Georgian Film Night

Friday, 14th May, 6:30 – 8:30pm

EPIC Short Films and Conciliation Resources invites you to an evening of Georgian film, screened for the first time in UK, followed by discussion and music.

Five short films, made by professional and citizen journalists, tell intimate and personal stories about daily life, dreams and conflict in Georgia.  The films are produced by Eyewitness Studios, part of a new media initiative Go Group Media, set up by Margharita Akhvlediani who aims to get real life stories into Georgian TV programming that is otherwise unrepresentative, swamped by propaganda and imported viewing.

Margarita Akhvlediani, director of Go Group will lead a Q & A session after the films.

For the second part of the evening Tabuni, a London based ensemble singing Georgian folk songs and chants, lead by Tamta Turmanidze, will perform a short programme of songs, accompanied by wine and kachapuri (traditional Georgian cheese bread).

Entrance is FREE though there will be a charge for wine and kachapuri.

This event will be held at the Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3GA

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To book your place please email bookings@freewordonline.com or call 020 7324 2570

Conciliation Resources: is an independent charity working internationally to prevent violent conflict, promote justice and build lasting peace in war torn societies.

Go Group: was established in 2009 as a non-governmental organisation by a group of professional journalists and editors in Georgia. Its Eyewitness project is currently funded by European Union. For more information, and a sneak preview of some of the films click here

quick reminder…

Tomorrow is the Beyond Surveillance event in Brighton, which is a series of talks and films by artists dealing with the issue of

As surveillance technologies become more ubiquitous – from CCTV to data-mining on websites to mobile phones to Google streetcar – it becomes all the more important to consider the implications and to develop creative, radical responses, counteracting and reversing acts of surveillance.

Entrance is free, and for more information on how to book please visit their official website.

In addition, the following day on Thursday, 29th April we are also having our panel discussion as part of the Dialogues programme, “Making Political Films About the North: Then and Now” at the Belfast Film Festival. Attending will be Mark Cousins, director of the First Movie, and James Flynn. For more information please click here.

Go Group Media films

For a taster of some of the films we will be showing on our Georgian Film on Friday, 14th May, here is sneak preview of two other films made by Go Group Media:

The Old Man and Matsoni – a moving short film about an 82 year-old yoghurt seller from Akhaltsikhe

We Are From Sukhumi – interviews and footage of Georgian IDPs (internally displaced people) who were displaced from Abkhazia in the early 90s and currently live in Georgia. Abkhazia is a disputed territory on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. Its independence has recently been recognised by Russia and three other UN member states, whereas the majority of the international community regards it as part of Georgia.

GO GROUP and EYEWITNESS PROJECT

GO Group was established in 2009 as a non-governmental organization that aims to facilitate a more informed and more inclusive discourse about social, economic, cultural and conflict issues within the societies of the South Caucasus. Margarita Akhvlediani is co-founder and currently heads the organization.

Within the framework of its Eyewitness project, GO Group gives a voice to ordinary people in Georgia by offering them the opportunity to make short film documentaries on issues of their own choice. The documentaries are subtitled in Russian and English and published on the Eyewitness website as well as GO Group’s youtube channel, where viewers are able to comment. In addition, GO Group organizes public viewings of selected films throughout Georgia.

Currently, there is a network of more than 40 people of various ages and backgrounds who have received training as “resident reporters” and make their own films. More than 50 of their documentaries have so far been published on the internet, telling about the everyday experiences of ordinary people and their individual stories. The broad range of topics include displacement, challenges of old age, life in Abkhazia’s Gal/i region, and the situation of minorities.

The following quotations highlight the importance and the innovative approach of the project:

The importance of this project is that we obtain firsthand information. Even though films shot by resident reporters are not always of professional quality, they always provide accurate information based on undoubtedly real stories. And this is very important. (student in Gori)

Often, when ordinary people watch TV, many questions arise they don’t get answers to. We are routinely blamed for not covering one or another issue, or for not going deep enough. This project gives these people an opportunity to be a part of the process, to become themselves reporters and to cover problems and events around them the way they see ones. (journalist in Tbilisi)

Belfast Film Festival

APRIL 29 2010 – 2PM

MAKING POLITICAL FILMS ABOUT THE NORTH: THEN AND NOW

The troubles in the North of Ireland have long been the subject of film-makers. The film-making landscape has changed over the years, as has the political landscape. Both self censorship and political censorship have been key factors in defining which films get made and which don’t. The panel will discuss selected issues relating to censorship — what forms of censorship influence the work being made? is there any difference to the types of films being made 30 years ago and now?

