Description
In an audiovisual age, film remains one of the most important tools of fostering and presenting cultural diversity, getting acquainted with what appears different, and preserving cultural heritage. This medium enables researchers and museologists to reach wider audiences. The aim of the project is to promote use of anthropological film as a medium fostering social dialog in museums and education and to share experiences regarding transfer of knowledge on cultural heritage and diversity through audiovisual media. The 35th edition of the anthropological film festival and exhibition open for general public and specialists, as well as conference, workshops for anthropologists, museum experts and students will be organized. Two Norwegian institutions will be involved: University of Bergen, Nordic Anthropological Film Association. NAFA has been organizing film festivals for more than 30 years. The project will initiate cooperation between experts associated with the study and promotion of cultural diversity and international researchers, and will facilitate cooperation between University of Warsaw and University of Bergen.
Summary of project results
Europe’s archive and museums store heritage of diverse cultures both local and foreign. They create the world heritage. Specialists from different fields of expertise should cooperate in order to meet high standards and solve new immerging problems (legal, economic, caused by the employment of new technologies) not just within the institutions but also across the institutional fields and countries. The project set out to foster cooperation between anthropologists, sociologists, museum staff from different countries and to encourage knowledge and experience exchange. Special focus was placed on visual methods of displaying cultures and cultural heritage. 6 days festival and conference week in Warsaw comprised many events and two additional events were subsequently organized in Torun and Bialystok. Anthropological and documentary film festival presented 25 films that reflected the diversity of issues connected with the display of cultures today. Additionally tailored workshops on museum display and the use of multimedia in research of culture were provided. Papers presented at the conference explored different aspects of Europe’s cultural heritage both in its tangible and intangible aspects. Exhibition placed at the Warsaw University showed Polish cultural diversity from the personal perspective of different intercultural marriages.Over 80 specialist participated in the projects events, exchanged knowledge, established new institutional contacts. Films presented at the Festival are stored at NAFA archive as well as in the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw. The project catalogue is available on the projects website, additionally a translation of the interview with prof. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett was published in Muzealnictwo and the lecture by Andre Singer will be publish in the forthcoming issue of Kwartalnik Filmowy with the information about the event (both of them presented keynote lecturers). The project partners participation helped reaching audience through their established networks of cooperation. They also contributed to the festival programme by coordinating the film selection and putting up final programme.
Summary of bilateral results
The project contributed to improving knowledge and understanding of the audiovisual media in preservation of cultural heritage in both its tangible and intangible aspects, new models, technologies and concepts of preserving heritage. The project Partners shared their knowledge regarding organizational aspects (they have organized the festival and conference for 35 years) and contributed to the festival programme by cooperating on the selection of films (25 films were chosen form almost 200 submitted), papers, keynote speakers. Project Partners contributed to the project catalogue by editing the texts.