Description

Since the 1980s, rural Java, Indonesia has been the site of striking socio-economic improvement. In a matter of years, forlorn and poverty clad villages became brightly lit spaces, with many amenities. This improved living standard has been accompanied, however, by an overreaching, if not squanderous, life style. A large portion of the farmers’ hard earned wealth is spent on cigarettes, electronic appliances, motorcycles, house renovations, mobile phones and communal projects such as oversized mosque.

How can we properly understand this phenomenon without falling into either the colonial myth of the profligate native, or the contemporary attitude of treating anthropological subjects as victims of forces beyond their control—be it colonial policies, exploitation by the Northern rich countries, friction between local and global political-economic power, or the political-economic regimes’ will to improve?

The talk will address this problem based on historical-ethnographic data from an upland Java farming community, and highlight the dialectics between the force of accumulation and force of distribution within the community, and what Edward Said termed the critical relationality between the farmers and the bigger world.

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Dr Pujo Semedi is a professor at the Dept. of Anthropology, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia where he teaches Indonesian Rural Economies and Ethnographic Research Method. In the last fifteen years Dr Semedi has conducted historical-ethnographic research on Java’s fishing, farming and plantation communities to see how differential access to crucial resources leads to variations in socio-cultural configurations. He is a contributor to the Netherlands’ Institute of Anthropology and Linguistic (KITLV)’s project “In Search of Middle Indonesia”, a research collaborator in the Universite de Montreal based ChATSEA (Challenge of Agrarian Transformation in Southeast Asia) program, and a co-researcher with Professor Tania Li on the project “Producing Wealth and Poverty in Indonesia’s New Rural Economies”. He is currently visiting professor in the Department of Anthropology and David Chu Distinguished Speaker at the University of Toronto.

Description

This two-campus series will feature ethnographic films by young Tibetans from within China and young Burmese filmmakers, a lecture and film on Buddhism in Burma, and a workshop on documentary film and development in Asia. Interesting similarities between Burmese and Tibetan cultures – both of which flourish in strongly Buddhist, intellectually rich yet economically poor communities living within difficult political boundaries – make this cross-cultural comparison especially compelling. The weekend will feature works of emerging and established Tibetan filmmakers, most of which have never been shown outside China, Burmese students participating in the Yangon Film School, and established Anglo-Burman filmmaker Lindsey Merrison. Films will be followed by discussions with invited Toronto filmmakers. Discussions will also focus on the special value of participatory film projects for young people living in threatened cultural groups and on the potential of open access and open source tools and practices for these communities. The event venues will be enhanced by a stunning exhibit of images by Plateau Photographers, an open participatory photography project that trains minority students in western China.

A bus to UTSC will leave from in front of Hart House (Hart House Circle) at 11:15 am, and again at 5:30pm. It will return to Hart House from UTSC at the end of the day around 9 pm. All are welcome on the bus. For questions, contact aep@utsc.utoronto.ca or 416.208.4769

FRIDAY FEB. 18, Noon-9 pm
BUDDHISM, DEVELOPMENT, AND NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING IN MYANMAR
Location: UTSC, LL Browne Theatre (12 – 5 PM) and AA-112 (7 – 9 PM)

12-1:00
Introduction: Frances Garrett and Leslie Chan
Lecture: Lindsey Merrison and Eh Mwee
In 2005, Anglo-Burma Director and Producer Lindsey Merrison and seven other experienced filmmakers mounted the first Art of Documentary Filmmaking workshop in Myanmar, during which they trained 12 young Burmese men and women to develop their own skills as documentarians. Lindsey has since mounted a second workshop, The Art of Documentary Editing (2006), and founded the non-profit organization, Yangon Film School – Association for the Promotion of Young Burmese Film and Video Artists, with the aim of setting up a permanent school in Yangon with a regular curriculum. This series was expanded in 2009 with the release of Stories from Myanmar, which showcases the work of participants of the 2007 Yangon Film School workshops in Myanmar.
A member of the Karen ethnic group, Eh Mwee comes to Toronto for this event from Myanmar. She is a director, cinematographer and editor who joined YFS in 2005, after which she married, returned to Bangkok to finish her Master’s degree in gender studies, returned to Myanmar to have a child, joined Oxfam, and later worked as a freelance evaluator for NGOs. She came back to YFS in 2009, where she rediscovered her passion for filmmaking.

