The theme for this festival is ARCHIVE!

Why ARCHIVE, and why is this political?

We have initiated this festival as a place of discussion and action. Any film you watch, or any artwork you see displayed, was created in its own context and gets to be shown in certain social relations. The artists that were selected for this festival were conscious of this, and their works’ social impact continues beyond this event.

For this reason, the topic of ‘archive’ felt right to us - archives are not just crucial to anthropological research, they are powerful political tools, and not always for good. Anthropology as a discipline itself is deeply marked by the rigorous, objectifying, non-consensual archiving of colonial researchers. For this reason, this festival is intended as a place to question who it is that creates archives, why they create them, how they can be subverted, and how new archiving can be used for radical social change.

Taking a multimodal approach to ethnography has been central to our vision. All workshops hosted and installations featured at our festival take experimentation seriously. Inspired by digital tools, queer movement theory, decolonial practices and more, the artists use material cultures such as textile and sculpture, and the body itself, to challenge the notion of ‘archive’.

With them, we question what archives can be, consider how to subvert violent archival practices, and explore alternative approaches to archiving that are based on collective care.

ACTIVITIES:

Thames riverbank as archive: a guided walk to Rotherhithe Beach

field trip

Ricardo Leizaola 

Restaging Queer Archive as Collective Care

workshop & film screening

Rizky Rahad 
(Qamerad Collective)

Faux Expressionism: Simulation, Movement and Embodied Archivism

talk & interactive workshop

Gian Sanghera-Warren

Somadex

performance & interactive movement workshop

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The Context of KONTEKST

talk

Centre for Visual Anthropology (Lee Douglas) & KONTEKST collective (Arti Siudem, Emelie Victoria, Sam McNeil, Sana Nurlan).

INSTALLATIONS:

KONTEKST COMMUNITY NOTICE BOARD 

Curated by festival guests 

JAFAICAN

photo & video

Finley Gilzene 

KÄRA KARIN

photo & video

Emelie Victoria

9JAFUTURHYTHMACHINE: SORO SOKE

video, sculpture & book

Adza Tarka

AFON LLEUAD

video

Millie Juno

COMMUNITY TIES

sculpture & video

Demi Abiru

JONGA☆SANI

radio station launch
& DJ set

Thenjiwe Nxumalo-Parsley

MAIN FILM SHOWCASE:

BLOCK 1: UNEARTH

To unearth, to pull from the ground, to uncover and expose.

Why are some things covered? Should they remain so? Who has the power to unearth, and when should they? This first block focuses on archives in the making, the revealing act itself as  a refusal to be unheard.

These artists are generous enough to add to and question current renderings of history, that in violent ways tend to silence groups of people. They help us re-construct the story of how we got here by using everything from reinterpreted family archives or observational film to performance and fiction. 

BLOCK 2: WARP

To warp, to shift, to take what is there and re-present it anew.

This second block looks at how alternative archives can be suggested and violent archives subverted, and with them the power structures that those archives are born from.

By tapping into methods like desktop documentary, multimodal translation and counter-mapping, these filmmakers inspire action and suggest that things are usually more than what they seem. 

FATAL TIDE
by Akinsola Lawanson

CREDITS:

Facilitated by:

Arti Siudem - programming & curation coordinator, comms & outreach co-facilitator, logistics & production co-facilitator, design, admin

Emelie Victoria - comms & outreach coordinator, programming & curation co-facilitator, logistics & production co-facilitator, design, admin, event photography

Sam McNeil - logistics & production coordinator, programming & curation co-facilitator, comms & outreach co-facilitator, admin

Sana Nurlan - programming & curation co-facilitator, comms & outreach co-facilitator, logistics & production co-facilitator, admin, videographer

Rosa Koivunoro - programming & curation co-facilitator, comms & outreach co-facilitator, logistics & production co-facilitator, admin

Lily Angelone - programming & curation co-facilitator, comms & outreach co-facilitator, logistics & production co-facilitator, admin

Volunteers:

PROGRAMME BOOKLETS DESIGN: Tessa Beazley

PHOTO / VIDEOGRAPHY: Orlando Myxx, Martha Tesfamicael, Constance Grave

EVENT ASSISTANTS: Ben Woodhouse, Beverly Murua, Ella Justine Frost, Samuele Marazzato

TECHNICAL SUPPORT: Ethan Longford

WELFARE: Ella Justine Frost, Lily Angelone

FILM SELECTION VOLUNTEERS: Adza Tarka, Alexi Studebaker, Amir Reza Garmroudi, Anilda Koteci, Arturo Maciel Flecha, Carla Hartmann, Cirenlazhen, Clémentine Vidal, David Gosta Dawson, Elena Sirgedaite, Finley Gilzene, Flora Tye, Frank Milligan, Harry, Huiqi He, Isabella Millett, Jade Rodriguez Solomon, Jo Watters, Kate Loxton, Laila Hendrickse, Madelaine Ainscough, Molly B Sylvester, Olivia Berglund, Samuele Marazzato, Scott Gibson Mutasa, Sharon Anatole, Sheen Zhang, Suzie Beckley, Tessa Beazley, Tosin Goke, Xena White

Special thanks to:

SET team: Annie Demawan, Dillon Home, Ellie Dobbs, Erin Galvin, Verity Monroe

En Root - event catering

Panopus Printing - programme booklets printing

QuickPrint - posters printing

Lee Douglas - academic and organisational support, promotion

Ricardo Leizaola - academic and organisational support, promotion

Justin Woodman - academic and organisational support, promotion

Miroslav Stambolsky - production & technical support