Africanists debated with the audiences at film festivals

Kateřina Mildnerová (Palacký University Olomouc) and Vít Zdrálek (Charles University) came to comment on two films and answer questions of the audience the second day of the ANHROPOFEST film festival 28 January 2017. The anthropologist Kateřina Mildnerová spoke about the ethnographic film Between Islam and Sacred Forest (2016) by the German anthropologist Martin Gruber who focused on post-burial ritual of a women’s secret society in Guyana. By including the moments problematizing his position as an ethnographer Gruber explores the possibilities (and limits) of audiovisual anthropology too in the film. The ethnomusicologist Vít Zdrálek was ready to answer questions related to the experimental film These Objects, Those Memories (2015) by the South African anthropologist Roger Horn who tried to capture life trajectories of three Zimbabwean migrant women to South Africa by depicting and discussing with them a number of ordinary material objects related to their memories.

7 March 2017, Vít Zdrálek debated with the audiences of the ONE WORLD film festival after screening of the documentary The Giant is Falling (2016) by the South African director Rehad Dasai. The director follows the developments in South African post-1994 politics. He keeps the presidency of Jacob Zuma especially in focus and documents the weakening position of the ANC as a ruling party in the first place. He covers the police massacre of the Marikana miners, the row of president’s scandals and the increasing role of new and/or changing political forces such as the EFF and the DA, especially after the 2016 municipal elections, among others. He pays attention to the students’ movement #FeesMustFall and other developments in contemporary South African society.

The CAAS is willing and ready to strengthen the future collaborations with both festivals.