1:00-2:30
Film: “Stories from Myanmar”
The work of 12 new participants from The Art of Documentary Filmmaking Beginners Workshop 2007, who were given the opportunity to grapple with the technical, artistic and ethical aspects of the genre by producing their own short documentaries on the topic of children in Myanmar. This DVD contains their first film exercises: Stories from the Princess Hotel; their final films: Children in Myanmar; and a short film About the Beginners’ Workshop. Stories of Change features projects by students of several YFS courses completed during The Art of Documentary Filmmaking Stage Two in 2007. Made for two NGOs, Metta Development Foundation and International Development Enterprise, these documentaries portray people from Kachin State, southern Shan State and the Ayeyarwaddy Delta who describe, in their own emotive and surprisingly humorous words, how development organisations are making a real difference to their lives. The body of work bears witness to a growing nucleus of talented young Burmese filmmakers who are striving to create challenging work in an environment notorious for discouraging independent media. Their films provide a hitherto unseen window on the lives of ordinary people in Myanmar.

2:30-2:50
Discussion with filmmakers and audience

2:50-3:00
Break

3:00-5:00
Workshop on participatory media for international development
Weekend participants will join local Toronto documentary filmmakers and professors and students in UTSC’s program in new media and international development studies to discuss the potential of new media practices for international development. Our conversation will consider the theory and practice of “participatory development,” whether participatory media makes development more open and inclusive, and how new modes of access to and participation in media-making may alter the practice and conceptualization of development.

5:00-6:30
Dinner break

6:30-9:00
Lecture: “Spirits, Ghosts, Goblins and Other Fauna of the Burmese Buddhist Landscape,” Patrick Pranke, University of Louisville
Dr. Pranke holds a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Michigan. Currently he serves as an Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Louisville. His specialization is Burmese Buddhism and Burmese popular cults, which he has conducted extensive research on over several years in the Sagaing Hills in Upper Burma. In addition to his experience in Burma, Dr. Pranke has been a teacher and administrator on the University of Wisconsin’s College Year in India Program and Antioch College’s Buddhist Studies Program in north India. Dr. Pranke also maintains a strong academic interest in Hindu folk traditions.

Film: “Friends in High Places”
By Lindsey Merrison (2001)
Whether contending with a deceitful daughter-in-law, forecasting financial prospects for a tea shop, or freeing a husband from government detainment, Friends in High Places reveals the central role of Buddhist nats and spirit mediums in alleviating the day to day burdens of modern Burmese life. “Leprosy isn’t as contagious as people’s problems,” notes one medium, “my clients bring their worries into my home. I don’t need to go out on the street to learn how cruel life can be.” Yet despite their skills in channeling good luck for others, the life stories of the mediums prove to be as poignant as the stories of those who seek their assistance. Just as nats lie somewhere on the spectrum between mortals and the divine, the gay men who serve as primary conduits for the nat spirits are considered to be neither male nor female. Regarded by society with a curious mix of disdain and reverence, the male mediums profiled in this film – ranging from the gentle, melancholy “Lady Silver Wings” to the hard drinking, ego-driven “Mr. Famous” – illustrate the special niche granted to gay men in Burmese society. Exquisite footage accentuates Lindsey Merrison’s keen eye for nuance as she takes the viewer on a journey examining the extremes that define Burmese spirit mediums and their way of life. Deceit and artistry, tragedy and comedy, faith and cynicism – in a country known both as a 2,500 year bastion of Buddhism and more recently for its legacy of political corruption and instability, the world of the nat becomes an analogy for the many unusual juxtapositions within Burma itself.

Description

This two-campus series will feature ethnographic films by young Tibetans from within China and young Burmese filmmakers, a lecture and film on Buddhism in Burma, and a workshop on documentary film and development in Asia. Interesting similarities between Burmese and Tibetan cultures – both of which flourish in strongly Buddhist, intellectually rich yet economically poor communities living within difficult political boundaries – make this cross-cultural comparison especially compelling. The weekend will feature works of emerging and established Tibetan filmmakers, most of which have never been shown outside China, Burmese students participating in the Yangon Film School, and established Anglo-Burman filmmaker Lindsey Merrison. Films will be followed by discussions with invited Toronto filmmakers. Discussions will also focus on the special value of participatory film projects for young people living in threatened cultural groups. The event venues will be enhanced by a stunning exhibit of images by Plateau Photographers, a participatory photography project that trains minority students in western China.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 12:00 noon-4:00 pm
Venue: Jackman Humanities Building, Room 100

NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING IN TIBET

12-12:45
Introduction by Frances Garrett
Lecture: “New Film in Tibet,” Françoise Robin
A lecture discussing the recent boom in documentary films being produced in Tibetan regions of China by Dr. Françoise Robin, a scholar of Tibetan contemporary literature and film. In 2003, Françoise Robin completed a doctoral thesis on Tibetan literature at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris, titled “La littérature de fiction d’expression tibétaine au Tibet (RPC) depuis 1950 : sources textuelles anciennes, courants principaux et fonctions dans la société contemporaine tibétaine.” Dr. Robin is a maître de conférence at INALCO. She publishes widely on Tibetan literature and is currently doing research on Tibetan film.

