Join us for a panel discussion with renowned Sri Lankan Italian director Suranga D. Katugampala to explore his latest feature film Still Here (2023). Shot between Colombo and Milan, the film bridges genres of neo-noir, documentary, and video art, and brings together a group of artists into multidisciplinary experimentation practices. In the film, reality and fantasy merge, throwing the spatial coordinates of migration into question. We will show brief excerpts from the film and respond to the themes of migration and transnational communities which emerge from it with expert discussants Dr Shamara Wettimuny and Prof Derek Duncan. The discussion will be moderated by Prof Emma Bond who is also the event co-organiser.
A drinks reception will follow the panel discussion.
Speakers:
Suranga D. Katugampala (film director) grew up in two different countries (Sri Lanka, Italy), cultivating the desire to see the world from other points of view. He fell in love with auteur cinema and since graduating in multimedia studies he started to experiment with video and photography. He is the director of two feature films: Per un figlio (For a Son) and Still Here.
Shamara Wettimuny is Junior Research Fellow in History at the Queen’s College, University of Oxford. Her research interests are broadly in global and Sri Lankan history. Her doctoral research critically re-examined the deeper roots of ethno-religious violence between Sinhalese and Moors and presented a historical narrative of cycles of intolerance and victimisation. Her new project focuses on shifting Islamic identities in Sri Lanka during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Derek Duncan is Professor of Italian at the University of St Andrews. His research and teaching focus on intersections of sexuality/gender and of race/ethnicity in modern Italian culture which he explores through the interdisciplinary frameworks of queer and critical race theory. He is the author of multiple key texts in Italian postcolonial studies, film studies, and transnational cultures.
Emma Bond is Professor of Italian and Comparative Studies at the University of Oxford. She has published widely on migration literature and transnational cultures in Italy, including two monographs and six co-edited volumes. Her current research explores the legacies of colonialism and empire in visual and material cultures and in museums.
Questions:
migrationoxford@compas.ox.ac.uk
