q&A.
Duration 98 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Hong Kong
Location(s) depicted Hong Kong
Language(s) of film subjects Cantonese, Tanka Dialect
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Waterside 2
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Conference
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
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Conference
Panel 09: We Three: Apparatus, Subject, Society (Part I)Conference
Convened by Timothy P. A. Cooper (University College London) Vindhya Buthpitiya (University College London)
Departing from the tripartite relationship between apparatus, subject, and society this panel invites reflection on issues of exclusion, consent, cinephobia, cinephilia, censorship, archival absences, informal circulation, piracy, sharing, pre- and post-cinematic entertainments and the efficaciousness of films as categories of knowledge.
Speakers will include: Özde Çeliktemel-Thomen (METU), Till Jakob Frederik Trojer (SOAS), Domitilla Olivieri (Utrecht University), Igor Karim (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main), Naï Zakharia (University College London), Adeel Khan (Cambridge University) and filmmaker Hammad Khan.
More details to follow.
This is a two-part panel; Part II will take place 11:00 - 12:30 on Fri 29 March in Waterside 2.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-09-we-three-apparatus-subject-society-part-i
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Conference
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Conference
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
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Conference
Panel 09: We Three: Apparatus, Subject, Society (Part II)Conference
Convened by Timothy P. A. Cooper (University College London) Vindhya Buthpitiya (University College London)
Departing from the tripartite relationship between apparatus, subject, and society this panel invites reflection on issues of exclusion, consent, cinephobia, cinephilia, censorship, archival absences, informal circulation, piracy, sharing, pre- and post-cinematic entertainments and the efficaciousness of films as categories of knowledge.
Speakers will include: Özde Çeliktemel-Thomen (METU), Till Jakob Frederik Trojer (SOAS), Domitilla Olivieri (Utrecht University), Igor Karim (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main), Naï Zakharia (University College London), Adeel Khan (Cambridge University) and filmmaker Hammad Khan.
More details to follow.
This is a two-part panel; Part I will take place 09:00 - 10:30 on Fri 29 March in Waterside 2.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-09-we-three-apparatus-subject-society-part-ii
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Conference
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Conference
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
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Conference
Panel 11: The material mediation of the ‘non-normative’ bodyConference
Convened by Cathy Greenhalgh (Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London) Catalin Brylla (University of West London)
This panel considers filmmakers who seek to work with and represent ‘non-normative’ bodies that are traditionally stereotyped and portrayed as “the other”. The aim is to explore innovative or experimental approaches that highlight the materiality of practices in the pursuit to challenge, bypass or reconfigure tacit audience dispositions towards alternative bodies. This exploration assumes a methodology focussed on the mediation between filmmaker, participants and spectators.
Speakers include: Pedro Branco (Universidade de Brasília)
More details to follow.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-11-the-material-mediation-of-the-non-normative-body
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Conference
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Honouring Professor Stephen Nugent
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
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Conference
Honouring Professor Stephen NugentConference
Convened by Renato Athias
Professor Stephen Nugent, a major figure in the field of Visual Anthropology, passed away in November 2018.
At Goldsmiths, Steve set up the pioneering MA in Visual Anthropology, and more recently the BA in Anthropology and Visual Practice. Indeed, he founded and for many years directed the Centre for Visual Anthropology at Goldsmiths. In addition to theoretical contributions, and to supporting new generations of visual anthropologists, he made films himself: Where is the Rabbi? (2001), a film about Sephardic communities living in Amazonia, Waila (2009), focused on a Tohono O’odham musician from Tucson Arizona, and Sounds Like a Vintage Guitar (2012), an exploration of the business and craft of making and faking historical electric guitars.
Many people attending the RAI Film Festival will have memories of working or studying with Steve. Indeed, films in this year's programme benefited from his support (including Even When I Fall and Of love and Law). This event, convened by his collaborator Renato Athias, gives colleagues, students and friends the opportunity to share these experiences, and reflect upon his contribution to the field of Visual Anthropology.
