Film Studies British Council Grant Success: "Tracing the Anthropocene in Southeast Asian and British Artists' Cinema: Film Screenings and Discussion".

Lecturer in Film Studies Dr Philippa Lovatt and Dr Graiwoot Chulphongsathorn (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand) have been awarded £8000 from the British Council ‘Connections Through Culture UK-Southeast Asia Grant’ for the project ‘Tracing the Anthropocene in Southeast Asian and British Artists' Cinema: Film Screenings and Discussion’.  

The grant will support an online programme of artists’ film screenings and conversations between Southeast Asian and British filmmakers, co-curated and co-hosted in partnership with LUX Scotland and Cample Line Gallery in Dumfriesshire, with further support from Documentary Club in Thailand. It will be broadcast simultaneously in Southeast Asia and the UK in February and March 2022 and will coincide with the publication of Lovatt and Chulphongsathorn’s forthcoming co-edited Screen Dossier ‘Tracing the Anthropocene in Southeast Asian film and artists’ moving image’ (Winter 2021). The British Council funding includes translation of some of the dossier into Thai to facilitate wider access.

This is an ambitious project that will build connections between the global south and north, making innovative use of digital tools available to us to create space for conversation and knowledge exchange between Southeast Asian and British filmmakers, artists, curators, researchers, students and members of the public about the potential of artists’ cinema for helping us respond to and communicate the urgency of environmental crisis. In bringing Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom together in this way, the project also recognises and highlights the entangled and ongoing colonial, political and environmental histories that have long connected us. 

Full programme and more details to be announced soon!