UPSTAIRS AT THE RAI

Sibirr and Close to Home – Film Screening

‘Sibirr’ (1989/2000) // Amy Hardie and Arthur Howes // 40min, 16mm, colour, sound; transferred to digital video.
‘Close to Home’ (1982/1987) // Nina Danino // 28min, 16mm, black and white, sound; transferred to digital video.
 
4pm, Saturday 28th November
 
All Hallows Church (Entrance via public gardens)
10 Copperfield Street
Southwark
SE1 0EL

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‘The effacement of the filmmaker as practiced by American ‘Ciné Vérité’ is analogous to the authorless discourse as promoted by anthropological cinema.’
– Arthur Howes, ‘Jean Rouch: Anthropological Film-maker’, Under-cut: Magazine of the London Filmmakers’ Co-op, no. 9, c.1982.
 
Arthur Howes (1951 – 2004) was a direct/unscripted documentary filmmaker who worked predominantly in relation to Sudan. To the extent that his writing on Jean Rouch’s methodology may be read as indicative of his own, he sought an approach opposed to the one outlined above; namely – as he ascribes to Rouch – the practice of a ‘shared anthropology’.
 
The archive of his work is held by the Royal Anthropological Institute. This includes 200+ hours of rushes on mini DV tape which have been recently digitised for preservation and study (compiling of index/contact sheets for these rushes is still ongoing).
 
This screening seeks to establish a relation between a film by Howes, ‘Sibirr’ (1989/2000, 40min, 16mm transferred to digital video) shot in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan, and a film by Nina Danino, ‘Close to Home’ (1982/87, 28min, 16mm transferred to digital video), shot in Berlin and Gibraltar, for which Howes did camera work.
 
Nina Danino is an artist and filmmaker. Her most recent films are ‘Jennifer’ (2015, 72min, Digital 4K, colour, sound) and ‘Communion’ (2010, 10min, 35mm, black and white, silent). She is represented by the Magda Bellotti Gallery, Madrid, and teaches in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London.