FILMSCREENINGPROGRAM

CHEMISTRY BUILDING ROOM 51

For the first time in the history of the COMMISSION ON VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY, we present a film- screening program according to region of production. Our aim is to distinguish and discuss specific developments in the practice and theory of Visual Anthropology as expressed in the productions, that may be developing in the different regions in the world, bringing their own discourses, themes and practices, as well as to accommodate and expose new voices in Visual Anthropology. At the IUAES2013 Congress in Manchester Visual Anthropologists from Cameroon, Japan, Latin America, and China will convene programs that were selected from a range of recent productions. For further details, please view the website: www.iuaes2013.0rg/Visual.html or www.facebook.com/CVA.iuaes

Monday 05 August, 14-17:30 Hours

CAMEROON FILM PROGRAMME Convener: Mouadjamou Ahmadou
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FILMS FROM THE UNIVERSITIES OF MAROUA AND TROMS (Norway) Jean Rouch said that Africans often dont read but they can watch movies and understand and comprehend messages. The follow-up of our training at Visual Cultural Studies at the University of Troms in Norway is to share what we learnt with our people and to contribute to the development of visual anthropology as a discipline, in our country and in Africa. This was one of the main aims of the knowledge we acquired in this domain from the start. From what is said above, we are thinking now on how Visual Anthropology can be put at the service of public education, in a poly-ethnic region where people in general don't know much about other ethnic groups, other parts of the country, rather than the areas they belong to. We try to go deeper into what the explicit contribution of Visual Anthropology could be within that context. The aim is also to be able to target a wide audience for culture education. The important contribution of the ethnographic film approach is not to counteract stereotypes regarding the capacity of Africans to grasp messages from texts, but to create an understanding between different groups, parts of the country and thereby contribute to a peaceful relation and development. It is very important to know or to understand the variation of cultures, their diversities and their complexity within the communities living in Cameroon. This takes us from the idea of discovering other cultures to understand ourselves and to communicate and exchange our views on a wide range of issues, with neighboring people. Studying or teaching visual anthropology contributes to developing strategies of assimilation, adaptation and integration of different cultures. To achieve this objective, we realize that Visual anthropology can play a key role in connecting people, creating unity through acknowledging diversity, sharing knowledge by training students, researchers in filmmaking and screening the films through televisions to reach a wide audience. The capacity of iconographic documentation in the form of films is well developed. So using ethnographic films to gather people appears to be an easier way and is more adaptable for culture education bearing in mind that people did not have a culture of reading previously, even if they could afford to buy books.

It is important to deduce from the above discussion that, teaching visual anthropology has permitted us to explore the complex and diversified cultural world of Cameroon. The combination of these cultures and better still the recognition of their culture by each ethnic group and that of the neighbors represents an impetus and advantage for development. The ability of the population to assimilate the cultures and even the alienated ones through films has shown that the latter (population) has the capacity to assimilate. It is therefore, important to think of bringing in the idea of integration of an ethnic group with the social groups. It is thus, this idea that has made us to use Visual Anthropology and Ethnographic films as a means to educate the masses as far as culture is concerned.

ZAVRA, A PASSER IN KAPSIKI LAND 26 min./2005 (Cameroon) Anthropologist/filmmaker Mouadjamou Ahmadou Kapsiki are split by colonial boundaries and a mountain chain. Through a passer's every day life, Zavra's, we understand how go-betweens are important for this community. WHEN NOMADS SETTLE, 52 min./2007 (Cameroon) Anthropologist Filmmaker: Adamou Amadou The film is about the current situation of a nomadic people, the Mbororo, in Cameroon. After leaving the bush to settle on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Ngaounder, how do they deal with this new environment and how will it affect their lifestyle? The film highlights the coping strategies of the involved families, which in many ways stand in sharp contrast to customary activities. Due to their background as pastoral nomad, milk has played an important role. LAND IS FOOD, 43 min./2008 (Cameroon) Anthropologist/filmmaker Koultchoumi, Babette "Land is Food" is a portrait of some farming people of Bipare village, situated in northern Cameroon near the border with Chad. The film features Ruth Sogsirba her husband Moussa Kallam and the midwife Elisabeth Tansouabe. Recent changes to customary land tenure as well as population pressures have made access to land increasingly precarious especially for some Bipare women. The film stresses on everyday life of female farmers of Bipare involved in a social change where, common property and land management is replaced by individual land ownership.

