27.-28.1.2017
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF MOVIES
WITH ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEMES

NOBEL NOK DAH

USA, 2015, 23 min
E. Hong, M.Lai, M.Mihai
27.01.2017 20:00

Nobel Nok Dah offers an intimate view into the lives of three refugee women from Burma, whose migratory paths cross in Thailand and eventually meet when they resettle to central New York. Drawing upon methods of feminist oral history and ethno-fiction, the film traces glimmers of subjectivity that complicate any singular narrative of the refugee experience. As camera movements follow the textures of everyday life and work, a weave of sensorial fragments immerse audiences in women's narratives of self, place, and belonging.

Emily Hong is a Seoul-born and New York-raised feminist anthropologist and filmmaker. A graduate of Columbia University and PhD Candidate at Cornell University, Emily’s research and professional expertise lies at the intersection of legal anthropology, media practice, and economic, social, and cultural rights. Emily has directed several collaborative films including Get By (2014), For My Art (2016), and Nobel Nok Dah (2015), which have explored issues of solidarity and labor, the gendered spectatorship of performance art, and questions of womanhood and identity in the refugee experience.
Miasarah Lai is a Puerto-Rican-Chinese-American director and cinematographer from the Lower East Side, New York City. As an MFA Candidate in Documentary Media at Northwestern University, she explores the physicality and performative role of the documentary cinematographer in the dance between the subject and its storytellers. Miasarah’sHer international body of work has included cinematography and directing for projects in Romania, Ghana, Myanmar, and China.
Mariangela Mihai, a Romanian Anthropology and Film PhD Candidate at Cornell University, has worked on issues of refugee political resettlement at the Emory Center for Ethics and the International Rescue Committee. Her current research looks at overlapping nationalisms, identity and ethnicity on the India-Burma border. Select film projects include: To Uphold the Law (2014), a film exploring ideologies of nationalism and anti-drone activism in Upstate N.Y.; and For My Art (2016), a twochannel video installation exploring the sensorial landscape of transition-era Burma/Myanmar through the figure of the performance artist.

Director, Camera, Edit: E. Hong, M.Lai, M.Mihai
Production: Ethnocine

Language od Dialogues: English
language of Subtitles: English, Czech

 

BRIDGE TO KOBANE

Irák, 2016, 22 min
L. Askari
27.01.2017 18:35

Mihemed, a journalist from Kobane in Syrian Kurdistan, renegotiates his future plans while living as a refugee in Slemani, Iraqi Kurdistan. Following the changing future perspectives of Mihemed's story, Bridge to Kobane ties together issues of migration, borders and future horizons in times of crisis.

Lana Askari is a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology with Visual Media at the University of Manchester. Trained in Anthropology (MPhil Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge) and Documentary Filmmaking (MA Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester), she recently returned from her fieldwork in Slemani, Iraqi Kurdistan where she was a research affiliate at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. Her research areas include ethnographic documentary film, diaspora and migration, and the anthropology of time, infrastructure and the state.

Director, Camera, Edit, Script, Production: Lana Askari

Language of Dialogues: Kurdish
Language of Subtitles: English, Czech
 

TAMA GAUN - THE COPPER VILLAGE

Japonsko, Norsko, Nepál, 2015, 89 min
F. Storaas, D. Kharel
28.01.2017 18:55

In Okharbot village of Western Nepal a few persons still know the age-old traditional practise of mining, smelting and casting of copper. The copper has a number of symbolic meanings and economic aspects connected to exchange and healing properties, as well as being the Hindu god Shiva. The complex caste system of Nepal, although abolished, still structures the lives of most people. The untouchable smiths, the Kami, produce one of the purest metals in Hindu cosmology. The film follows Ujir, the foreman, who guides the steps of the mining and smelting. During the smelting work the festival of Dassain took place in the village. The festival is part of the social and cultural context presented in the film along with the traditional smelting process of copper.
 
Dipesh Kharel is an independent documentary filmmaker from Nepal about to finish his PhD research in film and social anthropology at the University of Tokyo in Japan. He received a Master of Philosophy in documentary film studies from the University of Tromsø in Norway.
Frode Storaas is a professor of visual anthropology at the University Museum of Bergen, Norway. His anthropological research has mainly been with pastoralists in Eastern Africa. A theme conveyed in many of his films has been how cultural traditions and ideas influence everyday life. Storaas is gen.sec. of NAFA, a worldwide network for visual anthropology, and the NAFA collection of anthropological films.

Director, camera, script, edit: F. Storaas, D. Kharel
Production: University Museum of Bergen, Norway, Media Help Line, Nepal
Festivals (selection): 2015 Nepal Panorama, Best Documentary; 14th RAI INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM, Watershed in Bristol, England 2015

Language of Subtitles: Nepalese
Language of Dialogues:  English, Czech