teens & ethnographic filming (UK)

...short documentary made by A-Level students from S.E. London who took part in an ethnographic film workshop. Details,
 
CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES ON FILM, www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk
An evening of documentary short film screenings by visual anthropologists, exploring the experiences of children in India, Ethiopia and Malawi, separated from their parents and finding imaginative ways to create homes for themselves.

_______Films to be shown:
<> Street Fiction
 Malawi 2002 (32 minutes) Filmmaker and anthropologist: Dominic Elliot.
Through combining their own dramatic reconstructions and real life observation, this film tells the story of the Malawian children who run away from their homes in search of a better life on the streets of Blantyre.  As the children act out a fiction based on their own experiences, we also follow the work of MacDonald, a social worker whose hope it is to return them to their homes.
<> Ravi and Bhajay
 India 2002 (26 minutes) Filmmaker and anthropologist: Rachel Webster.
An intimate and uplifting exploration of the lives of street children Ravi and Bhajay as they survive together on the streets of Mumbai.  To get away from it all they visit the holy city of Vijain with the film-maker.  Despite being offered jobs and schooling if they stay in Vijain the attraction of the streets is too great and Ravi and Bhajay choose to return to Mumbai to be among their friends.  The film shows how two street boys create a life for themselves on the streets of Mumbai based around friendship.
<> Room 11: Ethiopia Hotel
 Ethiopia 2006 (21 minutes)  Filmmaker and anthropologist: Itsushi Kawase.
This film aims to capture a sense of the life of children living on the street in Gondar by witnessing the interaction between two children and the film-maker.  Although it is about the children's life on the streets, the entire film was shot in the film-maker's room in the Ethiopia Hotel.  This limited space allows the film to focus on communication between subjects and film-maker and to reveal some of the ideas that enable them to endure and survive on the streets.
<> Pride of Place
 Dorothea Gazidis & Kim Longinotto 1976 (59 minutes)
A rarely since classic by Kim Longinotto takes a dark look at the boarding schools she ran away from as a teenager.  Preceded by short film: The Good Ol' Days by students from Greenwich Community College.
<> The New Boys
 David MacDougall 2003 (100 minutes)
Filmmaker David MacDougall follows a group of new boys during their first term at the "Eton of India," capturing their conflicts and friendships, jokes and loneliness.   Preceded by short film Talk of the Trade by students from Greenwich Community College.
<> SchoolScapes
 David MacDougall 2007 (77 minutes)
MacDougall continues his exploration of schools life at the progressive Rishi Valley School in India, founded by the philosopher Krishanmurti.  Preceded by short film Anglesea Road: Mini Somalia by students from Greenwich Community College.
 
RAI - Our Education Programme
The Royal Anthropological Institute's Education programme Discover Anthropology has been set up to develop actions and strategies to inform teachers and young people about anthropology as a university subject, and to bring the subject more generally into pre-university education. Anthropology, the study of what it means to be human across different societies, cultures and histories, is not currently taught in schools and colleges in the UK and compared to other social sciences anthropology undergraduate degrees attract fewer students from widening participation target groups. Yet the discipline of anthropology has a distinctive, and vital, contribution to make to understanding the world today. Anthropology offers a deep understanding of how different societies work, how people live, what are their beliefs, customs, ideas, prejudices and aspirations.  In an era when global understanding and recognition of diverse ways of seeing the world are of critical social, political and economic importance, anthropology has a central role to play in education.
  "Anthropology is concerned with the whole of life and is not just something you do until 6 o'clock. The study of anthropology encourages you to have a new kind of consciousness of life; it is a way of looking at the world and in that sense it is a way of living," Anthropologist David Pocock, Discovering Anthropology: a resource guide.  The electronic version of Discovering Anthropology is available free on-line here. 
  The Discover Anthropology education programme aims to 1) provide good quality accessible information for students considering studying anthropology at university 2) to create a series of regular events and activities for young people and teachers and 3) produce resources for teachers that draw upon the insights of anthropology. The programme will be represented by a dedicated website shortly. From 2005-2006 the programme was funded through the AimHigher National Activity programme.  From 2007-2010 the programme will be funded by the Economics and Social Research Council.
  Contact Nafisa Fera, Education Officer, for more details: +44 (0)20 7387 0455.