Visual Encounters - day 2
12.30- 13.40 Film projections
13.40-13.55 Q&A with the Filmmakers
"yan.tan.tethera" by Lilibet Williams, 35'
On the fells of the Lake District, sheep graze without being fenced in, yet they do not wander. The flocks are 'hefted' to the fell; meaning that over time, they developped an instinct to remain on this patch of land. Through intimate engagement with the process of craftsmen (both farmers and people who create with wool), we learn and reflect on the ways in which they too are hefted to the land.
"Quiet Bond" by Matei Lacatus, 35'
The Quiet Bond is an ethnographic film exploring the multispecies relationships between Romanian shepherds and the animals with whom they share their lives in the Carpathian Mountains. Through the perspectives of Marius, Doru, and Nicu, the film traces the intricate dynamics of reciprocity between human and non-human actors. It moves from moments of vigilance living with the constant threat of bears hunting the flock to the quiet, everyday gestures of care that sustain pastoral life. In doing so, it offers an intimate portrait of a way of life where survival, labour, and affection are deeply intertwined.
Combined
Yan.Tan.Tethera and Quiet Bond together trace the subtle threads that tie people to place: the hefted flocks that never stray from their land, the shepherds who live in vigilance and care, and the artisans whose work carries the texture of centuries-old traditions. Through intimate portraits of labour, reciprocity, and belonging, the films reveal a shared language of attention and endurance. A multispecies bond that anchors life to the land itself.
14.00- 15.00 Film projection
15.00-15.15 Q&A with the Filmmaker
"Perfectly Loose" by Leo Mar, 60'
What happens to dance when it crosses borders and languages, reshaping itself within another culture’s values and beliefs? In Perfectly Loose, filmmaker Leo traces the journey of Black American party dances that, since their arrival in Japan in the 1960s, have gradually evolved into a distinct form of movement: Japanese Souldance. Through intimate portraits of three generations of dancers, the film explores how groove becomes a site of cultural re-interpretation, layered with U.S.–Japanese history, aesthetic influences, and different interpretations of what Souldance is. At once personal and ethnographic, Perfectly Loose reveals the stories, values, and creative choices that shaped Japanese Souldance, reflecting on a complex process of cultural transformation.
15.45-16.55 Film projections
16.55-17.10 Q&A with the Filmmakers
"Tarab" by Pieter Wilms, 29', Egypt
Tarab is a concept in Arab music, that refers to music itself, to the total enjoyment of music and even to a state of ecstasy or transcendence provoked by music. This project is not only a quest to discover the (experimental) music scene and nightlife in Cairo, Egypt, but also a reflection on what role Tarab can play in the context of an authoritarian regime.
It’s a reflection on freedom in its broadest sense. Is it escapism? (Not so) silent resistance? Creating safe spaces? The documentary follows Ayoub, a young musician (and his band Barzakh) to dive into different music scenes. Tarab became an immersive experience in the Egyptian nightlife and somehow also makes a detour to Cairo’s notorious pigeon towers.
"Doing Less. Being More." by Eva Estanol, 38'
Eva Estanol is a Spanish/German anthropologist and actress based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Doing Less. Being More. is an experimental auto-ethnographic documentary film that marks her debut as a producer, director, and editor. For it, she spent three months with free-roaming horses in the mountains in Catalonia, Spain, where she studied horse-human (re-)encounters and how these may generate mutual well-being. In the film, she appears in a performance piece called I might as well, embodying different forms of anxiety through dance, which (re-)emerges throughout the movie intertwined with the findings of her field site: surrender, play, and trust. Contributing to the realm of Multispecies Anthropology and Affect Theater, Eva's work moves between the human and the other-than-human, the abstract and the concrete, the staged and the real, taking the audience with her to wander and to wonder what is what in each moment. Ultimately, Doing Less. Being More. is an invitation to practice its (interspecies) core themes - being present and letting go - from the very moment you press play until way beyond the movie ends.
Combined
Doing Less. Being More. and Tarab couldn’t be in more different environments (Catalonian mountains and the buzzling city of Cairo, respectively). Yet, both projects explore escapism, freedom, safe spaces, total surrender and transcendence. Doing Less. Being more. focuses on building trust with Catalonian horses and connects it to performing arts, while Tarab follows a couple of musicians in the Egyptian underground and escapes to the animal world (pigeons!)
Loes and Lovis (Saturday 8th)
17.15-18.15 Film projections
18.15-18.30 Q&A with the Filmmakers
Session: Kinship & motherhood
In Between career and care the lives of five Dutch self-employed mothers are explored. They balance the often invisible boundaries between paid work and unpaid care. Self-employment appears to provide a practical way to combine career and motherhood. Yet, as the film reveals, this freedom comes at a cost: the flexibility of self-employment blurs the line between professional and personal life, leading to a state of constant availability. In Red, white, pink we follow a group of Curaçaoan, elderly siblings in doing family tree research. When coming across several archival gaps, the protagonists - together with the filmmaker - look for alternative ways to try and make sense of the past. Through material artifacts, spatiality, roots, and oral histories they come to learn and recollect more about their ancestors, the rupturing forces of Dutch imperialism and slavery, and its ongoing impact today.
