HOSPITALITY AND EUROPEAN FILM: MULTIPLIER EVENT
Broadway Cinema, Nottingham, 10-30-16.30, April 27th 2019.
The Multiplier Event entitled “Migration and Hospitality in European Cinema” was held at Broadway Cinema (Nottingham, UK) on April 27th, 2019. The event was led by Martin O’Shaughnessy, Professor of Film Studies at Nottingham Trent and member of the project. The one-day event presented the Project and its Outputs (Syllabus) and it explored the multiple responses of contemporary European film to migration. The politics and ethics of migrant and refugee cinema were addressed to lay out the diversity of issues that the project Hospitality and European Film tackles. Empathy, visibility or the limitations to humanitarianism in the context of cinema were topics presented to highlight what showing or seeing a film can do.
Prof. Martin O’Shaugnessy introduces the program of the Multiplier Event
Several fragments of films and documentaries (Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things, Nick Broomfield’s Ghosts or Ai Wawai’s Human Flow, among many others) were screened to enhance dialogue and to discern if visual fiction and real-life features can create different ways to look at reality and give expression to normally silenced voices. Limits by genres and inequalities of access to filmmaking, distribution and exhibition were discussed. Local filmmaker Allan Njanji presented his experience shooting and planning his own projects as a migrant. Njanji engaged in conversion with the audience and illustrated how directors and migrants can change from objects to subjects in the representation of hospitality and migration in European film. The day ended with a free screening of Sharon Walia’s The Movement (2018) which was followed by a Q&A session with Brendan Woodhouse (key participant in the film) and the director herself.
The audience engaged in the conversation, and posed multiple questions to the different speakers and participants. The dialogue between and among different participants was lively and well-informed, and demonstrated to what extent films and documentaries about migration and hospitality reach a wide spectrum of society (retirees, teachers, professors, fire fighters, students, migrants, NGOs etc.). The event was advertised on the monthly timetable of Broadway, in its monthly bulletin and on the web. Attendance included people from different countries (UK, Ireland, Brazil, Canada, France, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Spain, and Slovenia, among others) that showed passion, engagement and a wish to continue participating in these activities. A leaflet was distributed among participants including bibliography, quotations from the directors, the day-course programme and the details of the project.
Film Director Sharon Walia, with research team members, after documentary screening
Entrance to Broadway Cinema, Nottingham, where Multiplier Event took place
Presentation of the HOSTFILM Project, including the syllabus and other intellectual outputs, at Multiplier Event