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Conference
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Waterside 3
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Conference
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
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Conference
Panel 10: Youth-centred frames (Part I)Conference
Convened by Camilla Morelli (University of Bristol) Flavia Kremer (University of Manchester)
Full title - Youth-centred frames: visual collaborations and participatory techniques in the research with young people
This panel explores the use of participatory visual methods (film-making and beyond) in the research with young people who live at the margins of technological and economic progress, and it considers how collaborative visual anthropology can open up a forum for them to express their challenges and gain wider representation.
Speakers include: Matteo Gallo (University of Verona), Zhongquan Hu (Nanning Normal University), Meghanne M Barker (University of Chicago), Natalie Nesvaderani (Cornell University), Valentina Bonifacio (Ca' Foscari University), Alison Macdonald (UCL), and Sally Dennehy.
More details to follow.
This is a two-part panel; Part II will take place 11:00 - 12:30 on Fri 29 March in Waterside 3.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-10-youth-centred-frames-part-i
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Conference
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Conference
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
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Conference
Panel 10: Youth-centred frames (Part II)Conference
Convened by Camilla Morelli (University of Bristol) Flavia Kremer (University of Manchester)
Full title - Youth-centred frames: visual collaborations and participatory techniques in the research with young people
This panel explores the use of participatory visual methods (film-making and beyond) in the research with young people who live at the margins of technological and economic progress, and it considers how collaborative visual anthropology can open up a forum for them to express their challenges and gain wider representation.
Speakers include: Matteo Gallo (University of Verona), Zhongquan Hu (Nanning Normal University), Meghanne M Barker (University of Chicago), Natalie Nesvaderani (Cornell University), Valentina Bonifacio (Ca' Foscari University), Alison Macdonald (UCL), and Sally Dennehy.
More details to follow.
This is a two-part panel; Part I will take place 09:00 - 10:30 on Fri 29 March in Waterside 3.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-10-youth-centred-frames-part-ii
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Conference
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Conference
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
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Conference
Panel 12: Transforming theory in and through film (Part I)Conference
Convened by Mattijs van de Port (University of Amsterdam) Janine Prins (Leiden University)
This panel seeks to expand theoretical ambitions in visual anthropology. We explore audio-visual modes of report that speak about existential issues via the minutiae of life-as-lived. We invite visual anthropologists to bring video fragments that provide examples of theorizing in and through film.
Speakers will include: Anja Dreschke, Michaela Schäuble (University of Bern), Eda Elif Tibet, Maisa Alhafe (University of Bern), Barley Norton (Goldsmiths, University of London), Ektoras Arkomanis (London Metropolitan University), Ricardo Leizaola (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Judith Aston (University of the West of England), Paolo Favero (University of Antwerp).
More details to follow.
This is a two-part panel; Part II will take place 15:30 - 17:00 on Fri 29 March in Waterside 3.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-12-transforming-theory-in-and-through-film-part-i
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Conference
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Conference
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
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Conference
Panel 12: Transforming theory in and through film (Part II)Conference
Convened by Mattijs van de Port (University of Amsterdam) Janine Prins (Leiden University)
This panel seeks to expand theoretical ambitions in visual anthropology. We explore audio-visual modes of report that speak about existential issues via the minutiae of life-as-lived. We invite visual anthropologists to bring video fragments that provide examples of theorizing in and through film.
Speakers will include: Anja Dreschke, Michaela Schäuble (University of Bern), Eda Elif Tibet, Maisa Alhafe (University of Bern), Barley Norton (Goldsmiths, University of London), Ektoras Arkomanis (London Metropolitan University), Ricardo Leizaola (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Judith Aston (University of the West of England), Paolo Favero (University of Antwerp).
More details to follow.
This is a two-part panel; Part I will take place 13:00 - 15:30 on Fri 29 March in Waterside 3.
All conference sessions are open to those with Day or Full Festival Passes. No booking required, but arrive early to avoid disappointment as capacity is limited.
Duration 90 minutes
RAIFilm web page /films/panel-12-transforming-theory-in-and-through-film-part-ii
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Conference
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Arnolfini
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Mossane (Safi Faye Special Focus)
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
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Mossane (Safi Faye Special Focus)Directed by Safi Faye
The work of pioneering Senegalese filmmaker and ethnologist Safi Faye is the subject of our Special Focus at the 16th RAI Film Festival. Mossane is one of her greatest achievements, and we present this special screening in collaboration with University of the West of England and the Arnolfini Centre for contemporary Arts.