JEAN JACQUES (Cameroon), 15 min. /2011 (Cameroon) Filmmaker : Bako Moustapha Like the majority of young Africans, Hadidja also dreams of going to Europe. To achieve that she chooses the shortest route: Internet. She encounters Jean Jacques, a young resident of Paris. The whole familys economics are brought together to prepare for the journey that will never take place, as Jean Jacques appears to be a fictive character put together by her friend: Moussa.

 NOUS VOULONS LECOLE, MAIS NOTRE HERITAGE AUSSI, 16 min./2013 (Cameroon) Anthropologist/filmmakers: Djoda, Haman Dari, Passinri Wadale School for all is one of the main credos nowadays for the Cameroonian State. This film presents the difficulties that nomadic pastoralists who live a life of transhumance in the plains of Diamare have, to arrive at fulfilling that aim. WHILE WAITING FOR BETTER DAYS 16 min./2013 (Cameroon) Anthropologist/filmmakers Kearn Larissa Abeu, Nafissatou Bassaro and Tezore Amandine Education is a global heritage. Cameroon after its independence adopted a favourable educational policy and this led to an era of euphoria in the 1970s. But with the economic crisis of the 1980s 1990s and the gradual disengagement of the state to the educational sector, the role of parents became more and more evident. They became partners and sustains to the state. In Mayel Ibbe, primary school, education of pupils is done in condition of acute shortage of infrastructure. Parents make tremendous effort to handle the education of their children while waiting for better days. TOGETHER AS ONE 39 min./2013 (Cameroon) Anthropologist/filmmaker: Kilian Lamtur Tanlaka Together as one shows the social use of kolanut in Nso society. Nso is the biggest Kingdom of the Western Grassfields and an ethnic group in the northeast corner of Cameroons North West region. Its capital Kumbo is where the ruler (Fon) lives. The Nso population counts Christians, Muslims, and followers of indigenous religious beliefs. This film shows what a thing, a nut or a natural resource, can mean to people. Kola nut is an item around which the feeling, experience, sense, and lived reality of belonging, togetherness, being together, unity, oneness, friendship and peace is being expressed. The kola nut thus plays an important role in bringing very diverse people together, irrespective of their religion, village, quarter, or thoughts. In this sense, kola nut brings about a feeling of togetherness, fellowship, and belonging to a group.

Tuesday 06 August, 14-17:30 Hours

JAPAN FILM PROGRAMME: Films by Japanese Anthropologists Convener: Itsushi Kawase
_______________________________________________________________________ A considerable number of films have been produced by Japanese anthropologists centering on the variety of cultures in the world. The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology has started the film-screening program in 2006 and more than 70 films have been presented in total since. The recent growth of the visual anthropologists scholarly network in Japan has further facilitated the production and progress of methodology of academic films. Furthermore, there are several interdisciplinary audio-visual workshops organized by anthropologists that are aimed to expand the practice of knowledge creation in humanities in conjunction with film, contemporary art and anthropology. In this program, we will present films by leading visual anthropologist in Japan who are exploring the audio- visual storytelling by their own styles and methods based on anthropological inquiry with the long-term field research.

Cuba Sentimental, 60 min./2010 (Cuba, U.K., Spain. U.S., Chile) Anthropologist/filmmaker: Sachiko Tanuma (Osaka University) Sachi, who lived in Havana for her anthropological study between 2002- 2004, sees all her Cuban friends leaving the country to anywhere they can -- Spain, England, Chile, the United States. Visiting them in their new homes, and visiting their relatives and friends still in Cuba, the film explores how Cubans feel about leaving their country, a place that has been known for its utopian dream. Jo Joko, 61min./2012 (Cameroon) Anthropologist/filmmaker Daisuke Bundo (Shinshu University) The lives of hunter-gatherers, or you could say their ways of eating. They hunt what they can from surrounding nature, and then share for eating. In the tropical rainforest in Cameroon, the ethnic group called the Baka continues their traditional culture. In their language, they call food as "jo", and good as "joko" whatever the degree. This is an anthropological action film whose sole purpose is to simply record the mealtimes of people living in the forest.

