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The politics of work and the changing culture of capitalism Goldsmiths College University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, + 44 (0)20 7919 7171 This symposium, sponsored by the Anthropology and Media Departments of Goldsmiths College, will explore the documentary representation of work and the workplace against a background of the changing nature of industrial relations within a globalised economy. Contributors will trace the ways in which documentary has reflected the physical and social experience of work, as well as attitudes to work and the re-structuring of class relations across the 20th and 21st centuries. We will also look at activist filmmaking and working-class self-representation. The symposium will raise questions of the role of the filmmaker, as observer or participant; the process of filmmaking (filming within a workplace is inevitably fraught with difficulties) and the place of documentary film in reflecting the daily experience of changes in industry, the economy and class structure in the post-industrial world. Speakers include activist filmmakers, television producers and academic critics. Friday 29 May 2009 10am-5.30 The politics of work: speakers include: • Mao Mollona, maker of Steel Lives • Bert Hogenkamp, author of Deadly Parallels and Film, Television and the Left 1950- 1970. • Alan Fountain, commissioning editor at Channel Four from 1981-94 • Margaret Dickinson, author of Rogue Reels • Chris Reeves, producer of The Miners’ Tapes 1984 • Patrick Russell, senior curator (non-fiction) at the BFI National Archive • Paul Long, author of Only in the Common People: The Aesthetics of Class in Post- War Britain • Nick Gray, Deviser/Producer of ITV's Jimmy's 1987-1997 • Heather Nunn and Anita Biressi, authors of Reality Television • Rachel Morgan, producer of the Coal House BBC Wales Friday evening: Michael Channan, author of The Politics of Documentary will introduce his film Detroit: Ruin of a City. Thursday 28 May 4pm-6pm Work and politics in 21st century Brazil This session will discuss the politics of work and industrialisation in Brazil through film analysis and examples of video activism, including the media training project of ‘Amigos na Cultura’ (Volta Redonda, Brazil). We will screen some films made by children, aged between 8 and 16, of the barrio ‘Nova Primavera’’ a poor slum of Volta Redonda. The founders of the NGO and ten kids from the barrio will be present to introduce and discuss their work. Giovanni Alves (San Paulo) will talk on ‘Representation of work in Brazilian Cinema (1990-2005)’ Thursday evening: Steel Lives: the workplace in Sheffield and Volta Redonda Mao Mollona will discuss his projects in Sheffield and Brazil and introduce the screening of his film Steel Lives. This symposium is free. To register please email Patricia Holland ([log in to unmask]), and for more information contact: Mao Mollona ([log in to unmask]); Tony Dowmunt ([log in to unmask]); Patricia Holland ([log in to unmask]).