Paradigms of Friction: Films from and against the global dream space

In the face of planetary permacrisis and a collective urgency to imagine new forms of worldmaking, this screening programme presents four films that speak of four decades of global liberal dreams of modernization, emergent critiques of developmentalism, and the ruins of colonial legacies in search for restitution.

From the mid-twentieth century, audio-visual media constituted a key site for creating, circulating and debating ideas about an emerging and increasingly interconnected world space. In the face of planetary permacrisis and a collective urgency to imagine new forms of worldmaking, this screening programme presents four films that speak of four decades of global liberal dreams of modernization, emergent critiques of developmentalism, and the ruins of colonial legacies in search for restitution.

This is a pre-symposium event of Audio-visual Media and the Global Dream Space, which charts the role of film, photography, filmstrips, radio and video in constructing and contesting ideas of the global in the decades following World War Two to the end of the twentieth century.

Organised by David Wood (University College London/Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) and Miguel Errazu (Goldsmiths, University of London/EQZE) with the support of the UK Research & Innovation “Horizon Europe Guarantee” programme (EP/Z001919/1 and EP/Y015088/1), Centre for Visual Anthropology of Goldsmiths, University of London and SELCS-CMII/Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London.

Programme
Films will be presented by David Wood and Miguel Errazu, and will be followed by a Q&A with Molly Geidel, Erica Carter and Eiman Hussein.
All films will be screened in digital formats.

People Like Maria UK/Bolivia/Burma (Myanmar), 1958, 35mm, black and white, sound, 26:31 min. English. Digital copy: Cinemateca Boliviana.

A Letter from Colombia USA/Colombia, 1962, 35mm, black and white, sound, 9:30 min
English.

Llacquiy huata (Sad year) Bolivia, 1983–84, Super 8, colour, sound, 18:30 min.
Quechua with English subtitles.

The Dislocation of Amber Sudan, 1975, 16mm, colour, sound, 30:30 min.
Arabic, unsubtitled.