In this powerful drama, a 14 year old girl in a rural Serer village girl finds herself torn between potential husbands. Mossane is an extraordinary beauty. She is in love with Fara, a young student, but she has been betrothed to another. She dislikes her rich fiancée, Diogoye, but he sends money and gifts to the villagers. Unable to follow her dreams and bound by tradition, Mossane takes action and tragedy ensues. Safi Faye’s beautifully shot film tells a universal story of love and loss, whilst offering rich insight into village life and Serer spirituality.
This screening will be followed by a discussion of Faye’s work and legacy. We are delighted to be welcoming acclaimed filmmaker Jenn Nkiru along with researchers Estrella Sendra (University of Southampton) and Lizelle Bischoff (University of Glasgow), in a conversation chaired by curator and writer Elizabeth Chege.
Duration 105 minutes
Year of production 1996
Countries of production Senegal
Location(s) depicted Senegal
Language(s) of film subjects
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Saturday
30 March-
Cinema 1
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Of Love & Law
8:50 AM - 10:40 AM
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Of Love & LawDirected by Hikaru Toda
Fumi and Kazu are partners in love and law; they run the first law firm in Japan set up by an openly gay couple. As lawyers driven by their own experience of being outsiders, they attract a range of clients who reveal the hidden diversity of a country that prides itself for collective obedience, politeness and conformity. Tired of being silenced and made to feel invisible, the lawyers and their misfit clients expose and challenge the archaic status quo that deems them second-class citizens. With the backdrop of civil liberties under attack, the film explores what it takes to be an individual and what it means to be a minority in a contemporary Japan.
Duration 94 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production United Kingdom Japan
Location(s) depicted Japan
Language(s) of film subjects Japanese
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Thank You For The Rain
11:10 AM - 12:50 PM
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Thank You For The RainDirected by Julia Dahr
Over the last five years Kisilu, a smallholder farmer in Kenya, has used his camera to capture his family life, his village and the impacts of climate change. He has filmed floods, droughts and storms - and their human costs. Following a storm that destroys his house, Kisilu starts building a community movement of farmers fighting the impacts of extreme weather and he takes this message of hope all the way to the UN Climate Talks in Paris, COP21 - where he faces inertia, bureaucracy and arrogance. Thrown together with Norwegian filmmaker Julia Dahr, a remarkable film emerges that tells his story of strength, but also of the murky contradictions in the global climate change movement.
Duration 87 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production United Kingdom
Location(s) depicted Kenya
Language(s) of film subjects Kikamba, Swahili, English
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Vivre Riche
1:50 PM - 3:00 PM
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Vivre RicheDirected by Joël Akafou
“Rolex the Portuguese” has returned to Abidjan with one mission: to make lots of money. He seeks to emulates the hedonistic lifestyle of a new generation of West African music stars. He and his companions engage in activities like “grazing”, i.e. online scams, taking advantage of the monetary largesse of white women in search of love or sex, whose money they then blow in the ‘maquis’ (bars) or nightclubs. This unvarnished immersion in cinéma direct depicts a changing youth of the Ivory Coast - disoriented by years of civil war they now intend “to cash in the colonial debt”.
Duration 53 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production France Burkina Faso Belgium
Location(s) depicted Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
Language(s) of film subjects FrenchDioula
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Even When I Fall
3:30 PM - 5:15 PM
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Even When I FallDirected by Kate McLarnon Sky Neal
Sheetal and Saraswoti met as teenagers in a Kathmandu refuge, both survivors of child trafficking to Indian circuses. They had been rescued and brought back across the border to Nepal- but what does the future hold for these young women returning to a home they barely remember? Even When I Fall traces their journey over 6 years, as they reclaim their breath-taking skills as circus artists and begin to build a future. Along with 11 other young trafficking survivors, they form Circus Kathmandu – Nepal’s first and only circus – creating a livelihood for themselves and simultaneously working to educate and challenge the deep-seated stigma against trafficked women. This intimate, beautiful film harnesses the visual power of circus to give a unique perspective into the experience and repercussions of human trafficking.
Directors Kate McLarnon and Sky Neal will attend this screening and take part in a Q&A.
