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Installation
Reviewed by: AAA Executive Program Committee
Of interest to: Practicing and Applied Anthropologists, Students
Primary Theme: Inequality
Secondary Theme: The Visual
**Doors will open at 7:30 pm.**
Ethnocine, a collective of women filmmakers engaged in ethnographic, feminist and queer research and media production, offers a redux of our highly successful event at the 2017 AAAs. The theme of the series, “Bad Feminists Making Films” translates Roxane Gay’s (2014) provocation on what it means to be a “bad feminist” to experiences behind the camera, that is, the struggle to show that women’s voices, visions, and stories matter, while being human, and making mistakes along the way.
This year’s installation will focus on feminist filmmakers’ experiments with decolonial approaches to the multiple stages of filmmaking, including development, production, post-production, and distribution. The screening and discussion will highlight the filmmaking journeys of various feminist filmmakers, as they explore what it means to recognize, value, and work in ways that apply feminist methodologies to film practice: from the conception of an idea, to forming collaborative relationships with film participants, to the framing of personal stories. We also explore the industry dynamics of filmmaking and academia which often prioritize certain narratives over others, leaving many stories unheard. We believe these experiences are critical to share in the male-dominated industries of filmmaking and academia, in which women making films remains a radical act.
Ultimately, our aim is to build conversation and community between anthropologists and local (San Jose & Bay Area) filmmakers and activists. The format of the installation will include screenings of film excerpts from four feminist filmmakers from the networks of Ethnocine, Re-Present Media, and other San Jose-based filmmakers. The screenings will be followed by a moderated discussion. Afterward, there will be an hour of community-building and networking among event participants over drinks at the event site.
Brought to you by Ethnocine:
Ethnocine is a collective composed of visual anthropologists engaged in feminist and queer research combining the cinematic techniques of verité and sensory ethnography with the collaborative tools of ethno-fiction and anthropology partagée across a range of landscapes including Burma, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, Iran, Palestine, Romania, Turkey, and the United States.
Co-sponsored by Re-Present Media:
Re-Present Media is a Bay Area-based non-profit organization whose purpose is to humanize media representations of underrepresented communities through a focus on personal stories from those communities in documentary film and nonfiction media.We promote work by media makers from underrepresented communities with perspectives and subject matters that they themselves identify as important, relevant, and timely versus those identified as important by outsiders.
Elena Guzman
Cornell University
Emily Hong
Cornell University & Ethnocine Collective
Laura Menchaca Ruiz
Cornell University