The panel will include:

Mark Cousins director of The First Movie, screening at the Belfast Film Festival, has a first class degree in Film and Media Studies and Fine Art from the University of Stirling. He has since lectured on film history, been published internationally and made documentary films on arts and political themes. A former Director of the Edinburgh Film Festival, he now presents Scene-by-Scene on BBC television, conducting career interviews with actors and directors including Martin Scorcese, Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, Shohei Imamura, Jack Lemmon, Sean Connery, Tom Hanks, Dennis Hopper, Kirk Douglas, Rod Steiger, Jeanne Moreau, Lauren Bacall, the Coen Brothers, Bernardo Bertolucci, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Donald Sutherland, Ewan McGregor and Jayne Russell. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

James Flynn commenced his career in the Irish film industry with John Boorman’s Merlin Films International as Head of Development having previously worked for the Investment Bank of Ireland. After working as Business Manager of the fledgling Irish Film Board, he, along with Juanita Wilson, established Metropolitan Film Productions Limited with the intention of making strong, independent and resonant films for the international market. In-house projects developed and produced by Metropolitan Films include H3 and Nora.

He established Octagon Films in 2002. Octagon developed and produced Inside I’m Dancing, written by Jeffrey Caine (Goldeneye, The Constant Gardener) and directed by Damien O’Donnell (East Is East, Heartlands). Produced in conjunction with Working Title/Universal, it won the Audience Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and was released in the UK and Ireland by Momentum Pictures in autumn ‘04. It was screened as Rory O’Shea Was Here at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and subsequently released in the U.S. by Focus. He is currently jointly producing Neil Jordan’s Ondine, starring Colin Farrell, in West Cork this summer and this will be released internationally during the Summer and/or Autumn of 2009.

For more information please visit the website http://www.belfastfilmfestival.org

Thanks for everyone who attended the Erasing David preview screening. The night was a great success and we hope everyone found it informative and interesting.

If you didn’t happen to catch it, or were too late with the bookings (we were very subscribed towards the end) you can still catch the film on its nationwide theatrical release across the country from 29th April. For more information please visit the official Erasing David website.

Index on Censorship presents… Erasing David

Next Friday, 16th April, Index on Censorship is proud to presents

a free preview screening of the film Erasing David at the Free Word Centre, followed by panel discussion

View the trailer here

David Bond lives in the UK, one of the most intrusive surveillance states in the world.  He decides to find out how much private companies and the government know about him by attempting to disappear – a decision that changes his life forever. Leaving his pregnant wife and young child behind he tries to vanish and finds himself tracked across the database state by two ruthless private investigators.  This is a chilling journey that forces him to contemplate the meaning of privacy – and its loss.

This is one of a few exclusive preview screenings before a nationwide cinema release on the 29th April. Jo Glanville, the editor of Index on Censorship, will introduce the film and will lead a Q&A afterwards with the Director and the private investigators who hunted him.

“Delivered with one hand on your pulse and the other hand smacking you in the face, Erasing David is a timely clarion call to those of us interested in guarding our civil liberties in an increasingly invasive digital age. An intelligent and subtle reminder that YOU are in charge.” – Sheffield Doc/Fest UK “A brilliant new documentary.” – Henry Porter, The Guardian

“A rousing and fascinating call to arms to protect our privacy.”- The Independent, UK

Please email: bookings@freewordonline.com or call 020 7324 2570 to book your FREE place.

Directions

This screening will take place at the Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3GA

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Closest tubes: Farringdon, Angel

For more information about the nationwide cinema release, please visit the official Erasing David website

Beyond Surveillance

videoclub & Index on Censorship present:

BEYOND SURVEILLANCE

28 April 2010
6:00pm: Doors & Bar
7:00pm: Screening & Panel
Entry: FREE
At: Lighthouse, 28 Kensington Street, Brighton BN1 4AJ

A screening of art works developed in response to and in counteraction against surveillance technologies, will be followed by a panel discussing the consequences of surveillance and censorship on daily life – how do we respond to or engage with the consequences of censorship and surveillance?

As surveillance technologies become more ubiquitous – from CCTV to data-mining on websites to mobile phones to Google streetcar – it becomes all the more important to consider the implications and to develop creative, radical responses, counteracting and reversing acts of surveillance.

