British Science Festival

The British Science Festival, run by the British Science Association (formerly the British Association for the Advancement of Science) is the largest celebration of science, engineering and technology in Europe. This annual festival takes place in September. It is hosted at different universities each year, and offers a week-long programme of events, workshops, talks, plays and activities.

The RAI participates in the festival each year, organising either a film screening or a special workshop for young people (Key Stage 5, 16-19 yrs).

Find out more about the festival, its programme of events, and ways to get involved by visiting: http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/

September 2010: The Meaning of Life 

For this year's festival the RAI's Film Department has organised a film screening and Q&A session with acclaimed director Hugh Brody, for his film The Meaning of Life. The film is a fascinating insight into a little documented aspect of the Canadian penal system.  Following inmates at a minimum security prison, Kwikwexwelhp, in British Columbia, it captures their thoughts and voices as they experience unique rehabilitation programmes based on First Nation spirituality and teachings.  In Meaning of Life, the men (many of whom are serving life sentences) voice their hopes for the future and talk about their past and present lives. After the screening , RAI's Film Officer Susanne Hammacher will chair the Q&A session with Hugh Brody.

Archive of RAI events at the Festival:

September 2009: Celebrating Ethnographic Film

The RAI Film Department screened the following winning films from the 11th RAI Film Festival in Leeds:

Bury the Hatchet 

Director: Aaron Walker, Year: 2009

Bury the Hatchet features three Mardi Gras Indian Big Chiefs in a dynamic portrait of the unique and endangered culture of New Orleans they represent. Descendents of runaway slaves given harbor by the Native Americans of Louisiana, these practitioners of a hundreds-year-old tradition sew elaborate costumes resembling that of the Indians, parading through the streets of the city on Mardi Gras day.   In footage collected for three years pre-Katrina and one year post, filmmaker Aaron C. Walker was allowed intimate access to this often hidden New Orleans experience.


Enet Yapai– An Ambonwari GIRL

Filmmaker: Daniela Vávrová, Year: 2008

While her fieldwork research on the women of Ambonwari, Karawari speaking people in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea, anthropologist Daniela Vávrová met Enet Yapai, at the time an eight year old girl. The film is an experiment into which the anthropologist was pulled when Enet started to interact with the camera. The resulting film is not just a documentation of Enet, her family and their daily work of processing sago flour or collecting grass for baskets and mats. It’s the result of a very close interaction between the filmmaker and the girl allowing the viewer to get insight into a fieldwork situation. The camera takes an important role in this interaction. The way Daniela Vávrová uses film as a multi-sensual expression of her experiences reflects her own role in her actual fieldwork research. (Commendation Wiley-Blackwell Student Film Prize 2009)

September 2008: Forensic Anthropology

Beauty may be only skin deep, but identity goes down to the bone. This workshop will look at how forensic anthropologists identify the sex and age of individuals from their skeletons. We will focus on the two areas of the human skeleton most useful for determining its sex: the skull and the bony pelvis. We will also look at the various ways of telling how old an individual was at death, teeth and the growth and deterioration of the skeleton. This workshop will help you understand how anthropologists go about the first stages of identifying individuals from their bones.

Workshop delivered by: Dr. Laura Bishop from Liverpool John Moores University

September 2007: Why are cats pets and pigs dinner?

Why do we scoff pigs, but not pussy cats? Why do Japanese kids keep insects as pets, when we prefer guinea pigs (considered tasty snacks in Argentina)? Why do people ride horses but not cows? Is Tinkerbell an accessory or a surrogate child? Should apes have rights? What’s wrong with factory farming? See how anthropology can help us to understand the variety of relationships between people and animals around the world and ask, ‘What do we learn about people by thinking about animals?’

Workshop delivered by: Dr Rebecca Cassidy from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

 
September 2006: Better humans or not human?

Anthropology is the study of what it means to be human across different societies, cultures and histories. Cutting-edge scientific practices like cloning, animal to human transplantation and genetic engineering pose new challenges to our understanding of what it means to be a human. Join leading anthropologists as they grapple with such mind-boggling questions as: How many animal organ-transplants can you have and still be called ‘human?’ Can, and should, humans create their own replacements? Is this the next stage in evolution? This is an interactive workshop designed to challenge your assumptions about human nature and biology!

Workshop delivered by: Dr Monica Bonaccorso from Cambridge University