Peopling Places-2013

The screening and exhibition of third year anthropology student visual projects took place over a long afternoon in Marlowe Lecture theatre. The event was attended by a large group of students, staff and people who had featured in the films.  We were especially happy to see Caroline Grundy, a longstanding member of staff who had recently retired. For many years she had wanted to be present for the whole event.

This year’s photographic display covered a wide range of themes, demonstrating a common desire among students to engage with people in the local area and explore anthropology’s relevance for making sense of cultural difference in Southeast England.

Topics covered include the Kurdish Newroz (New Year) celebrations in Finsbury Park, sexuality, tattooing, Canterbury and its cathedral, cultural greetings, Canterbury markets and more. Photographic work  by Katie Bowerman, Bianca Corriette, Helen Delmar, Myrthe Flierman, Sophie Giddings, Tabitha Hamill, Ville Laakkonen, Sarah O’Donovan, Sophie Tyler, Emma Ward and Matt Weston was exhibited in the Marlowe Foyer. Glenn Bowman judged the three photography prizes.

The theme of people’s engagement with place was also very strong in this year’s video projects.  The Cathedral  featured in two meditative films by Charles Beach and Claire McMurtrie.

We were extremely happy to welcome Professor Roger Just back this year. His popularity and inspiration in the year of his retirement had prompted the students that year to suggest a prize in his name. This was the last year that students taught by him were still at Kent. We were very happy to welcome a longstanding friend of the school Professor Hugh Brody, and previous Stirling Lecturer, to award a prize in his name. He took time from a intensive schedule of screenings of a groundbreaking film project that documents an indigenous land claim in South Africa.

In 2011 he gave a retrospective of his work at Kent. Our third judge, Dr Kate Moore, is also a documentary filmmaker and had  recently been awarded her PhD in visual anthropology for a project in collaboration with the Powell-Cotton Museum on their Angolan collection that led to a major exhibit, ‘TALA! Visions of Angola’ that gained widespread acclaim. As the teacher of the course last year, we were especially interested to hear her opinion of the changes in filmmaking styles and focus from last year’s cohort, screened as ‘Self Spaces’ .

We reflected on the students last year and what were they doing now. Nazly Dehganiazar and Harriet Kendall won the Roger Just and Hugh Brody prizes last year for their films ‘Canterbury’s Buskers’ and ‘Voices from the Back Seat’ and we were all very moved to watch their video messages from Holland and the US. Nazly is now doing an MA in Social Anthropology, while Harriet  is using her anthropological skills, in the year before going to film school, as the cultural adviser in the English Village in Disneyworld.

Films were grouped into themes related to peoples’ engagement with space and introduced by the teacher of the video project,  Mike Poltorak. After the screening of a group of films, the directors came to the front for a Q and A. If you’d like to make your decision about your favourite film please feel free to view and read about them before you read the judges’ choices below.

Noisy Neighbours   Michael Selmes

Why Whitstable?   Anastasia Sotiriou

Discontinuous Space   Claire McMurtrie

Ethnochoreology   Shaheen Kripalani

Expansion 

Cathedral Triptych   Charles Beach

More Human   Kane Taylor

The 1882 Movement    Harry Farrell

Grounding 

Using the Stour   Michael Bonnington

Starry  Chi-An  Peng

6 Miles Southeast   Oliver Hall

The Lives We’ve Lost   Bhokraj Gurung, Danny Mahaffey

Longevity

Anglo-Deutsch Edward Coates

Under My Skin   Olivia Maguire

From East to West   Carmen Yam, Thomas Slatter

The Art of Being Lost   Elinor Turnbull

Hugh Brody spoke about the high quality of films this year and how so many of the films deserved a prize. He reviewed all the film drawing attention to particular things he liked in each film.  The judges’ decision however was unanimous. The Hugh Brody Prize went to Charles Beach for his film ‘Cathedral Triptych’. The runner up prize was awarded  to Olivia Maguire for ‘Under My Skin’.

The Roger Just Prize for Visual Anthropology went to Chi-An Peng for ‘Starry’ and the runner up prize to Harry Farrell for ‘The 1882 Movement’.

The Audience Prize was voted on by a large audience of students, visitors and staff. It went to Elinor Turnbull’s ‘The Art of Being Lost’. The runner up prize went to Carmen Yam and Thomas Slatter’s ‘From East to West’. It was a close vote with the difference between  1^st and 2^nd only one vote and closely followed up by Bhokraj and Danny’s film, ‘The Lives We’ve Lost’  picking up a large number of second place votes.

The prize was awarded  by Alex Woodcock, representing our very active student group TRIBE, and Kate Moore. TRIBE organised the first ever undergraduate conference (Breaking Bubbles)  in anthropology in the UK.

For the photography prizes there were three categories and a special mention.

Katie Bowerman won the prize for  Innovative Photography.

Tabitha Hamill won the prize for  Best Set of Photographs.

Ville Laakkonen won the prize for Best Anthropological Content and received a special mention. As a visiting student from Finland, Ville was particularly happy to receive this accolade and commented on how studying at Kent had been an incredible beneficial experience.