Artist and curator Manu Luksch has selected several works which explore differing aspects of re-activism to surveillance technologies; selected artists include: David Valentine, Caspar Below, The Bureau of Inverse Technology and MediaShed. Manu Luksch is highly celebrated for her work investigating the use of surveillance technologies in artistic practice: www.ambienttv.net In particular her work Faceless has been internationally recognised and celebrated for its approach in exploring CCTV / surveillance technology in society.

Links:
http://www.surveillance-and-society.org
http://www.videoclub.org.uk
http://www.ambienttv.net

Concern for imprisoned Iranian filmmaker

In support of the FSFF blog calling for solidarity for imprisoned filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who has been detained since 1 March, 2010 as part of the crackdown on censorship in Iran since the reelection of President Ahmadinejad.

Jafar Panahi is most notable for his film The Circle which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000, portraying the lives of women in Iran. International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has recently expressed concern over the physical welfare of Panahi. Iran also currently has the highest number of journalists in prison in the world, for more information visit the Our Society Will Be A Free Society website and sign the petition.

Call for submissions

Dear budding filmmakers, guerilla camera-wielders, underground directors and scriptwriters,

We are currently taking submissions for our series of EPIC short film evenings, to be screened at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon. The launch night for the event will be in mid-May, kicking off with a night of short films made by the Go Group in Georgia. You can find more information about the night here, and this page will be regularly updated with more information in the future.

If you have a short film or documentary that you would like to be screened at one of these nights, email us with a short 100 word summary of your film to intern1@indexoncensorship.org, or a link to your video online and details of any charities/organisations that you are affiliated with.

Please note that submissions MUST fit the subject of freedom of expression or censorship, dealing with issues or events from a unique perspective that is not often acknowledged. As we are a non-profit charity, we cannot offer any payment  for the artists, except a platform and opportunity for new filmmakers to screen their film to a large public audience.

In addition, as we would like these events to encourage talk and debate, it would be ideal if the filmmakers were willing to come down and attend the screenings themselves, giving a short talk or hosting a Q&A session afterwards.

If you would like to be updated with further EPIC short film events, please email intern1@indexoncensorship.org to be added to our mailing list where we will keep you updated with future events as well as other relevant information. Alternatively, you can subscribe to this blog, where we will be regularly updating it with new information about up and coming British and international short films and our events.

Georgian Film Night

The launch night in mid-May for our monthly film series will be a selection of short films made by the Go Group in Georgia. Here is some information about the organisation and the types of films that we will be showing.

THE GO GROUP

Our mission

GO Group was established in 2009 as a non-governmental organisation by a group of enthusiastic professional journalists and editors. We work mainly in Georgia and the South Caucasus region. Our mission is to facilitate a deeper and more informed dialogue within society and particular within the regions outside the capitals, which lack the leaders to voice local concerns. Journalism is a good tool to accomplish this goal, and it works best when it is enriched by the perspectives of ordinary people, who can offer real practical insights to public debate. We are developing a network of ‘eyewitness’ video and print journalists across the region, together with actively involved ‘resident reporters’ from the general public. These individuals can work together as a ‘rapid reaction force’ to provide information based on local knowledge as an alternative to mainstream reporting.

The GO Group’s key targets are:

• To create greater opportunities for ordinary members of society, including members of minority groups, to respond to new realities and play a more active role in decision-making in the region and beyond;
• To challenge predominant myths and stereotypes by providing information on complex issues and channels for dialogue;
• To help societies afflicted by violence to understand the long-term benefits of a peace-building process;
• To soothe tensions between different communities in the Caucasus, which are often exacerbated by a lack of reliable information.

Our work is based on supporting people to people contacts between communities, including those in regions divided by conflicts, in order to explore common points of understanding on the key problems and issues. We see as important action identification of, and support to, new civil leaders, especially in the regions. We believe that this process will contribute towards the development of good governance more generally, towards greater inclusiveness of regional and minorities voices and towards a more stable and peaceful environment in the region.

For more information please visit their website on www.gogroupmedia.net or their Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/gogroupmedia

Here are a few examples of the short films they have been making

Bride Kidnappings

A series of frank interviews with women who have been the victim of bride kidnappings.

Pankisi rules

Short film about the people who live in the Pankisi Gorge, an area in Northeast Georgia on the border of Chechnya.