Ethnographic Film Series
Organised by SOAS Department of Anthropology & Sociology in conjunction with Royal Anthropological Institute
Wednesday 16 March 1pm, Khalili Lecture Theatre, Lower Ground Floor, Main Building, SOAS
The Halfmoon Files- A Ghost Story, Philip Scheffner, 2008. 87 min.
This experimental film follows the history of a brief sound recording of the voice of an Indian prisoner-of-war, Mal Singh, recorded in a Berlin prisoner-of-war camp around 1916. The 80 second recording offers a spectral trace that is the only material reminder of a transcontinental journey and a violent colonial encounter that led to war and imprisonment in the Halfmoon prisoner of war camp in Wünsdorf, Germany. The camp was an important site for anthropometric research and propaganda during World War I. The film is fashioned as a kind of ghost story that conjures a network of racist, anthropological, and war discourses into its fold.
For further information on the films please contact: RAI Film Officer, Caterina Sartori, film@therai.org.uk
All are welcome, booking not required.