Hey Beastlings,
Delighted to reveal my video paper presentation "'Witch Finder Phenomenal' Filming a hauntology of queer mixed race identity in crisis, in a world in crisis" for the online RAI film festival conference panel between March 19 - 28th 2021. The non profit Rai Film Festival includes incredibly insightful ethnographic films from around the world. This year's emphasis is on racial justice and decolonisation, and it also significantly includes an anti racism workshop https://festival.raifilm.org.uk
I'll also be doing a Q&A alongside my 'Crisis, Creativity & Ethics' panel members this Saturday 12.30pm 20th March 2021 for FREE! You will need a free zoom account https://raifilm.org.uk/2021-conference-panels/#timetable
My pre-recorded video presentation can be found on panel P02a 'Crisis, creativity and ethics: reflexive practices and critical engagements with "others" in times of uncertainty' here .https://raifilm.org.uk/2021-conference-panels/#9418 The non profit Rai Film Festival includes insightful ethnographic and anthropological films from around the world and with a festival pass £30 you are able to see all of them, or you can pay £3 for each film. You will need a festival pass to access the panel presentations. However, I shall be personally showing my video presentation later in the year on a future blog to be inclusive to those who simply can't afford it in these times. Having said that, this years emphasis on diversity is worth it as you get to see and engagement with equally diverse films and panellists such as myself.
I'll be discussing why I made my masters student film, hauntology, auto-ethnographic research, and how the act of channeling witch identified voices helped me haunt myself back to life by occupying previously disallowed space. I also share my phenomenological experiences and creative process negotiations that occurred while shooting and editing Witch Finder Phenomenal during a world health crisis, lockdown and the #BLM movement. It is part auto-ethnographic/part fairytale and features Maisy Holland-Stewart who plays my younger self as a troubled mixed race child coming of age.
Speaking representatively as a British queer black multimedia #outsiderartist, I am challenging post colonial systems in academia, creating new working personalised models of expression and re-evaluating alleged existing ethical art practices from the perspective of a black queer female filmmaker with physical and mental health challenges. I believe that the artist subject as Other is ironically privileged in working with limited resources to make art accessible, due to their own experiences of inaccessibility. And that now, in 2021, it is crucial to examine the benefits of how listening to marginalized Othered voices can help towards safeguarding a world in crisis.
In my 20min #RAIFILM panellist presentation I am also unveiling how I channelled ancestral witch folk magic to manifest a 'vivid creatrix expression methodological model' which is based on the divine feminine and triple moon goddess to combat existing patriarchal academic models that are not user friendly. My model is based on the divine feminine and utilises the power of 3 where 1. thoughts are spurred into 2. actions while sporadically being visited by 3. the ghost muse.
As a budget filmmaker, I am positing that the ethnographic filmmaker's only way to be truly ethical is to predict risks and take full responsibility on behalf of participants for any potential risks of exploitation, particularly when it comes to future third party involvement. Social distancing and BLM triggered me to film and direct my incredible actors Maisy & Ella Stewart Holland on zoom which was a gratifying challenge for all of us in a surreal world. I also made them co-producers so that that will have an equal and empowered voice in future discussions on how the film is represented and shared. In this way, all three of us as formerly marginalised voices, can be harvested to produce a ethical filmmaker template for fairly executed guidelines in the future.
#blackbritish #blackartist #blackfilmmaker #mixedrace #anthropology #ethnography #witchfinderphenomenal #femalefilmmaker #divinefeminine #filmfestival