Duration 95 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production United Kingdom Nepal
Location(s) depicted Nepal England India
Language(s) of film subjects Nepali
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Cinema 2
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Tara's footprint
9:15 AM - 10:40 AM
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Tara's footprintDirected by Georgina Barreiro
Tara's Footprint skilfully conjures the atmosphere of Khechuperi, a village in the Himalayas in north eastern India. Eschewing standard exposition the film follows four young siblings as they go about their daily life. Music and dance take centre stage: the young protagonists attend wedding celebrations, they train for talent shows, and spend afternoons dancing with friends, while music plays through mobile phones and crackling speakers. The alternation of Buddhist chants, Bollywood tunes and heavy metal creates a rich sonic texture, whilst the young people chat about the role of women, the importance of the tourism industry, politics and religion. A beautifully shot film that asks us to slow right down and give in to its gentle pace.
Duration 70 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Argentina
Location(s) depicted Khechuperi
Language(s) of film subjects Nepali with English subtitles
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Our FreedomAfter the Silence
11:20 AM - 12:50 PM
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Our FreedomDirected by Laura Kuen Yury Snigirev
The inhabitants of the village of Pungino live mostly beyond the reach of the Russian state. Here, in this remote rural location, they create their own sphere of personal freedom. This film explores the possibilities and practices that emerge when money is scarce, time is abundant, and neither help nor control of the state seems present. While people garden, forage, hunt or reconstruct the local church, they address the philosophical question of what it means to have a good life; whilst independent self-sufficiency seems important, so does a connection with the natural environment, and the protective role of community bonds.
Directors Laura Kuen and Yury Snigirev will attend the screening and take part in a Q&A.
Our Freedom screens in a double bill with After the Silence.
Duration 52 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Germany
Location(s) depicted Russia (Kirov region)
Language(s) of film subjects Russian, German
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After the SilenceDirected by Natalie Cubides-Brady
An affecting portrait of a small town on the Magdalena River in Colombia during Day of the Dead, exploring the spiritual impact of the forced disappearances that became endemic during the nation’s civil conflict. The film journeys into a world where government forensic investigators attempt to locate and exhume bodies from remote mountainside graves, where women remember and try to understand the loss of their relatives, and where rivers swell with the bodies of unidentified corpses. A powerful exploration of memory and loss in a community seeking to recover from decades of systemic violence.
Director Natalie Cubides-Brady will attend this screening and take part in a Q&A.
This film screens in a double bill with Our Freedom.
Duration 28 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production United Kingdom
Location(s) depicted Colombia
Language(s) of film subjects Spanish
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Pasajuego
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
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PasajuegoDirected by Daniel Oliveras de Ita
“Pasajuego” is the name of the court where Oaxacans play the ancient indigenous ball game of Pelota Mixteca. Today more than two million people from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca live in the USA, where their ballgame is beginning to take root. In this beautifully shot film, the practice of Pelota Mixteca acts as a window to look through the lives of the Oaxacan people as they migrate away from their home. The shifting contexts in which the game is played illuminate the diverse experiences of migration, and the ability of Oaxacan people to recreate their communities and culture wherever they settle.
Duration 75 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Mexico
Location(s) depicted Mexico United States
Language(s) of film subjects SpanishEnglishZapotec
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The Book of the Sea
3:40 PM - 5:15 PM
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The Book of the SeaDirected by Aleksei Vakhrushev
An intimate look inside day-to-day life on the frozen fringe of the Bering Strait in Russia, home to the Inuit and Chukchi. We follow community leader Alexei, his wife Galya (a nurse) and their son Igor from season to season in this frigid, harsh land. Like their ancestors, their community still survive by hunting marine mammals, but today they must navigate hunting quotas, endemic alcoholism, and the tricky balance between tradition and the modern world. With compelling verite footage woven with animated sequences that represent ancient myth, The Book of the Sea is a vivid account of a struggle for survival, and preservation of a traditional lifestyle in one of the most remote places on earth.
