Institute Film Series

IAS FILM SERIES: CRISIS AND CRITIQUE, curated by the School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced StudyWednesday, March 6, 4 PM, Wolfensohn Hall, Institute for Advanced Study In the past decade, the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is situated between Sicily and North Africa, has been the destination of hundreds of thousands of Africans fleeing persecution, conflicts, poverty and environmental problems. It is estimated that 40,000 of them have died since 2000. In his Oscar-nominated documentary Fire At Sea, Gianfranco Rosi, who lived for one year in Lampedusa, depicts the harsh realities for migrants from the perspective of the everyday life on the island. Much of the film is narrated through the eyes of a child, Samuele, the son of a fisherman. His observations from the first half of the film contrast with the filming of the second half, which meshes Italian naval rescues with the tragic circumstances of the detention centers. Fire at Sea can thus be seen as a meditation on the fate of migrants and the unequal value of lives. It has won numerous awards including the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.This film runs 1 hour and 54 minutes.A post-screening discussion will be led by Anne McNevin, Associate Professor of Politics, New School for Social Research, and Greta Wagner, Research Associate, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, both Members in the School of Social Science. For the past four years, the School of Social Science, collaborating with the Institute Film Series, has been curating films related to the theme studied in the School during the year. For 2018–2019, the theme “Crisis and Critique,” coordinated by Professor Didier Fassin and Professor Axel Honneth, will explore, from a critical and global perspective, the ubiquitous discourse on crisis as well as the multiple dimensions of crises. The final film in the series for this term, Timbuktu, will be screened on Wednesday, April 3rd.