We have curated an ambitious programme of documentary films for RAI conference on Anthropology and Education. Drawing upon films from our own catalogue, from our previous film festivals and from our broader network of filmmakers, we present a mix of film approaches and topics that help to highlight some of the main themes of conference. In making our sections our over-riding concern has been to ask what film can contribute to the anthropology of education and childhood as both a research practice and form of analysis.
We offer ten films. There will two film panels each of the four days of the conference in the Senate House’s Beverige Hall. These sessions will take the form of a seminar presentation with an introduction and then followed by discussion featuring a discussant and where possible the filmmaker. There will also be two special evening screenings at the nearby Bertha DocHouse located in the Curzon Bloomsbury Cinema.
RAI FILM
RAI Film is the specialist department of the Royal Anthropological Institute dedicated to promoting the best in groundbreaking and innovative anthropological filmmaking from around the world. We provide a forum and resources for exploring the multiple relationships between documentary film-making and anthropology. We believe anthropological film can make important contributions to help foster transcultural communication understanding within the discipline and in a wider world beyond higher education. In association with the RAI Film Committee, the Film Officers curate a biennial film festival, run a film distribution service with and extensive back catalogue and maintain a film archive. Our mission is to advance the understanding of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue through film. We promote film within anthropology and in turn anthropology through film.
25 June, Tuesday
Film1 13.30-15.00, Beveridge Hall
Title: Delhi at Eleven
Directors: Ravi Shivhare, Anshu Singh, Kumar Kashyap and Shikha Kumar (Anthropologist David MacDougall)
2013 | 82 minutes
This film presents the work of four young filmmakers of New Delhi. From March to May 2012 they took part in a video workshop at the CIE Experimental Basic School, a government primary school. Each of the filmmakers was eleven years old. Their films offer a special perspective on Indian family and working life. This documentary about children filmmakers and urban India includes the following four films: Ravi’s film about a shop in his neighbourhood My Lovely General Store’ Anshu’s film about the lives of girls: Why Not a Girl? Aniket’s film about his friends and family: My Funny Film Shika’s film about children in family life: Children at Home
Discussant: Stephen Hughes, RAI Film Officer
25 June, Tuesday
Film 2 15.30-17.00, Beveridge Hall
Title: Nobody's Metaphor
Director: Remigiusz Sowa
2020 | 30 mins
The film follows the experiences of four young women as they experiment with using an unusual combination of fencing and poetry to challenge stereotypes and define themselves without the weight of anyone else’s expectations. Although initially sceptical and somewhat demotivated, throughout the ‘Muslim Girl’s Fence’ educational workshops they support each other to discover their own individual voices, finding the space to express themselves and the tools to confront racism, sexism and islamophobia.
Discussant: Film Producer, Anna Sowa. Anna is a documentary film producer and Founding Director of Chouette Films which focuses on producing films for social change with the smallest possible environmental footprint. Based at SOAS, Chouette Films, a green film production company committed to using film as a tool to bridge the gap between academic research and the public. Alongside being featured at many film festivals, including Al Jazeera Documentary Film Festival, Chouette Films’ prowess in using film to advance research and impact projects has been commended on numerous occasions, including: BAFTSS, AHRC, One World Media, SIMA and IBC.
26 June, Wednesday
Film 3 11.30-13.00, Beveridge Hall
Title: Weaving Knowledge
Director: Anita Afonu
2023 | 104 mins
Weaving Knowledge is a film about making, material culture and childhood in West Africa. In four episodic narratives called 'weaving knowledge', 'transforming matter', 'making patterns', and 'constructing designs' the film poetically depicts the forms of knowledge embedded in children's everyday lives. This film was produced as part of the British Academy funded research project “Development and Education in the Vernacular for Infants and Children (DEVI)” based in West Africa. The film is an output in the larger project to identify the local epistemologies and pedagogies that families in poor communities deploy to support their children’s education in the early years.
Discussant: Film Producer, Professor Karen Wells (Birkbeck). She is the author of three research monographs, “Childhood in a Global Perspective” (Policy, 3rd edition, 2021), “Childhood Studies: making young subjects” (Polity, 2017) and “Visual Cultures of Childhood” (Rowman and Little 2020). She is book reviews editor of the journal Children’s Geographies, and a board member of the journal Global Studies of Childhood. She is currently involved in two significant book projects, as co-editor of the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Childhood Studies and Global Development and Bloomsbury’s forthcoming Handbook of Theory in Childhood Studies. She is PI of two global challenges research projects with British Academy, one on translanguaging in Amhara region, Ethiopia and one on community approaches to early learning in rural villages in West Africa.