Duration 85 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production
Location(s) depicted Eastern Russia
Language(s) of film subjects Russian
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Cinema 3
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Tindaya Variations
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
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Tindaya VariationsDirected by Isaac Marrero-Guillamon
The mountain of Tindaya (Fuerteventura, Canary Islands) is more than a mountain. It was a sacred site for the indigenous people of Fuerteventura; later, its rock was quarried and sold for ornamental purposes; more recently, it was the proposed location for a ‘Monument to Tolerance’ designed by renowned artist Eduardo Chillida. Today, goat herders and tourists cross paths on it. Marrero-Guillamon’s explores the multiple meanings that coalesce and compete around this site, weaving images of activist, exhibitions, public talks, interviews with locals and computer simulations of the proposed Monument, against a background of tourism, post-crisis ruins and arid landscapes.
Duration 40 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production United Kingdom
Location(s) depicted Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain
Language(s) of film subjects Spanish with English subtitles
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Waterside 2
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Workshop
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
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Workshop
Ethnographic Film and Mental Health: Transformations and ImpactWorkshop
Convened by Mike Poltorak (University of Kent)
This interactive workshop explores the challenges and possibilities that emerge when visual anthropologists engage with ideas and experiences associated with mental health – and, in particular, when they seek to realise transformation and generate impact. Using examples from a two decade long project in the South Pacific archipelago of Tonga (The Healer and the Psychiatrist) and recent student films on mental health in the UK from the University of Kent, this workshop will consider the effects on protagonists, filmmakers and audiences.
This workshop is hosted in collaboration with University of Kent
RAIFilm web page /films/ethnographic-film-and-mental-health-transformations-and-impact
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Workshop
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Engaging/Empowering Image-Voices
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
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Conference
Engaging/Empowering Image-VoicesConference
Convened by Raminder Kaur (University of Sussex) Mariagiulia Grassilli (University of Sussex)
How can anthropologists and filmmakers engage with and empower marginalised individuals and communities? Since the 1950s, ethnographic filmmakers and theorists have advocated for participatory methods. By considering a range of case studies, this panel will explore how anthropologists and filmmakers today are continuing to use audio-visual, performative and multi-media strategies to ‘visibilise’ social lives in collaboration with communities, and to provide creative ways to pursue social justice. Case studies include young Mozambican’s ethnographic musical films, drag culture, asylum-seekers/refugees’ films and considering the movement of film from the margins to mainstream media.
Hosted in collaboration with University of Sussex with the participation of Karen Boswall, Catherine Donaldson, Lauren Greenwood, Joe Ellefsen, Charles Brownlow, Poppy Bennett, Vitoria de Souza, and Harry Candlish.
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Conference
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Gringo Trails
3:30 PM - 5:15 PM
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Gringo TrailsDirected by Pegi Vail
For many the tourist pathway across South America, Africa and Asia known as the “gringo trail” offers life-altering adventures. For host nations, it offers financial security. But this trail also, say critics of tourism, is a scar of massive environmental destruction. Following stories along the trail, this film interrogates the environmental impact of tourism, and explores the complex relationships between tourist and host, at the moment when cultures collide.
Director Pegi Vail will attend this screening and take part in a Q&A.
Duration 79 minutes
Year of production 2013
Countries of production United States
Location(s) depicted Mali Bolivia Thailand Bhutan
Language(s) of film subjects
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Waterside 3
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Shorts Programme 1
9:05 AM - 10:30 AM
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Fire MouthDirected by Luciano Pérez Fernández
A film about a football match in Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil, in which we see none of the action, or even a single player. We only catch glimpses of the fans as they bake, rather sluggishly, under the punishing sun, rendered in distinctly un-Brazilian black and white. We do, however, get plenty of colour from the vigorous radio commentary, which describes every twist of the on-pitch drama with a combination of passion and mischief. We only fully grasp just how remarkable this commentary is in the final seconds of what is an inventive and highly enjoyable film.
Duration 9 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Brazil
Location(s) depicted Salgueiro, Pernambuco (Brazil)
Language(s) of film subjects Portuguese
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Living HereDirected by Sarah Baril Gaudet
In Aupaluk, Northern Quebec, a small cluster of primary coloured buildings cluster amidst the blinding white tundra. We are introduced to the tiny town (population 200, mainly Inuit) by a thoughtful teenager named Martha. Against footage of her painting in school, smoking with friends, and sewing her own clothes, Martha’s voiceover describes the pride she feels as an Inuk, and how she loves the peace, calm and beauty of her hometown - even if she occasionally feels lonely and isolated. A quiet and beautiful film about a quiet and beautiful place.
