Other/Cinema.

Screening series

Critical Cinema Lab organizes the film screening & discussion series OTHER/CINEMA. OTHER/CINEMA deals with the theme of Other from a variety of perspectives, relating to marginalized themes, topics, forms or distribution markets. The series explores the ways films can connect to the acute debates by inviting different artists, specialists and active members of society to watch films and share a space for discussion, by talking and listening to others.  
The first edition of the OTHER/CINEMA series looks into alternative ways of representing the narratives of the Middle East. Currently, when the divisions between 'Us' as 'Them' are aggressively drawn, we want to invite films, filmmakers and everyone interested in sharing thoughts and experiences to join a space for debate beyond this polarized and politicized context.

28.9. 2017 18-21 Stage Aalto Studio.
CCL has invited Kurdish screenwriter and film director Erol Mintaş  to curate the first edition of the series in the Fall of 2017 and Winter of 2018.  CCL will introduce Mintaş  and his film "Song of My Mother" (2014), together with the Kurdish short film "Silent" (2012) from Turkish director L. Rezan Yeşilbaş.

Discussion with Erol Mintaş and author and filmmaker Elina Hirvonen.

Elina Hirvonen’s upcoming novel “Red Storm” (working title) is based on the stories of the family of Hussein Al-Taeen, who moved from Iraq to Finland as a refugee child. The novel juxtaposes Finland, struggling with xenophobia, with the history of Iraq. ​​

Erol Mintaş (b. 1983) is an award-winning film director and producer. His films have gained domestic and international recognition and he is currently a mobile resident of Perpetuum Mobile at Safe Haven Helsinki, co-organised with HIAP - Helsinki International Artist Programme. The programme is funded by the Helsinki City Cultural Office.​

Courses.

Fall semester 2017

Art & the Political Reading Seminar

Reading group

A reading group on the paradoxical relation of the poetics and politics in art. On what terms is –or is not– art political, reflexive, or critical? The reading material has been philosophical and other theoretical texts by thinkers such as Jacques Rancière, Giorgio Agamben, Chantal Mouffe, Hannah Arendt, as well as other materials suggested by the participants as well as discussions on the different forms of contemporary artworks. During the Fall semester of 2017, we’ll be focusing on the work of authors that have been dealing with the cultural field from a critical approach like Pierre Bourdieu, Raymond Williams or Fredric Jameson, as well as on their link to the critical theory of major authors connected to the Frankfurt School, such as Adorno, Benjamin or Marcuse.

Times:
MON 25.9. 5-7 PM
MON 16.10. 5-7 PM
MON 6.11. 5-7 PM
MON 27.11. 5-7 PM
MON 11.12. 5-7 PM

Past courses (spring semester 2017)

Testimony, Memory and the Present in Times of Danger – Reading Benjamin & others for artistic research and film practice

An intensive 7 session theory workshop for doctoral and master students with Alejandro Pedregal, Susanna Helke, and guest lecturers.
History is the subject of a structure whose site is not homogenous, empty time, but time filled by the presence of the now. -Walter Benjamin

How can thinkers such as Walter Benjamin as well as other authors that deal with questions of witnessing, memory, history, time and temporality inspire us as artists, filmmakers, writers in the present moment? What is the strength of testimonial voices in a time crowded with the imagery of catastrophes and the suffering of other realities? What is the meaning of the everyday, mundane, material and experienced history as a poetic expression in documentary art, essay writing, testimonial (and documentary) literature and theatre? Today as always, living in times of dramatic challenges means questioning certainties that are taken for granted. How can we use our craft to build alternative narratives to the mainstream forms of representation? How can we rethink and challenge storytelling, historytelling and testimonial forms of art as established forms in the dominant culture industry?