Ethnographic film showcase
We are excited to present an ethnographic film showcase of eight films as part of the 2023 conference program. The film program has been curated by Dr. Max Harwood: muieff.director@gmail.com
AAS Ethnographic Film Showcase Schedule
Thursday 30 November 9:30am - 6:00pm (sharp)
Start: 9:30am
Title: Kricak
Director: Erlin Erlina
Duration: 18m
“Kricak” is a short documentary film inspired by doctoral dissertation that shows the practice of “healing corridor” in Java. The “healing corridor” is a metaphor depicting an intimate relationship between medical professionals (doctors) and patients and their families when the patient's diagnosis and prognosis indicates a critical condition and even loss of life. This is a genuine and authentic relationship showing a powerful relationship situated in Kampung Kricak. One of the things that I felt strongly about in the making of “Kricak” is that I wanted this film to have its own context that displays an analogy of recovery therapy that is sensitive to feelings (emotions), culture, ethics that touches the human side. What is shown in the “Kricak” film is the logical process of social life and community in Javanese society. It is a space where Javanese people’s persistence and resilience in finding ways of promoting well-being finds a home—the space that offers a sense of social solidarity.
Title: Arho
Director: Till Tjoer
Duration: 30m
“Arho – The Afar Salt Trade of North-eastern Ethiopia” follows the journey of a camel caravan to the salt plains of the Afar Depression. Traditionally the caravans moved from Afar Depression to other parts of Ethiopia and to the Red Sea coastal regions of modern-day Eritrea and Djibouti. For centuries the control, trade and distribution of salt was of primary importance in the articulation of economic, social, and political life of the nomadic communities living along the caravan trails. Since 2010, trucks have slowly replaced the camel caravans. This has led to a steady decline in the trade. The film, relying on strong visual imagery and traditional Afar music, selected by the participant of this project, documents how the decline of this trade affects the daily life of the communities in Berahle district of North-eastern Ethiopia. The documentary is part of PhD project at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University London. It is based on 13 months ethnographic research (2017-2018) that combines anthropological theory with ethnographic filmmaking to explore new and creative ways of collaborative research.
Title: On Behalf of the Living
Director: Ton Otto
Duration: 1h 44m
My motivation for making this film is to confront one of the great mysteries of human life: its ending. What happens after our biological demise? What kinds of afterlife are imaginable? How do we continue to relate to our dead loved ones? Being an anthropologist by profession, I was driven to immerse myself in different cultural worlds, not only to discover alternative beliefs and practices but also to challenge my own ideas about the continuities and discontinuities between the living and the dead. To understand my own background better, I invited my aging Dutch parents into the project before travelling to Baluan, an island in the South Pacific, together with my colleague filmmaker Christian Suhr. On Baluan I have intermittently carried out ethnographic fieldwork for more than 30 years and have become part of a local family as well. This time I wanted to find out how my adopted siblings continue to relate to our deceased father Ngat Selan and what this meant for me personally.
Title: Holding Tightly
Director: Susanna Barnes
Duration: 30m
Holding Tightly observes seven approaches to healing in remote, rural and urban parts of the Baucau municipality in the country’s east, spanning contexts and experiences from the armed resistance era to the independence period. According to their circumstances and access to resources, families share treatments for everyday ailments, while specialist healers hone their diagnostic and therapeutic skills for more complicated conditions. Medicinal plant, divinatory and bone setting knowledge is continually developed and refined according to need and opportunity. Within this diversity are common threads of shared belief, respect, cultural vitality, commitment and resilience. While working independently from formal health institutions, practitioners highlight challenges and opportunities for mutual coordination. Filmed over a three-year period, Holding Tightly is a contribution to a longer-term research collaboration between the directors and a diverse set of healing practitioners in the young nation-state of Timor-Leste.
Title: City Dreamers
Director: Amelie Ward
Length: 30m
City Dreamers is an experimental film that portrays the world of artist Maree Clarke (Yorta Yorta, Boon Wurrung, Mutti Mutti, Wemba Wemba). The film explores the sensory aspect of her art practice. The film also portrays her great-nephew Mitch Mahoney’s (Barkindji/BoonWurrung) art practice and the way they work together to reclaim Indigenous topographies in Melbourne. Maree and Mitch produce art that reclaims Country, the Australian Indigenous term to speak of their ancestral lands, waterways, sky, and kinship rules. For Maree and Mitch, Country can be present in Maree’s backyard or in the wetlands within Melbourne’s city boundaries, a distinct contrast to the Australian settler ideology that imagines the continent as divided between urban and remote areas. The film encourages the audience to experience a dream-like experience of Country within the city, and to re-evaluate how the colonial imaginary may interfere with their understanding of Indigenous presence and topographies in urban environments.
Break: 1-2 pm
Title: Love In Our Time
Director: Tom Murray
Length: 1h 34m
"Love in Our Own Time" tells the story of individuals and families who are coming to terms with life’s most significant moments of birth and death. The experiences of these ordinary Australians illustrate the immensity of what it is to exist and the importance of love from the time life begins to the time it ends. Intimate and moving, "Love in Our Own Time" is a journey to the heart of what it is to be human, giving us all cause to question the lives we lead.
Title: The People Next to the Coal Power Plant
Director: Hyewon Choi
Length: 23m
Noise and silence coexist next to the coal power plant. The creepy sound from transmission towers contrasts with silent buildings where people have left. However, there are elderly people still living in this space. What does the power plant mean to them? They lost their sea where they once caught fish. They get sick like the crops they grow. Although some of them take photos of soot-covered leaves to prove their detrimental effects from the coal plant, nobody listens to them. With numerous anxieties, they spend another day in the town. They grow and harvest polluted beans, make food from the contaminated vegetables, and raise their goats to soothe their loneliness.
Title: This is our School
Director: Iqbal Barkat
Length: 1h40m
A year-long, intimate, and loving study of a primary school in one of Sydney’s most diverse suburbs. At its heart is an exploration of how a community comes together to ethically educate children for the contemporary world. A celebration of public education in Australia.