We are kicking off the first of the series with ‘Who is Winning the Culture Wars?’
It has been said that for the last 30 years, the political right won all the arguments about economics and the political left won all the arguments about culture. But in the last few years, it seems that liberals are losing ground across the West, as more nationalistic and socially conservative governments come to power. At the same time, hardly a day passes without a new front being opened in what have become known as ‘the culture wars’, whether it be about the nature (or even existence) of institutional racism; the repatriation of museum pieces; the removal of statues of Britain’s imperial heroes; trans rights, or promotion of diversity as an end in its self. The fierce arguments over safe spaces; free speech; and the right not to be offended are no longer confined to American campuses.
Critics of this new identity politics charge it with the very intolerance and illiberalism it purports to oppose; its advocates argue that they are fighting deeply ingrained prejudice and correcting historic injustice. But who is right?
Chair
Toby Mundy is Executive Director of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. In 2000 he founded Atlantic Books, where he was Chief Executive and Publisher until 2014, when he left to start literary agency TMA Limited. He is also chair of trustees of Wimbledon BookFest, a registered charity; a partner at the management and communications consultancy Jericho Chambers and chair of the advisory board of The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award.
Speakers
Munira Mirza is an adviser on arts and philanthropy. She was deputy mayor for education and culture at the Greater London Authority. She has worked for a range of cultural and charitable organisations including the Royal Society of Arts, the independent think tank Policy Exchange, and Tate. In 2009 she completed her PhD in sociology at the University of Kent. She has written extensively about cultural and social policy in the UK. Munira is a member of the boards of the Royal Opera House.
Afua Hirsch is an author, journalist and broadcaster. She was the Guardian correspondent for West Africa, the social affairs editor for Sky News, and practised law as a human rights barrister. Her first book, Brit(ish) is about Britishness and identity, and will be published in February 2018 by Jonathan Cape.
EU-27 governments and the Brussels institutions have been tough on the bloc’s negotiating position and are now waiting to hear what the UK wants. Meanwhile official reaction on the continent to the high court’s ruling on article 50 has been quiet, with national governments regarding the decision as an internal matter.
We will be joined by EU correspondents and European journalists to discuss European reactions to Brexit negotiations and explore how UK press coverage matches up to sentiments on the continent.
Chaired by Simon Wilson, Editor, BBC Europe Bureau
Speakers (full panel announced soon)
Matthew Holehouse is a journalist covering Brexit for MLex, the news agency specializing in global regulatory risk. He was previously Brussels Correspondent and Political Correspondent at the Daily Telegraph.
Joris Luyendijk is a Dutch journalist and author of Swimming with Sharks: My Journey Into the World of the Bankers. He used to write the Guardian‘s Banking Blog, which looked at the world of finance from an anthropological perspective.
Alex Barker is Brussels Bureau Chief for the Financial Times
Sonia Stolper is UK and Ireland Correspondent for Libération.
]]>From fashion magazines to social networking, the ‘Mipsterz’ to the ‘Haloodies’, halal internet dating to Muslim boy bands, Generation M are making their mark. Shelina Janmohamed, award-winning author and leading voice on Muslim youth, investigates this growing cultural phenomenon at a time when understanding the mindset of young Muslims is critical. While responses to terrorism and Islamic extremism lead to discourse polarising Islam and the West, these young leaders are countering stereotypical representations and flexing their economic muscles.
We will be joined by a panel of Generation M individuals defying the caricatures of Islam presented in mainstream media; the young entrepreneurs, journalists, inventors and activists who are building new global identities in a changing and interconnected world.
Hosted by author Shelina Janmohamed. Shelina is author of Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World (I.B.Tauris, 2016) and Love in a Headscarf (Aurum Press, 2014). An established commentator on Muslim social and religious trends, she has written for the Guardian, the National and the BBC. She is also vice president of Ogilvy Noor, the world’s first bespoke Islamic Branding practice.
Speakers
Aisha Gani (@aishagani) is a UK Senior Reporter for BuzzFeed News. She has written on issues from fake news, to interviewing the Muslim comedian who sat next to Donald Trump’s son on a plane, and has reported from France on the burkini ban and the refugee crisis in Europe. She was previously a news reporter at the Guardian. She is based in London.