26 June, Wednesday
Film4 14.30-16.00, Beveridge Hall
Title: H is for Harry
Directors: Ed Owles and Jaime Taylor
2018 | 116 mins
A coming-of-age story about Harry, a charismatic 11-year-old boy, who arrives at secondary school in suburban London unable to read or write. With the help of Sophie, his extremely dedicated teacher, can he overcome the illiteracy ingrained across generations of his family? Against the backdrop of a Britain riven with debates around class, identity and social mobility, the film follows Harry over two years as he fights not only to improve academically but also to believe in a different future for himself.
Discussants: Ed Owles and Jaime Taylor.
Ed has shot and directed films in over 20 countries for broadcast, festival and online. He recently produced BFI Doc Society/Sundance/Whickers funded RED HERRING (dir. Kit Vincent, 2023) which is currently screening at festivals worldwide (True/False, Thessaloniki, Sheffield). He has worked as an Associate Lecturer in Documentary/Ethnographic Film at several UK universities. He’s a member of the Royal Anthropological Institute's Film Committee.
Jaime has been making documentaries since 2007, as director, producer, editor and ethnographer for television, museums, education and the third sector. Prior to filmmaking she was an Ofsted graded ‘Outstanding’ teacher in Further Education, working mainly in inner London and with vulnerable groups. She continues to teach, now as Associate Tutor in Ethnographic Filmmaking at the University of East Anglia.
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NOT INCLUDED IN CONFERENCE REGISTRATION, DISCOUNT WITH CODE 26 June, Wednesday 18.30-20.15 @ Bertha DocHouse Title: Our People Will Be Healed Director: Alanis Obomsawin 2017 | 97 mins
A Cree community in Manitoba, Canada turns to education as part of their efforts of community healing and cultural revival. The Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre in Norway House, north of Winnipeg, receives a level of funding that few other Indigenous institutions enjoy. Its teachers help their students to develop their abilities and their sense of pride. About Bertha DocHouse, a dedicated documentary screen that hosts documentary premieres, seasons and live Q&As with filmmakers. The venue is centrally located in the Brunswick Centre. Fresh coffee and teas alongside an all-day menu of bar food with vegan and vegetarian options available. The drinks menu includes a wide selection of cocktails, wine, craft beer and soft drinks. Location BERTHA DOC HOUSE is just a five-minute walk from the conference Senate House venue. Curzon Bloomsbury Cinema Tickets Please note: The screenings at the DocHouse are not covered as part of your conference registration. However, those registered for the conference are entitled to a 25% discount using this code: DOC001 With a capacity of 55 seats, 2 wheelchair spaces, it is important that you book your tickets in advance online at https://dochouse.org/ |
27 June, Thursday
Film5 11.30-13.00, Beveridge Hall
Title: The Mind of a Child
Director: Gary Marcuse
1994| 59 mins
How can children adapt and do more than survive in neighbourhoods where violence is common. How can they learn in schools if teachers have given up on them? This 1994 documentary, follows the early work of Lorna Williams who was concerned about aboriginal children in Canada who were dropping out of school, losing hope and committing suicide in terrifying numbers. Her search led her to to Jerusalem and the work of Reuven Feuerstein, an Israeli psychologist whose early work focused on children who had survived the Holocaust. Feuerstein's ideas provided Lorna with a deeper insight into the importance of cultural transmission in the cognitive development of children and the impact of residential schools in Canada Lorna returned to North America with a renewed approach to teaching that reveals the intelligence and the ability of children, and helps them to build missing skills. The same methods prove useful with children "at risk" in the inner-city neighbourhoods of Washington DC.
Discussant: Film Producer, Lorna Williams
27 June, Thursday
Film 6 14.30-16.00, Beveridge Hall
Title: Under the Palace Wall
Director: David MacDougall
2013 | 53 mins
From the 16th century the Indian village of Delwara in southern Rajasthan, India was ruled as a principality of the kingdom of Mewar. The film explores Delwara’s local primary school and contemporary life in a small town. The film takes an observational approach. There are no interviews and no narration. Instead, the film unfolds through a series of carefully composed scenes and thought-provoking juxtapositions to capture the daily life of a school within its community. Staff and students go about their everyday routines in a well-practiced and choreographed rhythms from dawn to dusk “under the palace wall.”