Ana Botol in West Timor, Life in the City and Village, 43 min/2012. (Indonesia) Anthropologist/filmmaker: Yoshinari Morita (Setsunan University)

Kupang is the largest city of West Timor island, Indonesia. Atoni Meto, who occupy about the half of the islands population, mainly reside in underdeveloped hilly rural villages east of the city. Since they hardly enjoyed educational opportunities during the Dutch administration, today they often engage in low-wage, low-skilled labor in Kupangs urban areas. In Kupang, there a group of men called ana botol (Bottle kids). Coming to Kupang in search of jobs, they often form distinctive groups according to their home villages. Every morning, Ana Botol push their cart off to the various parts of the city, and spend an entire day in collecting waste materials such as used bottles, iron scraps and cardboards, which they later exchange for cash. While Ana Botol bring the large part of their income back to the village, by the time they return to the city, they usually have spent all of their money. Consequently, without any improvements in their economic and social status, they reassume the same job as garbage collectors. Some Atoni Meto have repeated this cycle for nearly thirty years. How do they use their money? In this project, I hope to reconsider the notion of poverty and its general understanding through my observation about the way these men earn and spend money. Sensing the journey of the dead 40 min/2012 (China, Yunnan Province) Anthropologist/filmmaker: Satoru Ito (National Museum of Ethnology) This film attempts to characterize the auditory culture and the sensibility in Shamanistic ritual of Tai society, in Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. Dehong Taipeople are known as Theravada Buddhist, but some regions still perform Shamanistic mortuary ritual. A few days after the funeral, the bereaved invites a Shamanic religious practitioner Yaamot and hold the sending-back ritual, Song Kho Khao, in which the spirit of the dead was returned to the heavenly realm, the dwelling place of the ancestors and the Great Mother. The long, rugged journey is broadcast live to the audience by the improvised singing of Yaamot. In the ritual, Yaamot metamorphoses into the multi-roling media and sings all alone about the deads experience of the journey. The audience listens to the deads distress and longing and the narratives of the ancestors and spirits. While listening to the singing of Yaamot, the audience imagines the realm that reality and spiritual dimension have been obfuscated, and the spirits of the living also experience the journey with the dead.

Wednesday 07 August, 14-17:30 Hours

LATIN AMERICAN FILM PROGRAMME Conveners: Carlos Flores & Angela Torresan
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The Latin American Film Programme is connected to the Visual Anthropology Track Panel V03, in which authors discuss how and whether the use of audio-visual media in their research has elicited new forms of ethnographic connections, political engagement, and regional aesthetics. Although, not all the films screened in the Latin American film programme have been directed by authors who will present in the panel, they share the same concern and will prompt similar discussions. The panellists in V03 and the directors in the Latin America Film programme all seek to explore how images are helping anthropologists and other social scientists to engage with alternative understandings of reality that are currently flourishing in Latin America. Let us fish! (work in progress), 25 min./ 2013 (Mexico) Research/camera/sound/editing: Alejandra Navarro Cocopah indigenous fishermen and fisherwomen struggle to make their right to their territory recognized. Since 1993, they have been banned to continue to fish in their historic territory: the Colorado River Delta in Baja California, Mxico. Since then, they took the long journey to promote a law change for a sustainable indigenous fishing practice in a country where environmental laws ignore the survival needs for indigenous populations and where they continue to be dispossessed. Fuera de foco (Out of Focus) 36 min./2013 (Mexico) Anthropologist-Filmmakers : Adrin Arce and Antonio Zirin This is a collaborative documentary about arts, culture and everyday life inside a prison for minors. It was shot during a photography and video workshop with young inmates at the Juvenile Community for Specialized Treatment in San Fernando, Mexico City. K'ixba'l (Shame ) 38 min./2012 (Guatemala) Anthropologist-Filmmaker: Carlos Y Flores In the western highlands of Guatemala, three young indigenous men accused of stealing a pick-up truck were captured by villagers who decided to correct them according to Mayan law. The procedure was captured on video by members of the community, affording a rare opportunity to see from within and in the words of the actors themselves how Mayan communities are revitalizing the norms and practices of their communal justice with elements of their own cosmovision or world view. This documentary is part of an anthropological research project in collaboration with indigenous authorities in Santa Cruz del Quiche, Guatemala. Onde Nascen as Pedras (Where the Stones are Born). 27 min./2011 (Brazil) Anthropologist-Filmmaker: Peregrina Capelo Where the Stones are Born explores the social and environmental aesthetics of the semi-arid area in Cear, a state in the Northeast Region of Brazil. These areas have suffered from chronic droughts and have been affected by a long-term process of desertification. The film looks at the relationship between the sertajeno and his/her landscape and the tense connections between ambient and human and not human life. Two Justices, The Challenges of Inter-legal Coordination. 39 min./2012 (Guatemala) Anthropologist-Filmmaker: Carlos Y Flores This documentary was made within an anthropological collaboration with the indigenous mayoralty of Santa Cruz del Quich, Guatemala, using material filmed by non-professional K'iche' cameramen during the legal procedures that followed a murder in the canton of Las Casas. In the words of the actors themselves, the film shows the complex inter-legal coordination that took place between the supporters of indigenous law and state justice officials in this region of Guatemala.

