POSTPONED Iniva Viewing Room presents: Double Vision

Delving into Iniva’s archive, the Stuart Hall Library will host a new Saturday series that investigates our collection of short documentaries. This selection made by Iniva’s librarian Terezia Abraham explores cultural duality through the lens of the political and the social. Each Saturday viewing in the intimate setting of the library will feature an introduction to the works and post screening discussion. As space is limited please RSVP.

28 March 2020 – postponed
Alter-Native Dialogues

By James Luna and Lee Wen, 2002, VHS, 25 minutes.

The conversation between performance artists James Luna and Lee Wen intends to examine and widen the concerns of political and social identity formation via conscious interaction by exchange of ideas. Having met in Japan, away from their “native” origins they come to realise the need to re-examine various issues such as upholding traditional values with regards to globalisation, cultural stereotypes versus authenticity, cultural colonialism and imperialism.

29 February 2020
Mi Otro Yo – My other Self

By Artenstein, 1989, VHS, 28 minutes.

Expanding his exploration of marginalized identity and border culture, video maker Isaac Artenstein’s ‘Mi otro yo’ looks at the work of Chicano artists living in California acting as mirror and conserving force of the community. Their cultural ties to Mexico and historical presence in the U.S., well before it became the “new world”, broaden the contemporary debates on identity and multiculturalism positioning the indigenous as a form counterculture. The film features the views and work of artists like Luis Valdez, Amalia Mesa Bains, Jose Montoya, Carmen Lomas Garza, Daniel Valdez, Malaquias Montoya, Harry Gamboa Jr, Rupert Garcia, Judith Baca and Guillermo Gómez Peña, who also narrates his poem Califas.

Coming soon

I am British, But…
By Gurinder Chadha, 1990, VHS, 30 minutes.

The film is a thirty year old account on defiant popular culture, part Asian, part British, against a backdrop of fading English nationalism. The rhythms of Bhangra music set the pace for this lively collage of interviews with British Asian youth. Mixing archival footage with present day street scenes of Asians in England, this film chronicles the role of race and cultural identity in the formation of modern day British society. I’m British but… is an engaging critique of nationalisms of any sort and a celebration of cultural diversity and hybridity.

Acting Our Age
By Gurinder Chadha, 1990, VHS, 17 minutes.

This serene yet thought-provoking film documents the residents of a South Asian home for the elderly in Britain. Director Gurinder Chadha assists the residents in creating their own documentary. The result is an examination of politics, ageism, and cross-cultural communication in British society from the early 1990s. Interview subjects range from people on the street to Members of Parliament.