On Friday, February 15th, the Center hosted our official Launch Party in the Upper Egypt Gallery.
The evening consisted of film screenings from Michael Jefferson, Farrah Rahaman, Melissa Skolnick, Kara Hu and Qin Li, Greta Lu, and Larissa Johnson. During the reception, guests were treated to a dance performance by our own Deborah Thomas and Spring Fellow, Aimee Cox. There was a spoken word demonstration by Osei Alleyne as well as juggling performance by CAMRA Fellow, Juan Castrillón. On his performance, Juan stated "Cartwheel was definitely a performance of creativity and collaboration. My colleague Jake Nussbaum used simple diagrams to design the entire soundscape of my juggling performance. It was a powerful moment for all of us. I still remember that circle of light at the Egyptian Upper Gallery in which we were rendering the ancient art of juggling through polyrhythms, sounds and improvisation."
We concluded the evening dancing to musical sets by Timbalona and DJ Aura. The night was an excellent tribute to the endless possibilities of multimodal work and the imagination of new worlds for the academy.
Thank you to everyone that participated in the event- it truly would not have been possible without you!
Faculty Spotlight: Amit Das
Amitanshu Das is a senior fellow and director of Penn GSE Films. Among other projects, Penn GSE Films has produced broadcast documentaries, filmmaking courses, workshops, and an Academically-Based Community Service filmmaking program in collaboration with Philadelphia’s public schools, the School District of Philadelphia, and the Netter Center for Community Partnerships. In addition to being a member of the CEE Affiliated Faculty, Amit is also an advisor to CAMRA and the Screening Scholarship Media Festival and is newly affiliated with the Annenberg School of Communications.
A central and ongoing theme of Mr. Das’s work is the demystification and democratization of media technology and film-crafts; the understanding that film is a natural locus of interdisciplinary exchange; a sense that film is the lingua franca or global dialect of our time; and that purposeful filmmaking is an extraordinarily powerful engine and a catalyst for social change, helping us move toward a fairer and more just society. This resonates with the members of the CEE, as Mr. Das's multimodal efforts are constantly capturing new audiences and expanding the reach of the academy.
Screening Scholarship Media Festival
Rendering Matters of Concern and Present Histories is the theme of SSMF2019, and scholars, educators, artists, activists, visual legal advocacy and digital humanities groups are welcome to participate. Categories for submission are film, audio, photo essay, panel-style, performance, and immersive media.
Please join us in supporting CAMRA on Friday, March 29th
5:00 - 6:30 PM
Rainey Auditorium
There will be a screening of the the film, "Screening From Within", which will be followed by a conversation with Thomas Lahusen, Associate Professor of University of Toronto and one of the directors of the film, and John L. Jackson Jr., Dean of the Annenberg School of Communication at Penn.
6:30 - 7:15 PM
Mosaic Hall
There will be a performance by our Spring Fellow, Aimee Cox, as well as Saya Woolfalk and Daniel Alexander Jones.
7:15 - 8:30 PM
Mosaic Hall
Following the performance, the Center will be sponsoring a reception for all attendees.
This year’s SSMF aims to create a unique dialogue on multimodal research and a salient hub for experimentation in a broader, domestic, and international stage.
The University of Pennsylvania participates in an exchange program with Temple University in which students from Penn can one of their MFA courses on anything from documentary practices to essay filmmaking, to videography, cinematography screenwriting.
The Master of Fine Arts program in Film and Media Arts at Temple University is the country’s foremost program in alternative film, video and new media. The program trains filmmakers, videomakers, screenwriters and media artists who seek to challenge the dominant forms of film and media. The graduate program allows students to focus on narrative film, documentary cinema arts, media arts and screenwriting.
With approximately 40 graduate students from diverse communities and countries, the program is large enough to offer intellectual stimulation through a wide range of courses, yet small enough to afford individual attention, maximum access to equipment and creative control over one’s own projects.
The Center for Experimental Ethnography invites graduate students from across the University to apply for our student summer research grant. The grant is meant to support doctoral, MFA, and professional degree students who are incorporating multi-modal methodological strategies into their ethnographic research. These strategies can encompass film, performance, sound, creative writing, drawing and/or other media. Proposals should outline the broad research questions of the project, the specific methods used to explore them, and the expected broader significance or intervention.
Wednesday, February 27, 6:00 PM Camae Ayewa Performance in honor of Marian Anderson
Camae Ayewa will be premiering a new piece in honor of Marian Anderson, on her birthday. She developed the new work after a period of research conducted in the Anderson archives held by the Kislak Center. Her piece will be accompanied by a trio, including a saxophone, vibraphone, and viola. The event will be held in the Arthur Ross Gallery.
Monday, March 25- Tuesday, March 26 Mathangi Subramanian author of A People's History of Heaven
Please join the South Asia Center in welcoming Mathangi Subramanian for a Creative Ethnography Workshop for Students at 12:00 PM on March 25th, followed by a book reading of "A People's History of Heaven" at 5:30 PM at Penn Book Center. She will also be participating in a Book Panel with GSE Faculty on Tuesday, March 26th at 12:00 PM in Silverstein Forum of Stiteler Hall.
Please register for the Creative Ethnography Workshop at southasiacenter.com.
Wednesday, March 27, 7:00 PM An Opera of the World directed by Manthia Diawara
Manthia Diawara’s film is based on the African opera Bintou Were, a Sahel Opera, which recounts an eternal migration drama. The Bintou Were opera, filmed on location in Bamako, Mali in 2007, serves as a mirror for Diawara to build an aesthetic and reflexive story, through song and dance, about the current and yet timeless drama of migration and the ongoing refugee crises. The success and limits of fusing African and European perspectives are tested by interlacing performances from the Bintou Were opera, past and present archival footage of migrations, classic European arias, and interviews with European and African intellectuals, artists and social activists.
The screening will take place at Scribe Video Center at 3908 Lancaster Avenue.
