Ways of belonging: Screenings of student films from the master of visual anthropology programme (Verdensteateret)
Welcome to what has become a cherished annual event at Verdensteateret, the screening of final student films from the master programme in visual anthropology at UiT (https://en.uit.no/education/program/269222/visual_anthropology_-_master). As usual we will be screening films from different parts of the world, this year with a total of six films, from the cornucopia of sounds and colours in the Caribbean and India, over the silent haven of a Dutch monastery to dance, handicrafts and senses of home in northern Norway. All filmmakers will be present.
Peter I. Crawford (moderator of the event and professor of visual anthropology at UiT)
The programme will also be available at Verdensteateret
Programme:
16.30: Welcome to the screenings, Peter I. Crawford
17.05-17.50: A Home Away From Home (2024, 30 minutes)
A film by Lisanne van Ringelesteijn
A Home Away From Home is a film exploring the concepts
of home and belonging. Where is home? What is it? And
what helps someone to feel like they belong in a new
place? The film follows four people, who have all moved
from The Netherlands to Tromsø. It provides the viewer
with a selection of stories, parts of their day-to-day life,
and their reflections on building a new home in northern
Norway. At the same time, the viewer is taken by the hand
of the filmmaker, who is sharing her own reflections and
thoughts on moving abroad.
17.50-18.40: To Know by Hands (2024, 28 minutes)
A film by Margit Reppen
To Know by Hands follows the working hands of two
handicrafters in Troms and Finnmark.
The film takes place in the summer of 2023, giving an
insight into use of natural materials in handicraft. At a
cabin in Lyngen we meet Trine, dyeing wool with
materials found in the area. At a store in Sørkjosen we
meet the duojár Hilde and get a peek into her use of fish
skin as leather. Through a personal and sensorial
approach, the film encourages reflections on our
relation to our natural environment. Furthermore, the film touches on themes such as the connection
between cultural knowledge and relations to our environment.
18.40-19.25: By the river (2024, 27 minutes)
A film by Saara Sipola
By the river is a film about the Ganges, which is a
personification of the goddess Ganga. Ganges is the
most holy river in India and every year thousands of
pilgrims and other people arrive by its banks to pray,
hope and sacrifice. Ganga is a power, a female principle
who has the mandate to forgive the past sins, to set
people free from samsara, the endless cycle of birth and
death. By the river observes and explores people and
animals who gather by the river, from dawn until dusk.
The film does not stay in one place for too long or aim
to to establish a strong relationship between protagonists and audience. Yet, somehow along the
journey, relationships are formed, and lessons learned. The film is an outcome of several weeks of
observations by the river in North India and it aims at times to convey a sense of visual diary notes.
19.25-20.10: Oculus Silens (2024, 30 minutes)
A film by Emanuele Bergquist
The film explores architectural spaces and human
presence in a Benedictine monastery in the south of the
Netherlands. S. Benedictusberg Abbey is home to
fourteen monks who have chosen to leave their past
lives behind and live as brothers under the Rule of St.
Benedict. The monastery, in its soberness, is a place of
deprivation which allows the brothers to pursue their
spiritual path which feels, like the Abbey itself,
timeless; this feeling is augmented by the contrast
between the spaces created by the stone surfaces and
the natural surroundings of the Dutch countryside in which it rises, between the sphere of human
activity and the inevitability of time, visible in the succession of the seasons and in the shifting of light.
20.15-21.00:
Dance what you are (2024, 29 minutes)
A film by Aliki Švandere
What do we do when we meet ourselves and others in
an “empty” space? Do we dare to create something
out of nothing? Do we dare to take what we need
while taking care of others in the room?
Liv Hanne Haugen, a dancer and a performance artist,
weekly holds space for an exploration of the body, the
space, the self and the other through movement.
This film is based on an anthropological fieldwork
and it aims to give an experience of an open-form
dance developed around 14 years ago and practiced by a small and dedicated group of people residing
in Tromsø, Norway.
21.00-21.45:
Dragging Chains (2024, 30 minutes)
A film by Emil Victor Hvidtfeldt
Dragging Chains moves between observation and
conversation as the apparent obscurity of Grenada's Jab
Jab tradition is unraveled. Filmed during the 2023
carnival season, audiences are immersed in a sensorial
spectacle of oil, chains, and rhythm, while the stories
told by local practitioners provide a backdrop of
contemporary interpretation. As the spectacle unfolds,
the initial exotic appeal gives way to deeper questions
of resilience, protest, and colonial after-effects.