Sheila Na’imah Nortley is an award winning film writer and producer. Starting out with her first short film in 2003, she set up her own production company and in 2009 her neo-noir short film The Hydra scooped Best Film at the BFM awards at the British Film Institute. Her acclaimed portfolio has won her debut screenings at The Ritzy in Brixton, Warner Bros, Google Headquarters and BAFTA as well as the ABFF in Miami where she won awards from Spike Lee for Best Film and Best Director. She recently won the Women of the Future Award for Arts and Culture. She is in preproduction of her feature film The Strangers.
Miqdaad Versi is the media spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain, as well as its Assistant Secretary General. He is a passionate community activist and works on projects including local interfaith engagement, the recent #VisitMyMosque campaign and mosque project The Salaam Centre that aims to be a community hub as well as faith centre. His recent work has included a campaign to hold media outlets accountable for their inaccuracies in reporting news about Muslims.
]]>Syrian radio host Obaidah Zytoon and her friends are caught up in the euphoria of the 2011 Arab Spring. Cameras in hand, these artists and activists take to the streets to protest Bashar al-Assad. But as they film over the next several years, their hopes for a better future are tested by violence, imprisonment and death.
Working with acclaimed Danish director Andreas Dalsgaard, the film’s protagonists narrate and edit years of footage into a deeply moving personal narrative. Rather than dwelling on the violence of the conflict, The War Show focuses on what the revolution meant to individual people. Zytoon and her friends share similar aspirations to young people all over the world: to live free of repression.
Yet their dreams of revolution turn into the reality of civil war. Zytoon takes road trips to the centre of rebellion in Homs, to her hometown Zabadani near Lebanon, and to the north of Syria. Through poignant first-person narration, The War Show awakens audiences to understand how the conflict in Syria has impacted everyday people.
Host:
Razia Iqbal has worked for BBC news for more than 25 years. She presents Newshour on the BBC World Service and the World Tonight on Radio 4. She was the arts correspondent for a decade, and has worked as a reporter on both television and radio.
Directed by: Andreas Daslgaard, Obaidah Zytoon
Produced by: Miriam Nørgaard, Alaa Hassan
Country: Denmark
Year: 2016
Runtime: 100 mins
The Frontline Club and Theatre Royal Plymouth in association with Sputnik Theatre present four nights of new Russian drama. Featuring exciting and topical plays by British theatre directors and cast – translated into English by Sputnik’s artistic director Noah Birksted-Breen. Each evening will touch upon various aspects of life in Russia covering an array of issues, from the clampdown on theatre and freedom of speech to growing social tensions and immigration.
Doctor by Elena Isaeva
Running time: 55 mins
A surprising, sometimes shocking, often funny and moving play about contemporary medicine in rural Russia. Based on a real-life testimony taken from a Russian doctor, it is also a touching personal portrait of an individual coping as best they can in difficult circumstances.
Doctor is one of the longest running productions of Teatr.doc, the renowned studio theatre in Moscow which was supported by Tom Stoppard amongst other prominent British voices when facing closure in 2014.
This reading will be followed by a post-show discussion with artistic director of Teatr.doc, Elena Gremina, in conversation with senior international correspondent for The Guardian, Luke Harding.
The talk will be interpreted for Elena Gremina (Russian<>English) by Alice Terekhova, an independent theatre practitioner and a professional interpreter working across a variety of arts: opera, theatre, new writing, performance art, independent film and education. Terekhova assisted some of the most inspirational directors including: Tom Stoppard, Mark Ravenhill, Natalya Vorozhbit, Dmitry Krymov and many others.
]]>The Frontline Club and Theatre Royal Plymouth in association with Sputnik Theatre present four nights of new Russian drama. Featuring exciting and topical plays by British theatre directors and cast – translated into English by Sputnik’s artistic director Noah Birksted-Breen. Each evening will touch upon various aspects of life in Russia covering an array of issues, from the clampdown on theatre and freedom of speech to growing social tensions and immigration.
The War Hasn’t Yet Started by Mikhail Durnenkov
This play was originally commissioned by A Play, A Pie and A Pint theatre company in Glasgow.
Running time: 55 mins
Does war amount to a father threatening to burn down a brand new house built for him by his son, simply to avoid the humiliation of being dependent? Is war what happens when a wife is obedient to her violent but devoted husband? Durnenkov depicts the dehumanising effects of living in a society on the brink of all-out war.
