GRAMNet Film Series 2019/2020

Screening brochure

Ambitions. Devoted. Brave. Resilient. Adaptable. Indestructible. These are just a few of the qualities that the people in the films that you are about to watch as part of GRAMNet/Bemis Film Series 2019/2020 embody. Regardless of age and of where they live, the protagonists of these films work incredibly hard to find their way, to help others and to make sense of their world.

The series begins with the stories of several young people in the Sahrawi Refugee Camps in the Sahara Desert (Hamada) – as they begin their adult lives – looking for jobs, facing responsibilities and finding their path. With humour, tenacity and resilience, they find creative ways to get out of tricky situations.

Destierros takes us to a different continent and to the suspenseful and often dangerous journey that many migrants from Latin American countries take when they try to cross the border to the United States. Beyond the journey itself, there’s also the labour of managing expectations and overcoming failure.

Above all, this year’s series illustrates the labour of living and integrating into another place, the sweat and tears that seem necessary requirements for not being considered the ‘Other’. Both Compulsory Figures and Khartoum Offside show how young girls and woman constantly push themselves to perform the sports that they love and hate at the same time, which can be the key to them being accepted and integrated into new societies.

This series also reveals the work of keeping memory, tradition and language alive. The experimental film Four Parts of a Folding Screen, the animation The Tower and Those Who Come, Will Hear emphasise the importance of archives, oral history and memory across generations.

Finally, this series is inspired by the work of activists (Of Love & Law) and by the brave filmmakers who question everything and struggle to bring these stories to the big screen. We hope that the GRAMNet/BEMIS Film Series continues to be a space for showcasing emerging talent from all over the world and for broadening our views and experience of cinema.

GRAMNet is very grateful for the generous support we receive from our partners, sponsors, distributors and directors so that we can keep our film series free and open to all. Developing this work with our long- standing partners in the film series BEMIS, the Equality and Diversity Unit at the University of Glasgow, Iona Community and UNESCO Chair for Refugee Integration through Languages and Arts, we are also delighted to form new partnerships with organisations including lberoDocs and Document Human Rights Film Festival.

Screenings are accompanied by panel discussions and Q&As for everyone to share their views and thoughts in a friendly and supportive atmosphere. The audience is warmly invited to congregate in the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) Cafe following each screening to continue our information discussions.

Sponsored by GRAMNet, BEMIS and the Iona Community with the support of the Equality and Diversity Unit and UNESCO-RILA, University of Glasgow, IberoDocs and Document Human Rights Film Festival.

View the full series programme (PDF)

Screenings