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NOT INCLUDED IN CONFERENCE REGISTRATION, DISCOUNT WITH CODE 27 June, Thursday 18.30-20.15 @Bertha DocHouse Title: How (not) to Build a School in Haiti Director: Jack C. Newell 2022| 90 mins
Development, history, and colonialism collide when a seemingly simple aid project spirals out of control in Haiti. When a headstrong American clashes with a Haitian leader it forces a reckoning on privilege and power. After hearing a podcast in the wake of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, semi-retired construction worker Tim Myers is so moved he decides to build a school in the rural Hatian community of Villard. He meets his counterpart Anselm Saimplice, who readily accepts Tim's vision for a new school. Very quickly, things spiral out of control. Trying to teach Haitian labourers new skills, Tim imposes his style of construction and values. And as filmmakers and aid workers spend more time in Villard, Saimplice reveals himself to be quite different from the vibrant, selfless community leader the radio story represented. Subverting the typical NGO film, filmmakers follow through on unexpected plot twists, weaving them together with expert interviews clarifying the larger historical and social context of the school project. Ultimately the filmmakers must question their own complicity in the byzantine network of international aid, NGOs and documentary storytelling itself. Jack C. Newell (Director / Writer / Producer) is a filmmaker and public artist. He is the co-creator of Destroy Your Art, and the co-creator of the public art project, The Wabash Lights. His feature film credits include 42 Grams, Open Tables, Hope Springs Eternal, and the upcoming quirky-comedy, Monuments - and How to Build a School in Haiti - which is a ten-year exploration of a single aid project. About Bertha DocHouse, a dedicated documentary screen that hosts documentary premieres, seasons and live Q&As with filmmakers. The venue is centrally located in the Brunswick Centre. Fresh coffee and teas alongside an all-day menu of bar food with vegan and vegetarian options available. The drinks menu includes a wide selection of cocktails, wine, craft beer and soft drinks. Location BERTHA DOC HOUSE is just a five-minute walk from the conference Senate House venue. Curzon Bloomsbury Cinema Tickets Please note: The screenings at the DocHouse are not covered as part of your conference registration. However, those registered for the conference are entitled to a 25% discount using this code: DOC001 With a capacity of 55 seats, 2 wheelchair spaces, it is important that you book your tickets in advance online at https://dochouse.org/ |
28 June, Friday
Film7 11.30-13.00, Beveridge Hall
Factory Schools in India: two film shorts
Title: Crimes Against Children
Director: Hugh Brody
2019 | 12 mins
Produced by Survival International this short film was made as a ‘global alert’: we were learning that residential schools for tribal and indigenous children around the world were on the increase. Especially in India. Survival International’s campaign against ‘Factory Schools' had resulted in anthropologists and activists working in India to record interviews with children and parents of children who were suffering the impacts of such schools. At the centre of the Indian schools was KISS - which at the time was little known for its mass ‘education; of Adivasi children. Using archival footage from Canada and footage shot in India along with KISS’s own promotional material, this short film was made as part of a long-term need to raise awareness of these crimes against children.
Title: The Laboratory Project
Directors: Sankaraaa & Rajan
2023 | 15 mins.
The policy of assimilation or de-indigenising communities by placing their children in residential/boarding schools has been increasingly disproved and abandoned, most publicly throughout North America, Australia and Canada since the 1980s. The film explores the same policy in Odisha, India. This history and its dangers are little known, with relatively little awareness of how they are being replicated among many of India’s Adivasi/Indigenous communities. Extraction education has evolved more slowly in India but has now reached a larger scale than in any other country. Schools like KISS in Odisha, India not only receive large amounts of funds from companies which wrest control over tribal lands, but have emerged as nodal agencies for extractive corporations and Hindu nationalist organisations to socially engineer and organise indigenous identities to suit and justify India's fastest growing 'development story' and not a means for achieving social justice for marginalised communities.
28 June, Friday
Film8 14.30-16.00, Beveridge Hall
Title: Suñu Ekool
Director: Aron Marty and Maria Bänziger
2021 | 22 mins
After staying in Switzerland for fifteen years, earning a living in construction, Babacar ‘Bouba’ Camara, 51, returns to his motherland Senegal. In Béne Barack, a socially and economical marginalised neighbourhood of Senegal’s capital Dakar, Bouba has founded a private elementary school. As Bouba was not able to finish his own school career and fulfil his vision of becoming a lawyer or a doctor, he wants to give the kids in this poor neighbourhood the opportunity to attend a decent school that is not hopelessly overcrowded like the public schools. His aim is to give every kid in the neighbourhood a chance “like all the other kids in Senegal and in the world”. While the parents get the opportunity to send their kids to an affordable school, Bouba is permanently struggling with the school’s budget: Since many parents can’t even pay the low fee and Bouba does not want to expel any pupils because of lacking payments he is forced to return to Switzerland from time to time to earn some money to keep his school going.
Royal Anthropological Institute
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Royal Anthropological Institute
NomadIT.co.uk