Duration 16 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Canada
Location(s) depicted Aupaluk, Northern Quebec
Language(s) of film subjects Inuktitut
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What your eyes can’t seeDirected by Julieta Pestarino
An essay-documentary that explores the processes of archival research, and the limits of the kind of knowledge it can provide. Pestarino pursues photographer and traveller André Roosevelt into the archives, attempting to discover the nature of his time in Ecuador (filmmaker? entrepreneur? colonialist?). Curiosity, frustration and resignation.
Duration 8 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Argentina
Location(s) depicted Argentina Ecuador
Language(s) of film subjects spanish
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Father's PrescriptionDirected by Enke Huang
A personal exploration of traditional Chinese medicine that considers the importance of its sensory qualities. Huang vividly recalls the extreme bitter taste and smell of the teas consumed by her family in her youth in China. These teas took expertise, care and patience to prepare; can the modern and convenient powdered remedies available to her in London today be as authentic? What is this tea without its smell? With an impressionistic approach to film form, Father’s Prescription is an evocative meditation on memory, embodied experience, family and tradition.
Director Enke Huang will attend this screening and take part in a Q&A.
Duration 11 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production United Kingdom China
Location(s) depicted London Canton/Guangzhou
Language(s) of film subjects CantoneseEnglish
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Shorts Programme 2
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
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BonfiresDirected by Martin Bureau
Huge bonfires are lit by Protestants in Northern Ireland on July 12 each year, as part of the celebrations of the 1690 Battle of the Boyne. They are made from wooden pallets, tires, and garbage. To the Protestants, they are symbols of identity affirmation; to the Catholics, they signal arrogance and humiliation. This striking short documents the terrifying scale of these monumental statements, with the somewhat eerie melodies of marching bands lingering beneath the sounds of the infernos.
Duration 6 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Canada
Location(s) depicted Northern Ireland
Language(s) of film subjects
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Guardians of the NightDirected by Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier Eleonora Diamanti
A survey of the happenings in Guantánamo, Cuba during nighttime. We see neighbourhood watchmen on lonely streets, bustling crowds of revellers in illuminated squares, families as they relax at home by the glow of their phone and television screens, and workers as they toil through the night. Whilst there is no dialogue in the film, captures the rich nighttime soundscapes. With a keen eye and acute ear, Guardians of the Night contributes to the growing body of sensory ethnography, illuminating our grasp of the feeling of a Cuban city at night.
Duration 17 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Cuba Canada
Location(s) depicted Guantánamo, Cuba
Language(s) of film subjects No dialogue
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AmazonimationsDirected by Camilla Morelli Sophie Marsh
A compilation of three animated films written, voiced and illustrated by the Matses people of the Amazon rainforest, on the Peru-Brazil frontier. Made in collaboration with an indigenous artist, a professional animator and an anthropologist, different generations of Matses chose aspects of their lives that they would like the world to know about; we hear of their skilful use of poisonous frogs, children’s perceptions of the dolphins, jaguars and boar that they share the forest with, and young adults’ experiences of moving to the city. These animations allow those who feel displaced, marginalised and underrepresented to tell their own stories, and become active agents of knowledge production.
Duration 7 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Peru United Kingdom
Location(s) depicted Amazonia, Peru
Language(s) of film subjects MatsesEnglish
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Mobail GorokaDirected by Jackie Kauli
Glossy advertisements for telecommunications company Digicel abound in Goroka, a town in Papua New Guinea’s eastern highlands. This film takes a close look at the footsoldiers of this multinational giant: the men who sell phone credit and and fix devices from their Digicel-branded stalls that line the town’s streets. We learn of the daily routines, histories and aspirations of Luke, Joseph, and Michael, resourceful and ambitious men who take advantage of every opportunity the emerging telecommunications market has given them. A valuable glimpse at life on the ground floor of neoliberal global enterprise.
The documentary Mobail Goroka tells the story of Luke Natapol, Joseph Kaupa and Michael Agwa who all earn money by operating street stalls that provide mobile phone services. Highlighting their daily routines, the documentary shows how people respond to the logistical challenges and economic opportunities presented by new communication technologies.
