Session I: Enter [the] Spaces

Moderated by Lena Oberholzer & Meret Namaï Weiss

We invite you to enter the world of ethnographic films and stories. In this session you can gain a glimpse of the multiple spaces opening during this festival. By joining us on a journey through the diversity of places and voices, visually and emotionally, it may be possible to get a feeling of the in-between. How can different spaces shape identities? How do we understand the experiences of others, and how do they change our perceptions of the world? Let these films challenge you, spark your curiosity and open the doors to unique stories of care around the non-human, diaspora and intimacy.

Nandi (25 min)

Nepal, 2024, Nepali / English sub.
Directed by Xena Louise Stockley White

We wander and wonder through the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal, tracing the lives of free-roaming cattle – domestic animals displaced from home yet adapting to urban life. Following bovine bodies around the sacred grounds of Pashupatinath, the film explores encounters between humans and cattle, reflecting on what forms of co-existence are possible across species in the city.

‘Nandi displays various small reactions and interactions between the humans and cows. These moments are very subtle and interesting. For me, the quality of the film lies in these scenes, because they reveal in a nuanced way the respect, fear, anger, reverence, intimacy or care that characterizes the interspecies relationship’ – Meret Namaï Weiss.

Xena Louise Stockley White studied Social Anthropology at the University of St. Andrews. This film is her first independently made audiovisual work, created during fieldwork in Kathmandu as part of her Master’s thesis at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology.

The Wireless Set (32 min)

Scotland, 2023, English / English sub.
Directed by Esme Andrews

By following one summer in the lives of three elderly residents of Sanday – an island in the archipelago of Orkney, Scotland – this film attempts to recentre their voices within the discourse on island health care. Discussions of geographical disparity move into the more universal topics of ageing and dying.

Esme Andrews has an undergraduate degree in Anthropology from the University of Aberdeen and a background of freelance photography and videography. The Wireless Set is part of her Master’s in Visual Anthropology at University of Tromsø.

Content warning: death.

Like Aphrodite (23 min)

Greece, 2023, Albanian, Modern Greek / English sub.
Directed by Anisa Xhomaqi

A second-generation Albanian migrant in Greece, Anisa Xhomaqi, follows her mother, Aphrodite, from her cleaning job onto a trip with other Albanian women to Southern Greece. A tender and caring view of a generation of migrants who are usually seen as working in precarious jobs, the film focuses through the different lens of leisure, as a way to connect, resist and organize against work exploitation and racism. Through visual metaphors and polyphonic sounds, the film is a poetic study of the Albanian migrant community in Greece.

Anisa Xhomaqi studied Photography and Audiovisual Arts at Athens University of Applied Sciences and at the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, Italy. She completed Like Aphrodite during the Master’s in Visual Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam.

Don’t Cut Too Much (15 min)

India, 2024, Hindi / English sub.
Directed by Sachin Das

Masculinity is often expressed through hairstyles and grooming. This film explores the various types of barber shops, from high-end salons to roadside setups, and delves into the nuances of gender, self-care, caste, and class, through the barbers and their customers. It also explores the ‘safe space’ of camaraderie and belongingness that the barber shop creates for people. This is a reflection on the construction of masculinity through films, peers, and elders; and how it shapes people’s psyches by linking external attributes of beauty to one’s internal peace and satisfaction.

Sachin Das is a theatre artist, storyteller and filmmaker. Itna Bhi Mat Kaato (Hindi) / Don’t Cut Too Much (Eng) is a student project he created at the National Institute of Design, India.

Content warning: mentions of sexual assault.