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Book Reviews by Laura Coppens

Films by Laura Coppens

CHILDREN OF SRIKANDI is the first film about queer women in Indonesia, the country with the world... more CHILDREN OF SRIKANDI is the first film about queer women in Indonesia, the country with the world´s largest Muslim population. Eight authentic and poetic stories are interwoven with beautiful shadow theater scenes that tell the story of Srikandi, one of the characters of the Indian Mahabharata. This collective anthology transcends the borders between documentary, fiction and experimental film.

Conference Presentations by Laura Coppens

Audiovisual anthropologists rarely go beyond anecdotal accounts when discussing the challenges th... more Audiovisual anthropologists rarely go beyond anecdotal accounts when discussing the challenges they face during the production of collaborative film projects. But would a more analytical approach to collaborative practices and the ethical dilemmas we encounter on the ground not be of great epistemological and practical benefit to our communities of practice? In this paper, I show how processes of collaborative filmmaking can be analysed ethnographically by focussing on two relatively underexplored aspects of media collaboration: the question of authorship and the ethics of payment. Reflecting on my experience of collaborative film production with Indonesian queer women and the ethical dilemmas that occurred in practice, I argue that the ideal of equal power relations between anthropologist and collaborators is impossible to achieve. The uncertainties over, what Strathern has called, the “currencies of collaboration”, and the different ways collaboration is imagined by all parties involved, makes collaborative projects a precarious, but nonetheless, rewarding undertaking. In order to give way to fresh approaches towards collaborative models of ethnographic filmmaking, we need a conceptual and methodological broadening of our long-standing collaborative practices and productively embrace crisis as much as creativity.

Papers by Laura Coppens

This book introduces camera-based practices at the intersections of artistic and ethnographic res... more This book introduces camera-based practices at the intersections of artistic and ethnographic research that critically examine the means of their own production and social embeddedness. In shared practices such as recording in the field, editing in post-production and modes of presentation, the camera is involved as an agent rather than an innocent device. How does the camera grapple with the invisible and how does it reveal what the camerawoman is unable to see? How do films, videos and photographs provide access to vulnerable knowledges and what presentation formats can extend the linearity of narration? Taking account of their own situatedness and the limits of representation, many of this book’s contributors attempt to speak with — rather than about — the other. These negotiations appearing in the featured projects open up a shared field of artistic and ethnographic inquiry, whose potential — for experiments and reflections — is far from exhausted. Contributions by Sepideh Abtahi, Shirin Barghnavard, Laura Coppens, Louis Henderson, Heidrun Holzfeind, Mina Keshavarz, Daniel Kötter, Jürgen Krusche, Bärbel Küster, Bina Elisabeth Mohn, Laura von Niederhäusern, Uriel Orlow, Barbara Preisig, Rani al Raji, Nahid Rezaei, Anette Rose, Sahar Salahshoori, Christoph Schenker, Amira Solh, Lena Maria Thüring, and Zheng Mahler

Designing Kinship through the lens of Indigenous Futurism and collaboration: In my talk, I will l... more Designing Kinship through the lens of Indigenous Futurism and collaboration: In my talk, I will look at "designing kinship" through the lens of indigenous futurisms. How do Indigenous people imagine different futures while critically addressing contemporary issues? How can we embrace a subversive mode of storytelling and representation in order to create more meaningful work and undermine dominant ideologies? How is kinship (re)imagined in Indigenous media productions? I will further suggest that socially relevant design should be based on collaboration. As creative content creators and designers, it is not only important what we envision and create, but also how we design and who we include in the process.

ENGLISCH This dissertation explores the cultural phenomenon of film activism in the context of de... more ENGLISCH This dissertation explores the cultural phenomenon of film activism in the context of democratization and Islamization in post-Suharto Indonesia. Focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) cultural producers, namely the organizers of Asia’s largest queer film festival, the Q! Film Festival, and the directors of the collaborative film anthology Anak-Anak Srikandi, it aims to illuminate an aesthetic movement that has played an active part in the construction of the new Indonesian nation since the political reformation in 1998. By demonstrating how film activists in contemporary Indonesia generate new forms of queer knowledge and enable community and alliance building based on affinity, I challenge and ask for the extension of existing notions of the political in LGBT rights activism. I argue that film activism creates inclusive critical sites of resistance where oppressive heteronormative discourses can be subverted and reconfigured in liberatory ways. Drawing...

Seit 2016 besteht im sudfranzosischen Gemenos die Teekooperative Scop-TI. Dort wird einen Tee unt... more Seit 2016 besteht im sudfranzosischen Gemenos die Teekooperative Scop-TI. Dort wird einen Tee unter dem Label 1336 produziert. Denn so viele Tage besetzte die vormalige Belegschaft die Produktionsstatten der Fralib-Teefabrik und erkampfte vom Teeunternehmen einen Neuanfang unter eigener Regie. Doch Arbeiter*innen-Selbstverwaltung passiert auf einem kapitalistisch organisierten Markt naturlich nicht ganz widerspruchsfrei. Wie sieht der Alltag in der Kooperative aus und zu welchen Herausforderungen fuhrt die erkampfte Autonomie? Diese Fragen hat sich auch die Filmemacherin Laura Coppens gestellt und den Alltag in der Teefabrik von Scop-TI zwei Jahre lang mit der Kamera begleitet. Radio Corax hat mit Laura Coppens im Rahmen der DOK Leipzig uber ihren Film und die Herausforderungen der Selbstverwaltung gesprochen.