12:45-3:00: Short films by emerging talent from inside China
Film: “Stone Scripture,” Directed by Dondrup Dorje (Tibetan film student)
Response and discussion with 2 Toronto documentary filmmakers

2:00-3:00
Film: “TBA,” Directed by Otto Wendekar (Tibetan film student)
Response and discussion with 2 Toronto documentary filmmakers

3-3:15 Break

3:15-4:30 “Tantric Yogi”
Film: “Tantric Yogi,” Directed by Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang (50 mins)
Response and discussion with 2 Toronto documentary filmmakers
Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang (aka Jangbu) is considered by many Tibet’s greatest living poet. Born in Qinghai province, China, he worked for many years as editor of the Tibetan language literary journal Bod kyi rtsom rig sgyu rtsal [Tibetan art and literature] in Lhasa. In recent years he has been a Visiting Professor of Tibetan Language at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris. He has directed the documentaries Tantric Yogi, and Ani Lacham: A Tibetan Nun. He is currently working on a series of documentaries that reflect on social and cultural issues in modern Tibet. The first English translation of his poems and short stories, an anthology of his works titled The Nine-Eyed Agathe, will be soon published in the United States. In Tibetan with English subtitles, Tantric Yogi follows a Yogi and his fellow villagers as they travel through challenging territory to reach a rare gathering of thousands of lay tantric practitioners in Eastern Tibet. Narrated by Jim Broadbent.

4:30-6:00 “Summer Pasture”
Film: “Summer Pasture” Directed by Tsering Perlo, Lynn True and Nelson Walker
Response and discussion with 2 Toronto documentary filmmakers
Tsering Perlo founded Rabsal, a local Tibetan NGO that engages Tibetans in filmmaking to preserve and regenerate Tibetan culture and customs. He lives in Dzachukha (Shiqu) County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and graduated from the Sichuan Province Tibetan School (SPTI). Perlo has worked with numerous organizations, including the Tibet Fund, The Bridge Fund and the Tibetan & Himalayan Library at the University of Virginia. Perlo is the first recipient of the Machik Fellowship, a program designed to support dynamic Tibetan change-makers working to strengthen their communities and environments. Summer Pasture, his first film, is a feature-length documentary that chronicles one summer with a young family amidst this period of great uncertainty. Locho, his wife Yama, and their infant daughter, nicknamed Jiatomah (“pale chubby girl”), spend the summer months in eastern Tibet’s Zachukha grasslands, an area known as Wu-Zui or “5-Most,” the highest, coldest, poorest, largest, and most remote county in Sichuan Province, China. Summer Pasture takes place at a critical time in Locho and Yama’s lives, as they question their future as nomads. With their pastoral traditions confronting rapid modernization, Locho and Yama must reconcile the challenges that threaten to drastically reshape their existence.

Description

This two-campus series will feature ethnographic films by young Tibetans from within China and young Burmese filmmakers, a lecture and film on Buddhism in Burma, and a workshop on documentary film and development in Asia. Interesting similarities between Burmese and Tibetan cultures – both of which flourish in strongly Buddhist, intellectually rich yet economically poor communities living within difficult political boundaries – make this cross-cultural comparison especially compelling. The weekend will feature works of emerging and established Tibetan filmmakers, most of which have never been shown outside China, Burmese students participating in the Yangon Film School, and established Anglo-Burman filmmaker Lindsey Merrison. Films will be followed by discussions with invited Toronto filmmakers. Discussions will also focus on the special value of participatory film projects for young people living in threatened cultural groups. The event venues will be enhanced by a stunning exhibit of images by Plateau Photographers, a participatory photography project that trains minority students in western China.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Venue: Innis Town Hall

Film: “Ani Lhacham”
By Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang (China 2007, 27 min, Tibetan with English subtitles)

When she was a child, Lhacham was eager to learn how to read and write. For economic reasons, her parents thought otherwise. She decided to run away to a nunnery in order to receive the education she was dreaming of. Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang follows her during a trip to the nearby town to get her tape recorder fixed. This recorder is her knowledge tool which she uses to learn Tibetan. The film is a tender and poetic portrait of Lhacham’s first journey into town.

