World Films for Equal Dignity (WFilmsED)


Tina Ottman, Director and Coordinator

 

Dharm P. S. Bhawuk, Director and Coordinator

List of other people contributing

Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS) is primarily grounded in academic work. However, we wish to bring academic work into "real life" as well. Our research focuses on topics such as dignity (with humiliation as its violation), or, more precisely, on respect for equal dignity for all human beings in the world. This is not only our research topic, however, but also our core value, in line with Article 1 of the Human Rights Declaration that states that every human being is born with equal dignity (that ought not be humiliated). We agree with Professor Shibley Telhami, who advocates the building of bridges from academia as follows, "I have always believed that good scholarship can be relevant and consequential for public policy. It is possible to affect public policy without being an advocate; to be passionate about peace without losing analytical rigor; to be moved by what is just while conceding that no one has a monopoly on justice." We would like to add that we believe that good scholarship can be relevant and consequential not only for public policy, but for raising awareness in general.


Professor Dharm Bhawuk describes the World Films for Equal Dignity project as follows:
We start sharing the story of films, and how humiliation is depicted in the films we have collected, and how the characters deal with it, or live with it. From a research perspective, we explore what topics are covered in the films in a particularly country and why, and then we examine international similarities and differences. We follow the "emic + etic" approach that cross-cultural psychologists recommend. The "emic" refers to the culture-specific aspects, and the within country analysis could highlight it. The "etic" refers to the culture-general or universal concepts, and the analysis of the films between or across countries helps us identify common themes. Based on the findings, we envisage developing an intervention strategy. We plan to write in popular press complementing the film makers, and thus encouraging others to fund such films in future.
The aim is to collect the following coordinates of each film:
•  film title
•  duration (minutes)
•  producer
•  director
•  actors
•  theme
•  abstract
•  key words for search





List of people contributing


List of films that we have identified so far

Filmdays



Links


2007 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan

Image, Identity and Culture in Narrative and Documentary Cinema
Visual and narrative strategies in the representation of culture and identity
A Postgraduate Film Studies Symposium
March 30th/ 31st 2007

Cinemas, Identities and Beyond: St. Andrews-Glasgow Postgraduate Conference
University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 10 November 2006
The exploration of identity is one of the most contested and thought-provoking contemporary subjects. As a dominant and penetrating cultural form, cinema conditions and shapes the manner in which we interpret issues of identity and space. Our understanding of representation, narrative conventions, film form, industry issues and a host of other socio-political factors related to cultural production and consumption powerfully define our ever changing ideas of identity.

Cicada Films
Cicada is an award-winning, London-based, international production company, specialising in quality television documentaries.

Earth Report by Television Trust for the Environment (TVE)
Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) is an independent, non-profit organisation, which promotes global awareness of the environment, development, human rights and health issues through the platforms of broadcast television and other audio-visual media. A UK-registered charity, TVE fulfils an international remit in association with offices and networks of partner organisations in Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean.
TVE works above all to promote informed debate, public awareness and practical solutions to the growing challenges of human development.
TVE was set up in 1984 with the support of WWF, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Central Television (now part of ITV).