Visual anthropology and ethnographic films are increasingly being acknowledged and awarded with prestigious film prizes at international festivals, not least due to the films coming out of the film milieu at Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard University in the US. The films are praised for the innovative ways they represent cultural phenomena around the globe while also looking into the sensibilities of the filmic technologies providing us access to the empirical world. The background for this approach is a refined training in experimental film techniques combined with the use of anthropological methods such as participant observation and reflexive interventions.

The research group ‘Camera as Cultural Critique’, AU, are very proud to present one of the leading directors from SEL; J.P. Sniadecki. His award winning films “Yumen” (2013, 65 min.) and “The Iron Ministry” (2014, 85 min.) will be screened and students and staff can interact with the director on two occasions:

• Screening and discussion of YUMEN (2013, 65 min.), Wednesday Nov. 30th ( 6-8:30 pm, DOKK1, Lille sal)
  
  
• Screening and discussion of THE IRON MINISTRY (2014, 85 min.), Thursday December 1st (1-4 pm, Moesgård Museum, New auditorium, 4240-020)
  
  

Sniadecki has conducted long term fieldwork with a focus on rapid transformations of everyday life in the People’s Republic of China. This is evident in films such as “The Iron Ministry” (2014), “Yumen” (2013) and “Peoples Park” (2012). In addition his research and film work investigates the materiality and the analytic possibilities afforded by the filmic medium itself, in particular the use of sound and the different ways of evoking the passage of time to explore the socio-cultural change in China.

His films include “Chaiqian/Demolition” (2010), winner of the Joris Ivens Award; “Foreign Parts” (2010), winner of two Leopards at Locarno and named Best Film at the Punto de Vista Film Festival and DocsBarcelona; “People’s Park” (2012), named Best Anthropological Film at Festival dei Popoli; and “Yumen” (2013), named Best Experimental Film and Best Chinese Film at the Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival. Sniadecki’s latest feature, “The Iron Ministry” (2014), was A.O. Scott's "Critics Pick" in the New York Times and has screened widely and garnered jury prizes at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Valdivia and Camden International Film Festivals. Sniadecki is also the coorganizer of the traveling film series “Cinema on the Edge" which showcases independent cinema from China. His publications include a number of articles and interviews for Cinema Scope, Visual Anthropology Review, and the edited volume DV-Made China (Hawaii University Press).

J.P. Sniadecki is currently Assistant Professor of radio/television/film at Northwestern University, School of Communication. An affiliate of Sensory Ethnography Lab, he holds a PhD in Social Anthropology with Media from Harvard.

Arranged by Arine Kirstein Høgel, postdoc (Camera as Cultural Critique/ Contemporary Ethnography, Århus University) in collaboration with Rasmus Brendstrup (Cinemateket/ Det Danske Filminstitut), Lisbeth Overgaard Nielsen (DOKK1) and Laura Marie Klindt Nielsen (Doc Lounge Århus). The event will be conducted in english and the film will be screened with subtitles in English. Free admission but limited number of seats. Register soon at: evan.spitzer@post.au.dk

WEDNESDAY NOV. 30, 6-8 pm – Organised as part of the “Visual Wednesdays lecture series”. Location: DOKK1, Lille sal, Hack Kampmanns Pl. 2, 8000 Århus C.

TRANSFORMATIONS AND PARTICIPATIONS IN SOUND AND VISION -SNIADECKI ON ARTISTIC AND VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL METHODS:
Screening of Yumen (2013, 65 min) followed by Q&A, moderated by Arine Kirstein Høgel.

Yumen is a boomtown in northwestern China abandoned by the authorities once oil production there dried up. The film is made in collaboration with independent filmmakers Xu Ruotao and Huang Xiang and presents a decentered portrait of present day life in a city haunted by the past.
”Yumen is a haunting, fragmented tale of hungry souls, restless youth, a wandering artist and a lonely woman, all searching for human connection and a collective past among the town’s crumbling landscape. Part ’ruin porn’, part ghost story, and shot entirely on 16 mm, the film (…) pays homage to a disappearing life-world and a fading medium.” —J.P. Sniadecki.

THURSDAY DEC. 1,1-4 pm. Location: Moesgaard Museum, New Auditorium (4240-020), Moesgård Alle, 8270 Højbjerg:

FLESH AND METAL, CLINGS AND SQUEALS - FILMIC MEDIATIONS OF CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN CHINA:
Screening of The Iron Ministry (2014, 82 min.) followed by Q&A moderated by Anders Sybrandt, Assistant Professor (Chinese Studies, Århus University).

Filmed over three years on China’s railways, The Iron Ministry traces the vast interiors of a country on the move: flesh and metal, clangs and squeals, light and dark, language and gesture. Scores of rail journeys come together into one, capturing the thrills and anxieties of social and technological transformation. THE IRON MINISTRY immerses audiences in encounters between humans and machines on what will soon be the world's largest railway network.