[URBANTH-L] CFF: Diversity in Place: Making Documentaries on the Multicultural City

Merlyna Lim merlyn at bdg.centrin.net.id
Tue Jan 6 03:11:42 EST 2009


Diversity in Place: Making Documentaries on the Multicultural City April 
24th, 2009
http://diversityinplace.wordpress.com/

More than half of the population in the world now lives in cities, and 
the urban share of the globe will continue to increase dramatically to 
reach 70 percent by 2050. Migration, both from within and among 
societies, is a major source of urbanization, with multicultural cities 
on the rise everywhere.

Call for Documentary Film/Video Entries

In an innovative way toward mutual learning, we invite the submission of 
video and photo documentaries whose emphasis is on exploring 
multicultural cities and processes of place-making. Scholars, teachers, 
students and practitioners alike are searching for alternative methods 
to conventional data analysis and academic writing to be able to capture 
ethnic diversity and multicultural interactions in real world settings. 
The use of documentaries to show the daily practices of multiculturalism 
in the city can make several key contributions to research, teaching and 
action.

Videos not in excess of 15 minutes are requested for submission to 
screenings which will be held at the conference venue at the University 
of Hawai’i Manoa Campus on April 24th, 2009. Selections of videos to be 
included in the seminar will be made by a committee of students and 
faculty who are organizing the event. Artists, video- and filmmakers, 
researchers, writers and others interested in the relation between 
people and places and the making of multicultural cities are invited to 
join the project, participate to the seminar to discuss their ideas and 
work.

Questions, themes, topics and issues to be addressed in the 
documentaries can include, but are not limited to:

* How documentaries by recoding the presence of people of different 
origins over time can reveal ‘invisible’ minority cultures in a way that 
no other media can.
* The efforts at historic preservation of elements of the city that 
might otherwise have been overlooked but are of high cultural value to 
members of a community.
* How multiculturalism can work well in practice and thus contribute to 
a more positive attitude about and pride in the multicultural city, and 
thereby assist in fostering mutual accommodation and tolerance.
* In an age of global migration in which significant segments of 
multicultural cities do not have citizenship or are otherwise 
marginalized in the city, how documentaries can help identify issues of 
social justice.
* How multiculturalism inscribes itself into the city by everyday uses 
of urban space and lead us to a greater appreciation of the many 
different identities that make up the multicultural Cosmopolis of 
contemporary times.

By combining the reflections and findings emerging around the objectives 
of the conference, and understanding the inevitability of increasing 
diversity in urban places, this conference aims at drawing lessons and 
recommendations as to what makes the creation of ethnic spaces possible, 
and further what helps to form and shape livable cities with healthy 
intercultural relations, namely, cities as multicultural places where 
migrants’ place-making is understood and acknowledged as an inherent 
human right to the city.

This conference is sponsored by the Student Equity, Excellence and 
Diversity Initiative (SEED), University of Hawai’i at Manoa.

Submission Deadline and Guidelines

The purpose of the call is a selection of a maximum of eight 
documentaries to be screened in a one-day conference on April 24th, 2009 
at the University of Hawai’i.

Submission deadline: March 1st, 2009

Guidelines

Videos should be short — no longer than 15.00 minutes. International and 
Domestic submissions are encouraged.
The formats accepted are: DVD
Please include: Synopsis, Bio, CV and Contact Information. All 
submissions will be added to the Diversity in Place Video Library for 
possible inclusion in future projects. If included in other projects, 
artists will be contacted for permission.

Send submissions to:

Vera Zambonelli, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Saunders 
Hall, 2424 Maile Way, 96822 Honolulu HI

Travel and lodging aid:
Pending application, the Project will cover part of travel expenses and 
lodging in a Youth Hostel for participants residing outside of Honolulu. 
If traveling to Honolulu is not an option, we will arrange 
videoconferencing through skype.

For more information: diversityinplace at gmail.com
http://diversityinplace.wordpress.com/


-- 
Merlyna Lim, Ph.D.
School of Justice & Social Inquiry and
Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes
Arizona State University

mailing address:
CSPO, Arizona State University
PO Box 875603
Tempe, AZ 85287-5603
United States

Email: merlyna.lim at asu.edu
Homepage: Http://www.public.asu.edu/~mlim4
Phone: 480-727-8787
Fax: 480-727-8791





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