Screening

08 October–03 December 2011

Cinematic Narratives from Elsewhere public program: film screenings and discussions curated by Christina Li

Film still from A Kind of Paradise with artist Kiluanji Kia Henda, director: Andreas Johnson, 2011

Cinematic Narratives from Elsewhere is a film-based public program of screenings and discussions that accompanies the exhibition Spacecraft Icarus 13: Narratives of Progress from Elsewhere at BAK. The program presents alternative accounts of the impact of sociopolitical changes brought about by western-driven discourses of progress and modernity in the so-called “Third World.” These filmic voices from Latin America, Africa, and Asia, which emerged after decolonization, are also known as “Third Cinema.” Distinctively different in technique and content from mainstream cinema, the variety of formats presented within this program spans from documentaries to epics, and highlights the articulation of aesthetic and political concerns within Third Cinema from the 1960s to the present day. Using cinema as a space of self-representation and transformation, these films articulate cultural and political critiques of today’s realities and reflect on historical processes such as projects of nation-building, which are often seen as a continuation of the West’s imperialistic impulses. As a counter voice, these practices elicit new models and possibilities in articulating other visions of the past, present, and future.

Venue: Het Utrechts Archief, Hamburgerstraat 28, Utrecht.

The program Cinematic Narratives from Elsewhere is curated by Christina Li and organized within the framework of the project FORMER WEST.

Program

8 October 2011, 14.00–18.00 hrs
Bypasses to Modernity
with contributions by Wang Hui (Professor, Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Tsinghua University, Beijing); Nick Deocampo (filmmaker, film historian, and director of the Center for New Cinema, Manila); and Luis Ospina (filmmaker, Cali, Colombia).

22 October 2011, 11.00–19.30 hrs
Against Amnesia and Apathy
film screening of Lav Diaz’s Melancholia (2008)

5 November 2011, 14.00–17.00 hrs
Excavating a Cinematic Future
contribution by Keiko Sei (founder of Myanmar Moving Image Center, writer, and curator, Bangkok).

19 November 2011, 14.00–17.00 hrs
The Political Carnivalesque
film screening of Glauber Rocha’s Entranced Earth (1967) and a lecture by Wendelien van Oldenborgh (artist, Rotterdam).

3 December 2011, 14.00–17.00 hrs
Revisions of African Representation
film afternoon curated by Kiluanji Kia Henda (artist, Luanda).

Suggestions from the archive

Learning

10 May, 12.00–12 May, 18.00 2023

Complaint Making: Setting Up Conflict-Positive Spaces for Community Building Praxis

Vishnu would like to share feminist governance tools (FGT) focused on three of many tiers in community building praxis. FGT is based on the values of equity with an emphasis on creating psychologically safe environments, drawing on the use of consent. Decision-making processes, setting up conflict-positive spaces, and complaint-making as diversity work will form the body of this three-day training. Rooted in Vishnu’s autho-ethnographic practice, this work will explore the power dynamics that impact decision-making processes.

Performative

10 May, 12.00–12 May, 18.00 2023

The Diamond Mind II

In this dance training, the people will use a one-minute film of their own movement as material for a booklet—a sixteen page signature—that distributes their presence, their gesture, as an act of EQ. 

Learning

3 May, 12.00–4 May, 18.00 2023

Too Late To Say Sorry? 

A bad apology can ruin a friendship, destroy a community, or end a career. In this workshop, we will investigate the impact of apologies on our relationships and our worlds. Why and how do we make apologies? What can giving and receiving apologies teach us about values and integrity? Should you apologize for something you don’t really feel sorry for? We will explore conflict and how we like to be in conflict with others. We will dive into our own boundaries. We will seek to understand how honoring limits becomes an act of building (or freeing) better worlds capable of holding so many, many more of us.

Learning

28 April, 12.00–29 April, 18.00 2023

Huisje, Boompje, Beestje (D.A.F.O.N.T.)

In this rare masterclass, retired teacher and artist Glenda Martinus teaches participants a thing or two about painting with Microsoft Word. Martinus shares tips, tricks, and secrets on how to use this software to its unexpected potential as a drawing tool. Participants learn how to draw three basic objects—a house, a tree, and an animal—in a seemingly innocent exercise that perhaps contains more layered social commentary. Drawing the worlds we desire does not require expensive tools or education, simply a curiosity to understand how the monster’s tools can topple the house of the master.