Thursday 08 August , 14-17:30 hours

CHINA FILMPROGRAM: Dao of Being Together Conveners: Dr. Bao Jiang & Dr. Zheng Shaoxiong
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Co-host: Center for Social-Cultural Anthropology, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences & Center for Ethnic and Folk Literature and Art Development, Ministry of Culture, P.R.C Film Selection Committee Yang Guanghai, Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Barbara Keifenheim, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder Zhuang kongshao, Institute of Anthropology, Zhejiang University Guo Jing, Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences Bao Jiang, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Dao of Being Together is the translation of (Xiangchu Zhi Dao). It is a common concept in Chinese. Its meaning is explicit for those who are familiar with Chinese language and it is easy for them to respond to it from their individual experience. But it is difficult to translate it explicitly when it is introduced into other languages. The word (Xiangchu) might be translated into Being Together. The word (Zhi) is a preposition and it is easy to translate. The word (Dao) is the difficult point here. The concept of Dao refers to way, skill, method, principle, ethics, ontology, etc., and there is not a concept in English responding to it. So it would be proper to introduce the symbol of Dao into English rather than try to find a responding word at the risk of attending to one reference and neglecting the others. Of course the concept of Dao of Being Together must confuse those who are familiar with the English language at the first sight of it. Please dont worry about it. These films will provoke your individual experience to it. They are selected in terms of the provocative value of Dao of Being Together at the three levels, i.e.: the trans-cultural Dao of Being Together, Dao of Being Together of the filmed, Dao of Being Together between the filmmaker and the filmed.

Hemp Weaving and Miao People/ 47 min/2010 (Yunnan Province, China) Director Hou Wentao The film underscores the importance of hemp in the culture of the Miao (Hmong) of Yunnan by showing how they use hemp to produce articles they use every day and explaining its ceremonial role in Miao(Hmong) ritual.

The Feast of Kurban Bayram/ , 50 min./2012 Anthropologist-Filmmaker Liu Xiangchen

Bulonkol is located at the foot of the famous Kongur Tagh on Pamir plateau. Ayinle is a small nomadic village with only five households in the valley. Grandpa Bilimkul Bolox, who was the first one settled here with his family, is already 91 years old. The construction of the grand Kongur hydroelectric power station will force his family and his neighbors to move away from here. The nomadic life style that Kyrgyz people have maintained for centuries in the Kongur mountain region will also change completely. To the old man, his granddaughters wedding ceremony and this years feast of Kurban Bayram imply a different meaning from the past years. With the rising of the seasonal wind, flocks of sheep start to migrate from the fall grazing ground to the winter grassland. The valley is gradually disappearing into the dust waves that follow the trucks carrying ore rocks everyday Stone Lion, A Babys Guardian, 30 min./2012 (Northern Shaanxi, China) Anthropologist-Filmmaker: Wang Yihui

People have all lived through hard times in northern Shaanxi, China. A lot of children are born here, but not all of them survive. Lion, please protect my child, and let him live long. The stone lion has a very warm heart-a mothers heart. Kachin Refugee/ , 47 min./2012 (Kachin State, China) Anthropologist-Filmmakers Li Weihua & Ke Xiao

Kachin people are indigenous people to the Kachin State, north of Myanmar/ Burma. A war broke out in Kachin land since Jun. 2011, when a lot of Kachin people, who self-claimed "refugee", were forced into exile due to the fierce firefight. Crossing the Burma- China border, temporary camps were built to shelter them, whose basic living needs were covered by Christian churches. I was conducting my field work for a doctoral program at Peking University in Ruili since late 2011, when I was invited by a local church as a volunteer to one of the camps in which 2,000 Kachin people, mostly women and children, were settled. I taught Chinese to the young students since Feb. to Aug. 2012, when the camps left China entirely.