Film: “The Art of Documentary Filmmaking”
By Lindsey Merrison (color, 120 min, 2005, DVD or 16mm)

At the end of 2005, Anglo-Burmese filmmaker Lindsey Merrison brought together eight tutors well-versed in documentary from Europe and Australia with twelve young Burmese men and women for a three-week workshop entitled “The Art of Documentary Filmmaking.” The venue was a quiet hotel in Myanmar’s capital, Yangon. The Burmese participants had little or no prior knowledge of filming stories from real life. A task that would have been daunting in any country posed a particular challenge in autocratic Myanmar, where documenting reality is a risky undertaking for those on both sides of the camera. All the more remarkable then, that, 21 days later, the participants on this residential course had learned how to handle the equipment, grappled with the artistic and ethical aspects of the genre, and researched, wrote, and filmed four short documentary portraits inspired by the subject of “Women in Myanmar.” The greatest achievement of the event could well have been the impetus and direction it gave to these budding filmmakers, all of whom are already developing new projects. The film features the four final films made by the participants. It also includes the participants’ first film exercise and a video diary chronicling the workshop itself. Together, these works provide a vibrant record of a surprisingly rewarding encounter.

Discussion with filmmakers

Description

This two-campus series will feature ethnographic films by young Tibetans from within China and young Burmese filmmakers, a lecture and film on Buddhism in Burma, and a workshop on documentary film and development in Asia. Interesting similarities between Burmese and Tibetan cultures – both of which flourish in strongly Buddhist, intellectually rich yet economically poor communities living within difficult political boundaries – make this cross-cultural comparison especially compelling. The weekend will feature works of emerging and established Tibetan filmmakers, most of which have never been shown outside China, Burmese students participating in the Yangon Film School, and established Anglo-Burman filmmaker Lindsey Merrison. Films will be followed by discussions with invited Toronto filmmakers. Discussions will also focus on the special value of participatory film projects for young people living in threatened cultural groups. The event venues will be enhanced by a stunning exhibit of images by Plateau Photographers, a participatory photography project that trains minority students in western China.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 12:00 noon-5:00 pm
Venue: TBA

WORKSHOPS ON DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING

A series of workshops on documentary filmmaking, bringing together several Toronto professional documentary filmmakers with the visiting Asian filmmakers, to discuss various practical issues relevant to documentary filmmaking. Leslie Chan’s New Media for Development program students may also attend, as well as selected other students.

Description

The widely-lauded progressive achievements of U.S. colonialism in the Philippines during the early decades of the 20th century included the installation of modern technologies of public sanitation, mass transportation, communication and education as necessary conditions of a developing democracy and its underlying humanism. In this presentation, I discuss how emergent media of communication established under U.S. colonial rule contributed to the implementing of universal standards of human life and experience towards the formation of citizen-man, as the currency and code required for Filipinos’ political self-rule. I analyse the reorganization of subjective and social life entailed by U.S. imperial forms of governmentality, particularly the gender and racial effects of social accommodations to the protocols of personhood of citizen-man, through the media apparatuses of literature, photography, and radio. Finally, I examine other modes of sensorial experience and perceptibility and forms of human and social life that are remaindered, devalued and/or rendered illegible in the reconfiguration of natives according to the normative ideals and structures of liberal democracy. And I reflect on the significance of this archaeology of seemingly defunct forms of life in the context of contemporary claims of the demise of normative cultures of citizenship in neoliberalist, postdisciplinary societies of the current moment.

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Neferti Tadiar is professor and chair of women’s studies at Barnard College. Her academic interests include transnational and third world feminisms; postcolonial theory; critical theories of race and subjectivity; literary and social theory; cultural studies of the Asia Pacific region; and Philippine studies. Her work concerns the role of cultural practice and social imagination in the production of wealth, power, marginality and liberatory movements in the context of global relations. While her research focuses on contemporary Philippine and Filipino cultures and their relation to political and economic change, she addresses, more broadly, questions of gender, race, and sexuality in discourses and material practices of nationalism, transnationalism, and globalization. She is currently working on a book-project entitled: Discourse on Empire: Living Under the Rule of Permanent War and beginning a new research project entitled Schooling National Subjects: Experience and Education in US Colonial Philippines. Her books include: Things Fall Away: Philippine Literatures, Historical Experience and Tangential Makings of Globality (Duke University Press, 2009),Beyond the Frame: Women of Color and Visual Representation, co-edited with Angela Y. Davis (Palgrave Press, 2005), and Fantasy-Production: Sexual Economies and Other Philippine Consequences for the New World Order (Hong Kong University Press/ Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2004). She is winner of the Philippine National Book Award (2005).