Duration 17 minutes
Year of production 2018
Countries of production Papua New Guinea
Location(s) depicted Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province
Language(s) of film subjects Tok Pisin
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WásiDirected by Sebastián Gómez Ruíz Amado Villafaña Chaparro
As the sun rises on a village in northern Colombia, we glimpse its inhabitants as they begin their day. As the scene emerges from obscurity, a voiceover reflects on the nature of sight. It is the voice of Arhuaco filmmaker Amado Vilafaña Chaparro, the co-director of Wási. He shares his thoughts on anthropologists like Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff and Robert Gardner, and the (mis)representations they produce. Ultimately he, and this film, affirm the power indigenous people can seize by taking up the camera themselves - becoming authors of their image and, so, authors of knowledge.
This film is also available as part of the RAI Documentary Shorts Collection on RAI PLAYER: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/raishortscollection
Duration 16 minutes
Year of production 2017
Countries of production Colombia
Location(s) depicted Kutunzama
Language(s) of film subjects SpanishIku with English subtitles
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Masterclass: Laurent Van Lancker
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
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Masterclass
Masterclass: Laurent Van LanckerMasterclass
Convened by Chris Wright (Goldsmiths)
This year's RAI Film Festival Masterclass will be delivered by award-winning filmmaker Laurent Van Lancker, in conversation with Chris Wright.
Van Lancker won the Basil Wright Prize at the RAI Film Festival for Ymako in 1998, and his new feature Kalès is in competition at this year's festival. We will also screen his acclaimed 2006 feature Surya.
This masterclass will use a wide range of different examples to explore how cinematic strategies (sensory, narrative, collaborative) and practices (asynchronicity, decontextualisation) can be used to aid anthropological approaches to lived experience.
How can visual anthropologists create shared authorship, and sense of situated experiences? When they play with the fertile areas between art, anthropology and cinema, what implications does it have for knowledge and perception? Van Lancker will explore how cinematic practices can be a form of intercultural dialogue, when we understand that experiences and their evocations as 'in' bodies, minds, and cultures, but also 'within' and 'between' all these at the same time.
Laurent Van Lancker studied both Film and Anthropology, and he holds a PhD in Audiovisual Art. He lectures at film schools (INSAS - Brussels, UMAS - Split) and universities (FU BERLIN, WWU Münster). His early documentary works explored social and religious themes, and they were followed by a series of short works called Experimental Ethnographies. His long-feature documentary film Surya won international awards and had some theatrical releases. He made a few short fiction films and made his first long-feature award winning fiction film Brak in 2016. His last feature-length documentary Kalès has also won some awards and had theatrical release. His films were screened in major film festivals: IDFA, Oberhausen, FID Marseille, DokLeipzig, Festival Nouveau Cinema, Dubai IFF amongst others. Recently, he has also moved into Web and Installation art, having his video installations screened in museums, galleries, art spaces.
Chris Wright is Senior Lecturer at the Anthropology Department, Goldsmiths.
Duration 105 minutes
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Masterclass
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Rituals on TV
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
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Seminar
Rituals on TVSeminar
Convened by RAI / BBC / Swan Films
Several recent television productions have embraced ritual - a classic topic for anthropologists! These shows have sought to document, explore, and interrogate ritual as both spectacle and concept for wide audiences. Interestingly, whilst they have looked at rituals from all over the globe, they have also highlighted how ritual behaviours infuse lives here in the contemporary UK.
At this event, members of the team behind BBC’s Extraordinary Rituals (producers Simon Bell and Tuppence Stone) and Channel 4’s Grayson Perry: Rites of Passage (producer Neil Crombie, of Swan Films) join us to reflect on the nature of ritual, and share their experiences of bringing the power of ritual to the TV screen.
We’ll consider which rituals make good TV, the sensitivities of filming such powerful and personal moments in people’s lives, and how these productions have encouraged British audiences to examine their own rituals.
Duration 90 minutes
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Seminar
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Awards Ceremony
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
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Gala event
Awards CeremonyGala event
Convened by Royal Anthropological Institute
Join us to close the 16th RAI Film Festival as we announce the winners of this year's prizes and awards.
Duration 120 minutes
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Gala event
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