‘I do not intend to speak about; just speak nearby’
In this year’s 13th edition we have the honor to welcome the acclaimed director Trinh T. Minh Ha, with the support of Onassis Culture.
Her work intertwines with multiple disciplines: it disrupts the concept of “authority” and examines the politics of representation by attempting “to speak nearby” instead of “speaking about”. As a director, theorist, composer, writer and professor in the departments of Gender and Women’s Studies and Rhetorics at the University of Berkeley in California, she raises more questions rather than answers: she proposes new ways of seeing, receiving and experiencing in the world.
Trinh T.Minh Ha’s practice defies traditional boundaries in the media of writing, cinema and musical composition and strives to focus on transformative processes that naturally arise in her research, instead of focusing on a closed result.
REASSEMBLAGE (40’, 1982)
Her first film, Reassemblage (40′, 1982) shot on 16mm film, will be screened on Saturday, November 26 at 20:00 at ASTOR cinema with the occasion of its forty-year anniversary, in the presence of the director herself. The film is a study of Senegalese women and rural life and managed to deconstruct any previous ethnographic film conventions. Non-linear narration, minimal voice-over and images strung together in a form of a collage create a new type of economy through the abstraction and disappearance of academic authority. Acknowledging her subjective gaze, Trinh T. Minh-ha reflects on her institutionality and tries to free herself from any colonialist stance or any divisions between fantasy and reality.
The screening will be followed by an open discussion between the director (Trinh T. Minh Ha) and Eva Stefani (Documentary Filmmaker/ Visual Artist/ Associate Professor at NKUA). The discussion will be moderated by Elpida Karaba (Art Theorist/ Curator/ professor at University of Thessaly).
WHAT ABOUT CHINA (135’, 2022)
“What’s your name;” an elderly woman is asked. “I don’t have a name”, she responds. “How many people live in this house?”, “When?” she responds. The director’s latest film, What About China? (135′, 2022) constitutes a cultural critique of a one-dimensional dominant narrative and gives space to the polyphony of China’s native people. The footage used is shot in rural China in the 90s. The film merges poetry, songs & oral histories together and reveals the complex history of the country as well as the complexity of its imprint. The screening of the film will take place on Sunday, November 27 at 19:45 at ASTOR cinema, in presence of the director.
Stay tuned for more!
With the support of Onassis Culture
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