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Time: TUESDAY\, Marc h 3\, 2020 | 5:00 - 6:30 PM
Location: The Place of M any Trees (Multipurpose Room)\, Liu Institute for Global Issues\, 6476 NW M arine Drive\, University of British Columbia\, Vancouver
But Does It Work? F ilm and Political Impact
Under the pressures of neoli beral economic policies and right wing extremism\, U.S. society is becoming increasingly unequal and undemocratic. At the same time\, since about the turn of the 21st century\, the forces of political resistance h ave been growing. This talk is one piece of a study of one particular node in an expanding network of progressive organizations\, in this case a prod uction company that makes films for the purpose of informing and inspiring grassroots political activism. Here I take up one question that bedevils e fforts to activate people through film and other media\, the question of “i mpact.”
Often confronted with the charge that they are “preaching to the choir\,” how do political filmmakers see their work as contributing to real change? The case in point is a company called Brave New Films\, based in Culver City\, CA\, and its just-released film about the proliferation of strategies of voter suppression in the U.S.
(The film\, which is c alled Suppressed: The Fight to Vote\, is 38 minutes long and is a vailable for free on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03DGjnIkTdI.)
Bio:
Sherry B. Ortner is a Distinguis hed Research Professor of Anthropology at UCLA. She received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College\, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She has received numerous grants and fellowships\, including awards from t he National Science Foundation\, the Guggenheim Foundation\, the National E ndowment for the Humanities\, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fo undation. She has done extensive ethnographic and historical research with the Sherpas of Nepal\, and her final book on the Sherpas (Life and Deat h on Mt. Everest: Sherpas and Himalayan Mountaineering) was awarded t he J.I. Staley Prize for the best book in Anthropology (2004). She has als o conducted several major research projects in the U.S.\, including a study of her high school graduating class (New Jersey Dreaming: Capital\, C ulture\, and the Class of ’58)\, and a study of the world of independe nt film (Not Hollywood: Independent Film at the Twilight of the Americ an Dream). In addition to her ethnographic work\, she publishes regul arly in the areas of social\, cultural\, and feminist theory. Her current research project concerns the use of film in social activism.
All are welcome to join us for the event reception from 4:00 - 5:00 PM.
LOCATION:Multipurpose Room\, Liu Institute GEO:49.274850;-123.205827 URL;VALUE=URI:https://anth.ubc.ca/events/event/hawthorn-lecture-but-does-it -work-film-and-political-impact/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://anth.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2022/03/Hawthorn-Lecture.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 DTSTART:20191103T090000 TZNAME:PST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR