Welcome to the website for the 2024 Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Media Festival (SVAFMF), that takes place in Tampa, November 20–23. During the four-day festival, we are excited to present 46 films and 3 interactive projects that represent the range and richness of contemporary ethnographic media, internationally. Most works in this year’s festival will also be available to SVA members as part of a password-protected Online Showcase that runs from November 26 through December 10. The three interactive projects in this year’s program—Accounts and Accountability, The Earth Above: A Deep Time View of Australia's Epic History, Traversing the Therapeutic Cusp—are already accessible through their pages on this website.

Reclaiming/Decolonizing was the prevailing theme among this year’s submissions and nine films in the program work to counter colonizing narratives and histories in a variety of ways and contexts. Crossing borders was another prominent theme and seven films in the festival speak to global flows of people, including African migrants to Europe, South and Central American migrants to the US, Chinese migrants to Canada, and people who regularly travel great distances between the places they call home.

Sixteen makers with titles in this year’s program plan to attend the SVAFMF in Tampa and to participate in Q&A sessions following their screenings. We hope those of you who are coming to this year’s AAA meetings join us in celebrating these filmmakers and their work by attending the screenings and participating in the conversations that follow.

In conjunction with this year’s lively and expansive program, SVAFMF Associate Directors Anna Neumann and Mariam Abazeri and I, Jennifer Cool, have organized a round table in the AAA Annual Meeting program. The session, titled What Distinguishes Film or Media as Ethnographic? A Conversation on Multiplicities of Form and Praxis, includes anthropologists Faye Ginsburg (New York University), Anne E. Pfister (University of North Florida), and Natalie Nesvaderani (Cornell University); artist-filmmaker Kim Anno; and photojournalist and doctoral student in anthropology, Ryan Christopher Jones (Harvard University). The number and variety of works submitted to ethnographic film festivals has never been greater than it is today, which might be read as testament to the good health of anthropological media, or as an expansion so broad that any distinction of the field is washed away in the mainstreams of media proliferation. If you will be in Tampa, please join us at the round table, Thursday, November 21, from 2:30–4:00pm in the Tampa Convention Center (TCC), 101-102.

The SVA Film and Media Festival opens in Tampa on Wednesday, November 20, with the screening block “Ethnographers in the Frame,” comprised of three films grounded in reflexive inquiry, including On Behalf of the Living, a feature directed by Ton Otto, Christian Suhr, and Gary Kildea. Ton Otto will attend the screening and take part in the Q&A session that follows. On Wednesday evening, the block “In and Out of the Artist’s Studio” features four short films that showcase a variety of artistic production—from outsider artists in Cracow and an octogenarian folk artist in Puerto Rico, to a painter of the Kalighat temple tradition in Kolkata, India and a famous Haida artist from Hydaburg, Alaska. The maker of El Taller de Naldi, the final film in this block, will attend and participate in Q&A. Capping off the opening day is The Bee -A Reflection on Women, Land, and Occupation, the sole title in the first of three “Reclaiming/Decolonizing” blocks. This documentary short follows a group of feminist beekeepers on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. The film’s producer, Mark Padilla, will attend and participate in a Q&A session after the screening.

Thursday begins with “Ritual Reimagined” a screening block with three short films that explore ritual as a negotiation of past and present—the dragon dance in China reworked to bring economic and social benefit to rural China; an ethnofiction in India in which an eco-activist marries a tree; and the Jab Jab masquerade of carnival in Grenada. The latter is the subject of Dragging Chains, one of two winners for Best Student Film this year. The day continues with the blocks “Reclaiming/Decolonizing II,” “Lands Lost and Found,” and “Play.” Further and Further Away, an ethnofiction from Cambodia that received Honorable Mention for the Jean Rouch Award, plays in "Lands Lost and Found.” The day closes with a screening of Èṣù and The Universe, winner of the Best Feature award. Filmmakers will participate in Q&A sessions following the screenings of Rage Against the Archive #2 in “Reclaiming/Decolonizing II”, A Thousand Years Unfolding in “Lands Lost and Found”, and Skate Haven and Pursuing Play in “Play”.

On Friday, the program includes the screening blocks “Crossing Borders,” “Rising Waters,” “Kinship Across Borders,” and “Portraits.” #Darien, the second of two winners for Best Student Film plays in “Crossing Borders” and Sahan Shakti – Fortitude, which won Honorable Mention for Best Student Film, plays in “Portraits.” Production team members from of all three films in the “Rising Waters” block— When the Water Goes Down, Baffin Bay Deglacial Experiment, and Hanina/Homesick—will participate in a Q&A after their films screen. They include anthropologist Yasmin Moll and animator Karson Schenk who worked together on Hanina/Homesick, winner of Honorable Mention for Best Short. In “Kinship Across Borders,” one of the directors of A Part of Us will attend and participate in Q&A, as will the director of Decoupling, which won Honorable Mention for Best Feature. In “Portraits,” the director of People Call Me Jeff will participate in a Q&A session following the screening.

Saturday, the last day of the festival, opens with the block “Home Care/Health Care,” which includes Jean Rouch Award winner, Her Plot of Blue Sky. Winner of the Best Short Film, Center of Life, plays in “Powers Unequal,” the second screening block on Saturday. Anthropologist, Jeffrey Himpele, director of Shame on You! will participate in Q&A at the end of this block. The festival closes with the block “Reclaiming/Decolonizing III,” which includes El Signo Vacío, an anthropological journey through the US occupation of Puerto Rico, and Second of July: Reclaiming Our History, which recounts efforts to commemorate a pivotal moment in Brazil’s independence when popular forces, mainly Black and Indigenous, expelled the Portuguese from the city of Salvador.

Every year, the SVAFMF receives hundreds of submissions from all around the world. This year, over 150 hours of film were submitted from 43 countries. We were able to program a little over 28 hours during the four-day festival. This year’s program is comprised of work from 22 countries and territories: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Israel, Morocco, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, the Russian Federation, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The SVA Film and Media Festival is an ongoing collaborative effort. Filmmakers worked with participants and production teams to create the films and interactive works programmed in the festival. As Festival Director, I worked with Associate Directors, Anna Neumann, and Mariam Abazeri, and nearly three dozen prescreeners to prepare for the jury meetings that take place in July. Anna, Mariam, and I served on this year’s jury and were joined by Gwyneth Talley (Assistant Professor of Anthropology at The American University in Cairo) and Matthew Webb (Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology, New York University).  The Society for Visual Anthropology works with the American Anthropological Association to make it possible to host the festival at the AAA Annual Meeting. Meeting attendees view the films and engage in conversation with each other and with filmmakers and participants. The conversations continue after the festival, stimulating new collaborations and new work. We invite you to join us in this generative endeavor.

Jennifer Cool
Director, 2024 Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Media Festival