18.35-19.35 Film projections
19.35-19.50 Q&A with the Filmmakers
"Joy: A trans state of mind" by Clau Rapisarda, 27'
What happens when joy is centered at the heart of transgender and non-binary people’s life stories? In "Joy: A Trans State of Mind", visual anthropologist and director Claudia Rapisarda invites viewers to rethink gender and belonging by challenging portrayals that focus solely on queer pain. Set against the backdrop of Amsterdam as a flowing city, viewers meet a diverse array of individuals who reflect on what “being joyful” truly means to them, with each story illuminated by striking visuals and poetic reflections. Rejecting simplistic positivity, the film challenges dominant narratives by weaving together personal anecdotes, artistic expressions, and grounded anthropological research. Lyrical, visually evocative, and deeply insightful, this film invites viewers to embrace joy as a lens for understanding, and as a means for resistance.
"Visibly Kväär" by Kristina Juhani, 26'
Visibly Kväär is an ethnographic film exploring how kväär (queer) individuals in Estonia navigate the fragile space between visibility and invisibility. Set in the quiet, grey cityscape of Tartu through winter and early spring, it captures how queerness is lived, performed, and protected in everyday life. The film centres on the notion of queer opacity: a way of existing that refuses binary categories of in or out, seen or hidden.
In a post-Soviet landscape marked by conservative pushback and the spectre of far-right nationalism, visibility can be both empowering and dangerous. Visibly Kväär explores different forms of resistance and expression. From drag to boot laces to stickers on lampposts; each an assertion of presence, each a survival strategy. The film does not seek to define kväärness in Estonia, but to show how it is lived. Visibly Kväär is a reflection on what it means to exist queerly in a context that often demands silence, and to reclaim that space on one’s own terms.
Combined
In "Visibly Kväär"(26') by Kristina Juhani and "Joy: A trans state of mind" (27') by Clau Rapisarda, we challenge dominant narratives on queerness, and witness queer joy as resistance across different cultural contexts.
In a post-Soviet landscape marked by conservative pushback and the spectre of far-right nationalism, Visibly Kväär explores how kväär (queer) individuals in Estonia navigate the fragile space between visibility and invisibility.
Joy: a Trans state of mind brings us to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where viewers meet a diverse array of individuals who reflect on what “being joyful” truly means to them, challenging the portrayal of queer people that focuses on pain.
20.00-21.10 Film projections
21.10-21.25 Q&A with the Filmmakers
"Kippenhok" by Tim Lunn, 40'
Once upon a time, a piglet and a reformed gangster from Curaçao opened a squat in an abandoned dog amusement park. It floated on a man-made island in the North of Amsterdam.
In front of this raft of fortune stood a desolated place : The Green House. A pirate ship once sheltering thirty-one mavericks sailing through the cracks of a city that no longer had room for them. It was a neighbourhood like so many in Amsterdam. composed of artists, travelers repairing Mustangs, a grandparents’ fry shack, a rockabilly bar, a student block... and chickens. Alive, unruly, and doomed by a city that wanted its kind removed.
So, faced with bulldozers, the piglet, the gangster and the Green House pirates launched a coup from their burning ship. There were feathers, chicken trucks, theater plays, smoke, ashes, laughter, screeches, tears... Then nothing.
Kippenhok tells the story of this urban revolt, and why places like this matter so much to people who struggle finding a place in modern urban society. It is a farce, a tragedy, and a love song to a disappearing world.
It captures the last breath of a vanishing Amsterdam, where utopia burned bright, before being quietly paved over.
"Building with Intention" by Charlotte Mory, 30'
‘Building with Intention’ tells the story of a group of strangers coming together to build a home and a strong community in Amsterdam. They are united through common values and the dream of having a qualitative home that is affordable and long-term in the most expensive rental market in Europe. Although they came together out of necessity, they were also driven by this longing for a strong community, or as some call it, an extended family or a village within the individualistic city. They organized to live without landlords and not be at the mercy of the free market anymore.
Building a home and a community has its hopes, but also its struggles, as the inhabitants of de Nieuwe Meent are just months away from moving into their brand new home. After eight years in the making, the community is only months away from bringing their project to completion. This group created a new way where none existed. ‘Building with Intention’ invites you to wonder about the possibilities of an alternative way of living, and how a community can take power into their hands to create their ideal system, dream home, and intentional community.
Combined
“Kippenhok” and “Building with Intention” explore how Amsterdam inhabitants take ownership of their right to the city to create spaces within it that resemble them. “Kippenhok” follows the life of a group of squatters and idealists through a tale-like structure until their home disappears. “Building with Intention” follows a housing cooperative trying to bring its communal housing project to completion after eight years in the making. Both films explore how people navigate housing in the most expensive rental market in Europe. They highlight how a home is more than a roof over one’s head, but can also be a reflection of a system of values and a safe space for the ones that do not fit into the neo-liberal market.
