Difference Festival - University of Westminster 25 February-1 March

Difference Festival is a week-long celebration honouring the history and roots of our institution whilst showcasing the work of staff, students, alumni and friends of the University of Westminster.

This year the Difference Festival focuses on the term 'radical', taking in ideas from our history and ethos to today's social, political and cultural concerns.

The University of Westminster has always been different. In 1838 The Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street was established to 'delight as well as to instruct' and was described as 'an intellectual treat'. Our predecessors created a place where the public could explore new ideas, discover new inventions, acquire new knowledge and learn new skills. We strive to continue those ambitions and to make a difference, embodying the link between theory and practice and changing the world for good.

Come and be delighted and instructed by our researchers and their guests, treat your intellect with lunchtime and evening talks, walks, workshops, film screenings and discussions. 

More information about the Festival here

Within the dDifference Festival I have organised the event 

Radical film: voyeurism in documentary filmmaking on migration
about which you can read (and register) here

Rights and Might: Cultural counter-narratives of the migrant and refugee experience | University of Westminster_Refugee week 22-25 June 2017

Dear all,
it's my pleasure to announce the upcoming conference I've had the pleasure to co-organise with a number of colleagues from the University of Westminster.

You can find all details in the eventbrite page, where you can also register.

For a draft programme see below

Dialogues on Migration_17 Nov 2016 4pm. London School of Economics

This panel is designed to prompt a discussion about research on the move: the challenges mobility poses for fieldwork and analysis, and the scope it offers for creative responses. Researching migration, asylum, and mobility from media and cultural studies perspectives through embodied methodologies requires close attention to liminality, silence, and experiences of dislocation.

Presentations:

Tracing the transcultural subjectivity of unaccompanied refugee minors through ethnography, Anna-Kaisa Kuusisto-Arponen, University of Tampere/LSE

Debris: collaborative explorations of abandoned objects from Lampedusa, Karina Horsti, University of Jyväskylä/LSE

Documentary film screening: WRECK (2016, 10 min., Director Jan Ijäs, script: Karina Horsti and Jan Ijäs)

Introduction: Professor Lilie Chouliaraki,
Chair: Anna Roosvall, Associate Professor, Fellow (Stockholm University/LSE)
Discussant: Pierluigi Musaro, Associate Professor, Fellow (University of Bologna/LSE)

17th November 2016, 4pm-6pm
Silverstone Room, Department of Media and Communications
Tower 3, 7th floor
Image: courtesy of Jan Ijäs

Screening of documentaries "If Only I Were That Warrior" and "Negotiating Amnesia"_Genesis Cinema London 15 May 2016

Cinema Italia UK presents If Only I Were That Warrior (72 minutes) and Negotiating Amnesia (29 minutes), followed by Q&A with directors Valerio Ciriaci and Alessandra Ferrini.

If Only I Were That Warrior is a feature documentary film focusing on the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1935. Following the recent construction of a monument dedicated to Fascist general Rodolfo Graziani, the film addresses the unpunished war crimes he and others committed in the name of Mussolini’s imperial ambitions.
The stories of three characters, filmed in present day Ethiopia, Italy and the United States, take the audience on a journey through the living memories and the tangible remains of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia — a journey that crosses generations and continents to today, where this often overlooked legacy still ties the fates of two nations and their people.

Negotiating Amnesia is an essay film posing a meditation on a semi-forgotten chapter of twentieth century Italian history: its colonial past and, in particular, the Ethiopian War of 1935-36. This period is chosen because of its connections with fascism and its imperial project. Through interviews, archival images and the analysis of high-school textbooks, the film shifts through an array of different historical and personal narratives. In so doing it aims at revealing the amnesic politics that accompany this historical period, while exposing public and personal strategies of remembering and forgetting.

All details here. Book your ticket here.

Don't miss this event I have organized: a double screening by director Luca Vullo on Italian emigration (before and after) at University of Westminster on the 25th of May, 6pm.

The Department of Languages and Cultures of the University of Westminster is pleased to present the screening of two documentaries by Italian filmmaker Luca Vullo, followed by a discussion with the director.

From Sulphur to Coal (52’, 2008) A documentary on the historical emigration of thousands of miners and their families from Italy to Belgium at the end of World War II following the 1946 Italo-Belgian Agreement. Labourers sold for coal's sacks between economic interests, human rights crushed and occupational safety non existent.

AND

Influx - Europe is moving* (15’, 2015) London has never attracted so many Italians as in the last few years. In a period when European immigration is continuously debated in politics, INFLUX, through the perspective of well-established Italian immigrants offers an emotional self-analysis that reveals the strengths and weaknesses of Italians, showing the uniqueness of their mentality as well as their contradictions.

*This is a preview of the full version that will  be released in London cinemas in June 2016. 

The screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the director Luca Vullo and prof. Nicola Mai (University of Kingston). Some of he people interviewed for the documentary Influx will also be present.

The event will be chaired by Dr Federica Mazzara (University of Westminster). For further information please contact: f.mazzara@westminster.ac.uk

All details here. Please note registration is required!

On the Bride's Side_King's College 15th October 2015

Dear all,

On the Bride Side by Antonio Augugliaro, Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry and Gabriele Del Grande arrives in London. You can find all details on this link. Please note the event is free but you need to reserve a seat.
I will have the pleasure and honour to chair the panel discussion that will follow the screening of the film/documentary.
Join this amazing event! 

Refugees - Conference UCL 13 March 2015

Dear all,
I have been invited to contribute to this half-day conference organized by the Psychoanalysis Unit at UCL. Come along if you can.

Io sto con la sposa | On the Bride's Side

Io sto con la sposa (On The Bride's Side), a documentary by Gabriele del Grande,  Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry and Antonio Augugliaro, telling how a group of Syrian refugees staged a fake wedding to cross Europe safely and reach Sweden, is out in Italian cinema from the 9th of October, after an amazing success at the Biennale in Venice!
Find out more about the film and the crowdfunding project behind it here. 
Read also:
Facebook page
Digicult 
France24
 

Something Human at THE TERMINAL: London 25-27 October 2013

It's my pleasure to announce another cool London event that will take place at the end of October in 47/49.
It's called 'The Terminal' and it is organized by Something Human, a curator collective. On the 27th I'm going to give a talk within this event on the powerful documentary by Carlo Michele Schirinzi, an Italian film-maker.
Spread the word and come along if you are in London!

Come un uomo sulla terra/Like a man on earth

Since 2003 Italy and Europe have asked Libya to stop the African migrants. What are the Libyan police really doing? What do thousands of African men and women suffer? And why does everybody pretend they do not know about it? The documentary "Come un uomo sulla terra" by Riccardo Biadene, Andrea Segre, Dagmawi Yimer tries to provide answers to these questions.
Despite the indifference of Italian government and media towards the problem, "Come un uomo sulla terra" is being screened in many Italian cities.
You can sign a petition on-line to "bring to a halt the violence against thousands of human beings arrested and deported by the Libyan police, to prevent their migration to Europe". For further information about the documentary and for signing the petition click here.