Stylistically reminiscent of the formal experimentation of Caryl Churchill or Martin Crimp, The War Hasn’t Yet Started is a dark but often hilarious play about where war really lurks – in our homes, on our streets, in our hearts.
This reading will be followed by a post-show discussion chaired by Lucy Ash, an award winning presenter of foreign affairs documentaries at the BBC. Ash spent four years in Moscow in the 90s, is a frequent visitor to Russia and is passionate about theatre’s ability to hold up a mirror to society.
The panel:
Bridget Kendall MBE is BBC’s award winning Diplomatic Correspondent, reporting and analysing major global news events, with a particular interest in Russia.
As Diplomatic Correspondent, Bridget Kendall has been covering major international events for the BBC since1998. Before that she was Washington Correspondent and Moscow Correspondent. She has a particular expertise in Russia and East/West relations and covered the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as conflicts in Kosovo, Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Ukraine and now Syria.
She is also presenter of BBC radio’s flagship discussion programme on global ideas, The Forum.
Noah Birksted-Breen founded and runs Sputnik Theatre Company which is dedicated to bringing contemporary Russian plays to the UK. Sputnik has premiered eight new Russian plays in the UK in their first English language translations. Recently, Birksted-Breen co-authored with Christine Bacon, a play about independent journalism, On the Record, which was produced by Ice & Fire theatre company at the Arcola Theatre. Previously, Birksted-Breen won a Channel 4 Theatre Directors’ Award in 2006 and was attached as Resident Director to Hampstead Theatre.
Simon Stokes is the Artistic Director of Theatre Royal Plymouth. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has directed abroad in Germany, Switzerland, Israel and The USA. Stokes’ most prominent work includes Kiss Of The Spiderwoman with Simon Callow and Mark Rylance, When I Was A Girl I Used To Scream And Shout with Julie Walters, Geraldine James and Dawn French; and Slip Of The Tongue with Ingeborge Dapkunaite and John Malkovich. Stokes is currently directing James Graham’s new play, Monster, Raving, Loony.
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On Monday 16 November, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of the documentary Yallah! Underground, a vibrant look at a diverse groups of Arab artists and musicians using culture to challenge the status quo. The film is set in the years prior to and during the Arab spring, and focuses on artists from Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. The film was followed by a Q&A with director Farid Eslam, via Skype.
The film puts its soundtrack at the forefront, and uses music to weave its way through different Arab cities, swiftly moving its focus between the individual artists’ discussions over the struggle between individuality and tradition. Freedom of expression and thought are common themes that are mentioned regularly, particularly in relation to the events of Tahrir Square in Egypt.
Eslam had spent a lot of time in the Middle East, mostly filming on commercial projects, and explained that his motivation for this project came from the desire to provide a different presentation of Arabs. He commented that Western perspective often sees Arabs being “closely connected to violence, frustration, aggression, which is only a fraction of the reality.”
“Most people want the same thing all over the world: to live in peace, freedom and to raise their families. It’s important to remind people and ourselves from time to time that we’re talking about just normal people, and it’s sad that we live in a time where we actually have to be reminded of this simple fact and simple truth.”
One audience member was curious about the absence of Syria from the film, considering its presence of underground artists. Eslam explained that he was keen to include Syria, and had tried to feature artists in Damascus and Jeddah. However, due to the escalation of the situation, “it became impossible.” Eslam did manage to film some Syrian artists in the Golan Heights, but this was not included in the film.
Eslam explained that he was able to film such a diverse group of people partly due to limited and sporadic funding, but also due to a large network of artists to draw from. Most of the artists filmed did not make it into the film; the total footage for the project was extensive, and probably enough to “make five more films.”
Will be discovering Egyptian hip hop today after watching Farid Eslam's 'Yallah! Underground' @frontlineclub last night. What a great film!
— Josephine Casserly (@JoCasserly) November 17, 2015
He found it very easy to meet artists: “Basically, you meet one artist and he points you to ten new ones.”
While a lot of his research was carried out on social media, he was also able to spend a lot of time talking directly to artists and people connected with the alternative scene.
Information about Yallah! Underground can be found on the film’s website and Facebook page. Yallah! Underground will have its first screening in an Arab country next month in Dubai.
