Campus life can feel like living in a bubble. Student halls, coursemates and society families suddenly become the community you orient yourself around, and the most pressing issue of each year is finding a house for the next one. Your sphere becomes somewhat smaller, and for many this can feel suffocating. Uni life is fun and exciting, but it makes it very easy to become disconnected from the outside world. Luckily, the Royal Anthropology Institute Film Festival is coming to Bristol 27 – 30 March with a programme sure to pop that campus bubble.
The RAI Film Festival brings the world’s best anthropological and ethnographic film to the screens of Bristol’s Watershed, featuring stories from a striking variety of cultures from home and beyond.
HER CAMPUS readers will be especially interested in the Festival’s focus on women, their voices, and the feminine experience. The Festival presents a vivid tapestry of women’s lives across the globe; from the first and only female taxi driver of Pakistan (Zahida 28th March / 9:15am), to a group of Thai women in search of a better life (Heartbound 28th March / 3:40pm), to the strength and resilience of women across communities from China to India to Mozambique. Not only do many of the films feature women as their subjects, but the power behind the camera reveals some pioneering women too, most notably in this year’s special focus on ethnographer and filmmaker Safi Faye (Fad’jal and Mossane are screening on 29th March at 11am and 7:30pm respectively, as two outstanding works of hers not to be missed). In fact, more than half of the films in this year’s programme have a female director (compared to 8% of Hollywood films).
By foregrounding personal and often intimate stories, these films highlight the diversity of cultural experiences of womanhood in an empowering and inspiring way. But it’s not just womanhood – the festival explores a range of other marginalised voices and experiences . We hear indigenous voices stand up for their environment (Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock / 28th March / 1:15pm). We see migration of many kinds, voluntary and forced (Kalès / 29th March / 11:15am). We celebrate an array of LGBTQ+ films; ‘Queer Brazil!’ is a timely focus on the LGBTQ+ experience in Brazil, considering their new openly-homophobic president. And with a whole category of student films in the programme, many these pertinent topics form the backdrop of the emerging talent of our generation.
As students, we are often labelled the voice of the future. If we want to fulfil our role, we need to broaden our horizons to encompass the vast range of human experience to which the earth is home. The RAI Film Festival offers a visceral insight into the diverse cultures of the world that demand not just to be told, but seen and heard – the vibrancy of the music, materials and languages that colour the globe has never been so immediate.
And the chance to absorb all of this right on your doorstep at the Watershed has never been so fleeting. The RAI Film Festival takes place over 4 days and won’t be back again until 2021. Don’t miss out!
Visit raifilm.org.uk for the full programme and tickets to 60+ films, talks and masterclasses.