Special documentary event in Gólya by Artemisszió Foundation and Gólya Two films – one topic-four people

When? June 7, 2015. 6-9 pm

Hol? Auróra ( Budapest VIII. ker. Auróra utca 11.)

About the films

Jew Man Business

by Maya Christensen, Mats Utas and Christian Vium, 40’ in English and Krio, with English subtitle

What are the prospects for the young and poor in African cities? This documentary, entitled Jew Man Business is filmed in Freetown, the capital of one of the world’s poorest countries, Sierra Leone. Here the urban surroundings afford ex-combatants relative anonymity and create economic opportunities.

Survival Game

Denis Ramos and Diana Szanto, 52’, in English and Krio, with Hungarian subtitle

Since the end of the civil war in 2002, Sierra Leone has gone through an apparently successful democratisation process, guided by international organisations. The film shows how development looks like from bellow, from the perspective of the poor.

After the films discussion with:

Mats Utas, anthropologist, Nordic Africa Institute, senior lecturer at Uppsala University

Diana Szanto, anthropologist, Artemisszio Foundation

Attila Melegh, sociologist, Karl Polányi Center

Tessza Udvarhelyi, anthropologist, School of Public Life

Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest places. It is a small country in West Africa. Between 1991 and 2002 it was ravaged by a brutal civil war triggered by inequalities, poverty and absence of the state. After the war disabled beggars, street vendors and ex-combatants try to survive in the streets of Freetown, the capital. They are connected by the conviction that they have the right to a better life.

What are the lessons to be drawn from this remote example? What are the similarities and differences in the forms of oppression in Eastern Europe and West-Africa? What are the chances of resistance? What are the sources of hope?