Ways of belonging

Student films from the master of visual anthropology programme of UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Welcome to what has become a cherished annual event at Verdensteateret, the screening of final student films from the master programme in visual anthropology at UiT (https://en.uit.no/education/pr...). As usual we will be screening films from different parts of the world, this year with a total of six films, from the cornucopia of sounds and colours in the Caribbean and India, over the silent haven of a Dutch monastery to dance, handicrafts and senses of home in northern Norway.

All filmmakers will be present.

Peter I. Crawford (moderator of the event and professor of visual anthropology at UiT)

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Program:

17.00-17.05: Welcome to the screenings, Peter I. Crawford

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17.05-17.50:
A Home Away From Home (2024, 30 minutes)
A film by Lisanne van Ringelesteijn

A Home Away From Home is a film exploring the concepts of home and belonging. Where is home? What is it? And what helps someone to feel like they belong in a new place? The film follows four people, who have all moved from The Netherlands to Tromsø. It provides the viewer with a selection of stories, parts of their day-to-day life, and their reflections on building a new home in northern Norway. At the same time, the viewer is taken by the hand of the filmmaker, who is sharing her own reflections and thoughts on moving abroad.

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17.50-18.40:
To Know by Hands (2024, 28 minutes)
A film by Margit Reppen

To Know by Hands follows the working hands of two handicrafters in Troms and Finnmark.

The film takes place in the summer of 2023, giving an insight into use of natural materials in handicraft. At a cabin in Lyngen we meet Trine, dyeing wool with materials found in the area. At a store in Sørkjosen we meet the duojár Hilde and get a peek into her use of fish skin as leather. Through a personal and sensorial approach, the film encourages reflections on our relation to our natural environment. Furthermore, the film touches on themes such as the connection between cultural knowledge and relations to our environment.

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18.40-19.25:
By the river (2024, 27 minutes)
A film by Saara Sipola

By the river is a film about the Ganges, which is a personification of the goddess Ganga. Ganges is the most holy river in India and every year thousands of pilgrims and other people arrive by its banks to pray, hope and sacrifice. Ganga is a power, a female principle who has the mandate to forgive the past sins, to set people free from samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death. By the river observes and explores people and animals who gather by the river, from dawn until dusk. The film does not stay in one place for too long or aim to to establish a strong relationship between protagonists and audience. Yet, somehow along the journey, relationships are formed, and lessons learned. The film is an outcome of several weeks of observations by the river in North India and it aims at times to convey a sense of visual diary notes.

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19.25-20.10:
Oculus Silens (2024, 30 minutes)
A film by Emanuele Bergquist

The film explores architectural spaces and human presence in a Benedictine monastery in the south of the Netherlands. S. Benedictusberg Abbey is home to fourteen monks who have chosen to leave their past lives behind and live as brothers under the Rule of St. Benedict. The monastery, in its soberness, is a place of deprivation which allows the brothers to pursue their spiritual path which feels, like the Abbey itself, timeless; this feeling is augmented by the contrast between the spaces created by the stone surfaces and the natural surroundings of the Dutch countryside in which it rises, between the sphere of human activity and the inevitability of time, visible in the succession of the seasons and in the shifting of light.

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20.15-21.00:
Dance what you are (2024, 29 minutes)
A film by Aliki Švandere

What do we do when we meet ourselves and others in an “empty” space? Do we dare to create something out of nothing? Do we dare to take what we need while taking care of others in the room?

Liv Hanne Haugen, a dancer and a performance artist, weekly holds space for an exploration of the body, the space, the self and the other through movement.

This film is based on an anthropological fieldwork and it aims to give an experience of an open-form dance developed around 14 years ago and practiced by a small and dedicated group of people residing in Tromsø, Norway

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21.00-21.45:
Dragging Chains (2024, 30 minutes)
A film by Emil Victor Hvidtfeldt

Dragging Chains moves between observation and conversation as the apparent obscurity of Grenada's Jab Jab tradition is unraveled. Filmed during the 2023 carnival season, audiences are immersed in a sensorial spectacle of oil, chains, and rhythm, while the stories told by local practitioners provide a backdrop of contemporary interpretation. As the spectacle unfolds, the initial exotic appeal gives way to deeper questions of resilience, protest, and colonial after-effects.