Journal des anthropologues, 2012

Ethnoscripts, Apr 21, 2015

CHILDREN OF SRIKANDI is the first film about queer women in Indonesia, the country with the world... more CHILDREN OF SRIKANDI is the first film about queer women in Indonesia, the country with the world´s largest Muslim population. Eight authentic and poetic stories are interwoven with beautiful shadow theater scenes that tell the story of Srikandi, one of the characters of the Indian Mahabharata. This collective anthology transcends the borders between documentary, fiction and experimental film.

Audiovisual anthropologists rarely go beyond anecdotal accounts when discussing the challenges th... more Audiovisual anthropologists rarely go beyond anecdotal accounts when discussing the challenges they face during the production of collaborative film projects. But would a more analytical approach to collaborative practices and the ethical dilemmas we encounter on the ground not be of great epistemological and practical benefit to our communities of practice? In this paper, I show how processes of collaborative filmmaking can be analysed ethnographically by focussing on two relatively underexplored aspects of media collaboration: the question of authorship and the ethics of payment. Reflecting on my experience of collaborative film production with Indonesian queer women and the ethical dilemmas that occurred in practice, I argue that the ideal of equal power relations between anthropologist and collaborators is impossible to achieve. The uncertainties over, what Strathern has called, the “currencies of collaboration”, and the different ways collaboration is imagined by all parties involved, makes collaborative projects a precarious, but nonetheless, rewarding undertaking. In order to give way to fresh approaches towards collaborative models of ethnographic filmmaking, we need a conceptual and methodological broadening of our long-standing collaborative practices and productively embrace crisis as much as creativity.

This book introduces camera-based practices at the intersections of artistic and ethnographic res... more This book introduces camera-based practices at the intersections of artistic and ethnographic research that critically examine the means of their own production and social embeddedness. In shared practices such as recording in the field, editing in post-production and modes of presentation, the camera is involved as an agent rather than an innocent device. How does the camera grapple with the invisible and how does it reveal what the camerawoman is unable to see? How do films, videos and photographs provide access to vulnerable knowledges and what presentation formats can extend the linearity of narration? Taking account of their own situatedness and the limits of representation, many of this book’s contributors attempt to speak with — rather than about — the other. These negotiations appearing in the featured projects open up a shared field of artistic and ethnographic inquiry, whose potential — for experiments and reflections — is far from exhausted. Contributions by Sepideh Abtahi, Shirin Barghnavard, Laura Coppens, Louis Henderson, Heidrun Holzfeind, Mina Keshavarz, Daniel Kötter, Jürgen Krusche, Bärbel Küster, Bina Elisabeth Mohn, Laura von Niederhäusern, Uriel Orlow, Barbara Preisig, Rani al Raji, Nahid Rezaei, Anette Rose, Sahar Salahshoori, Christoph Schenker, Amira Solh, Lena Maria Thüring, and Zheng Mahler

Designing Kinship through the lens of Indigenous Futurism and collaboration: In my talk, I will l... more Designing Kinship through the lens of Indigenous Futurism and collaboration: In my talk, I will look at "designing kinship" through the lens of indigenous futurisms. How do Indigenous people imagine different futures while critically addressing contemporary issues? How can we embrace a subversive mode of storytelling and representation in order to create more meaningful work and undermine dominant ideologies? How is kinship (re)imagined in Indigenous media productions? I will further suggest that socially relevant design should be based on collaboration. As creative content creators and designers, it is not only important what we envision and create, but also how we design and who we include in the process.

ENGLISCH This dissertation explores the cultural phenomenon of film activism in the context of de... more ENGLISCH This dissertation explores the cultural phenomenon of film activism in the context of democratization and Islamization in post-Suharto Indonesia. Focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) cultural producers, namely the organizers of Asia’s largest queer film festival, the Q! Film Festival, and the directors of the collaborative film anthology Anak-Anak Srikandi, it aims to illuminate an aesthetic movement that has played an active part in the construction of the new Indonesian nation since the political reformation in 1998. By demonstrating how film activists in contemporary Indonesia generate new forms of queer knowledge and enable community and alliance building based on affinity, I challenge and ask for the extension of existing notions of the political in LGBT rights activism. I argue that film activism creates inclusive critical sites of resistance where oppressive heteronormative discourses can be subverted and reconfigured in liberatory ways. Drawing...

Seit 2016 besteht im sudfranzosischen Gemenos die Teekooperative Scop-TI. Dort wird einen Tee unt... more Seit 2016 besteht im sudfranzosischen Gemenos die Teekooperative Scop-TI. Dort wird einen Tee unter dem Label 1336 produziert. Denn so viele Tage besetzte die vormalige Belegschaft die Produktionsstatten der Fralib-Teefabrik und erkampfte vom Teeunternehmen einen Neuanfang unter eigener Regie. Doch Arbeiter*innen-Selbstverwaltung passiert auf einem kapitalistisch organisierten Markt naturlich nicht ganz widerspruchsfrei. Wie sieht der Alltag in der Kooperative aus und zu welchen Herausforderungen fuhrt die erkampfte Autonomie? Diese Fragen hat sich auch die Filmemacherin Laura Coppens gestellt und den Alltag in der Teefabrik von Scop-TI zwei Jahre lang mit der Kamera begleitet. Radio Corax hat mit Laura Coppens im Rahmen der DOK Leipzig uber ihren Film und die Herausforderungen der Selbstverwaltung gesprochen.

Journal des anthropologues, 2012

Ethnoscripts, Apr 21, 2015

Asian Hot Shots: Indonesian Cinema, Schuren, …, 2009