]]>The festival is divided into two halves: ‘Documenting Ukraine: Theatre’ (14–15 May 2015) features two live performances at GRAD: Gallery for Russian Arts and Design, before ‘Documenting Ukraine: Cinema’ (16–17 May 2015) sees a full program of contemporary Ukrainian documentary films at Frontline Club.
Documenting Ukraine, two days of cinema and debate presents nine film screenings with Q&A discussions and special panels exploring the realities of modern Ukraine and the depth of Ukrainian cinema.
Day passes are available for £14, as well as full weekend passes for £22. Booking through this page reserves you a ticket for Sunday’s events.
Sunday May 17 programme:
14:00 UK Premiere: The Donetsk People’s Republic, Or The Curious Tale of the Handmade Country (53’) plus discussion
This is an unfiltered, fly-on-the-wall account of how the Donetsk People’s Republic came into being, filmed with astonishing access from May to April 2014, followed by a discussion with Anthony Butts, Nataliya Gumenyuk, Andrew Wilson, and Orysia Lutsevych.
16:30 UK Premiere: Crepuscule + Q&A
Screening followed by Q&A with director Valentyn Vasyanovych.
Valentyn Vasyanovych joins us to present his acclaimed documentary about a mother and son living in a remote province of Ukraine.
18.30 The Eleventh Year with international premiere of live score by Anton Baibakov
Dziga Vertov’s silent documentary, digitally remastered with a live score performed by Anton Baibakov including the UK premiere of the film’s recently discovered animation trailer.
@OpenCityDocs
Documenting Ukraine is a four-day umbrella festival organised by Open City Docs, Frontline Club and GRAD, bringing Ukraine’s leading names in documentary cinema and theatre to London this May.
The festival is divided into two halves: ‘Documenting Ukraine: Theatre’ (14–15 May 2015) features two live performances at GRAD: Gallery for Russian Arts and Design, and ‘Documenting Ukraine: Cinema’ (16–17 May 2015) sees a full program of contemporary Ukrainian documentary films at Frontline Club.
Documenting Ukraine: Two Days of Cinema and Debate presents nine film screenings with Q&A discussions and special panels exploring the realities of modern Ukraine and the depth of Ukrainian cinema.
In collaboration with our partners, Open Democracy Russia and DocudaysUA, we are delighted to give audiences the chance to see a rich programme of Ukrainian documentaries rarely presented in UK cinemas, from a live performance of Dziga Vertov’s silent 1928 documentary The Eleventh Year, to a work-in-progress screening of Askold Kurov’s urgent film about the imprisonment of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov.
The weekend’s events bring together Ukrainian and British filmmakers and experts to explore the intersection of cinema, culture and politics in Ukraine, with films and discussions examining the Maidan protests that brought about the downfall of President Yanukovych’s regime in 2014 and recent conflict in Donbass, as well as reflecting on Ukraine’s longer history and relationship with the Soviet Union.
We are extremely grateful to the O’NEILL CONSULTANCY for their generous support which has made this event possible.
Day passes are available for £14 as well as full weekend passes for £22. The festival is free for Frontline Club members.
Booking through this page reserves you a full weekend pass. See the links below for the programmes by day.
@OpenCityDocs
This event is organised by Lacuna: A Writing Wrongs Project.
‘What I have most wanted to do . . . is to make political writing into an art.’ – George Orwell
Chaired by Maureen Freely, English Pen president, the panel will discuss the role of the arts in promoting human rights and social justice issues.
Freely joins Lacuna editor Andrew Williams, IceandFire artistic director Christine Bacon, Keats House poet Laila Sumpton and photographer and disability rights campaigner Lesley McIntyre in a discussion about creativity with a social and political purpose.
The event will be a celebration of the role of the arts in promoting human rights and exposing injustices and will feature a performance from IceandFire’s upcoming production, The Island Nation, on the Sri Lankan Civil War and a short film on Lesley Mcintyre’s work.
This event is organised by Lacuna: A Writing Wrongs Project. A new online, subscription-free magazine that aims to challenge indifference to the suffering of others and promote human rights through literature, art, photography and creative multimedia content.
Photograph Lesley McIntyre. A young woman’s hand is cut while she protests outside the Greenham Common military airbase, where America stored nuclear weapons from 1983 until 1991. An American soldier tries to free her hand where it is caught in the barbed wire perimeter fence.
www.lacuna.org.uk / @lacunamagazine
