Cinema Thinks the World is pleased to partner with the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany for Vancouver, UBC Human Rights Collective, the Global Reporting Centre, and UBC-V Public Humanities Hub to present a free screening of Stop Filming Us But Listen, followed by a discussion about the film with UBC scholars Andrea Crossan (Global Reporting Centre), Sara Ghebremusse (Law) and Shannon Walsh (Film Production), moderated by Liliane Umuhoza (MA Student, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs).
About the film
STOP FILMING US BUT LISTEN
Bernadette Vivuya, Kagoma Ya Twahirwa | 72 min | CD, NL | 2022
A woman covers her face with a scarf—she does not want to be filmed—but the camera continues to point at her. This scene is from a documentary by a Dutch film team. Their aim is to portray life in Goma, a large city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. But are they even the right ones to tell this story? Should they stop filming instead? A discussion ensues. Together with filmmaker Kagoma Ya Twahirwa, Congolese filmmaker and journalist Bernadette Vivuya decides to re-edit the footage taken from a Western perspective and expand it by including a Congolese perspective. Can this dissolve the colonial gaze?
Panelists
Andrea Crossan is an award-winning radio journalist with over 30 years of experience, reporting from over a dozen countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ukraine, South Africa, Uganda, and Brazil. She is currently the executive editor of the Global Reporting Centre (GRC), an independent news organization based out of UBC, which focuses on innovating global journalism by pairing scholars, journalists, and news organizations to cover neglected stories around the world. Before Crossan joined the GRC, she was the executive producer of The World, a national public radio news program based out of Boston, Massachusetts. As a newsroom leader, she has won two Edward R. Murrow awards for her news documentaries. Prior to working in the USA, Andrea was a producer in London for the BBC World Service, CBC News, and The Associated Press. Crossan holds a master’s degree in International Journalism from City, University of London. For many years, Crossan’s reporting focused on gender equity and women’s rights. Crossan is from North Vancouver and is a proud member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. She is currently co-producing a podcast for CBC Vancouver, focusing on Indigenous land dispossession and reclamation.
Sara Ghebremusse is an Assistant Professor at the Allard School of Law. She writes, researches, and teaches in the areas of African law and society, law and development, mining governance in the Global South, human rights, and transnational law. She has published in all these fields and has presented her research at conferences in Canada, Germany, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States.
Shannon Walsh is a writer, director and producer. She has made five award-winning feature documentaries: The Gig is Up (2021), Illusions of Control (2019), Jeppe on a Friday (2013), À st-henri, le 26 août (2011), and H2Oil (2009). Her films have been theatrically released in the US, Canada, England and South Africa, and broadcast on Al-Jazeera, CBC, SABC, Discovery channel, Netflix and others. Her work has screened in over 100 festivals globally such as IDFA, CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, Visions du Réel, La Rochelle, Full Frame, Beijing and others. Her work has been supported by the National Film Board of Canada, Telefilm Theatrical Documentary Fund, SODEC, Vision du SudEst, Canada Council for the Arts, amongst others. As a theorist, she has published in a range of research areas, largely focused on South Africa, where she has lived and worked, visual methods and activist research. She has published more than 35 journal articles and book chapters in spaces such as Educational Philosophy and Theory, Area (Royal Geographic Society), Review of African Political Economy, and Feminist Media Studies. Walsh has won numerous fellowships and awards, with research supported by SSHRC, the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, the FQRSC, AWID, amongst others.
Liliane Umuhoza is a young professional from Rwanda, with six years of work experience in non-profit management, fundraising, program design and advocacy. She graduated from Juniata College in the US in 2019 with a BA in Peace and Conflict studies. Liliane is one of the founders of the “Women Genocide Survivors Retreat,” a program that offers psychological and financial support to women who experienced rape during the genocide against the Tutsi. In the last two years, she has been working with Foundation Rwanda, a US-based NGO that supports youth born of genocide rape and their mothers in Rwanda. Liliane has been using her life experience of surviving the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, her education, and her work to promote peace and summon global dialogue and actions against human right abuses. She is a professional public speaker, passionate about social justice and sustainable development.
“Cinema Thinks the World” is sponsored by the Public Humanities Hub at the University of British Columbia. Through a series of public screenings, panel talks, and discussions, it aims to explore the ways in which global cinema represents and helps us to think about the world. This event is co-sponsored by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany Vancouver, UBC Human Rights Collective, the Global Reporting Centre, and UBC-V Public Humanities Hub.
Thursday, March 23, 2023
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Robson Square
800 Robson Street, Vancouver BC V6Z 3B7
FREE
6:00 PM – Doors open. Light reception with refreshments.
6:30 PM – Program begins
6:45 PM – Film screening
8:00 PM – Discussion