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reader-list Digest, Vol 79, Issue 9

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Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:47:21 -0800

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Today's Topics:

   1. Persistence Resistance 2010 (Magic Lantern Foundation)
   2. www.tank.tv : Now Showing Paul McCarthy,  until 29th Feb
      (tank.tv press)
   3. [Announcements] SAA, JNU: talk by Bhaskar Sarkar (Iram Ghufran)
   4. [Announcements] netEX: calls & deadlines -->February 2010
      ([netEX])
   5. Free Counselling Sessions in Bangalore (Chandni Parekh)
   6. Gita Sahgal suspended by Amnesty Intnl (Kshmendra Kaul)
--- Begin Message ---
Dear Friends

We are happy to announce Persistence Resistance  2010: a festival of
contemporary political films to be held from 25th- 27th February 2010 at the
India International Centre, New Delhi.

The festival will screen a large number of films using multiple screening
and viewing practices: films will be screened in auditoriums, in the
outdoors, in simulated video parlours, at multi-hub video library and as
installations. 

We will send a detailed programme, screening schedule etc as they firm up.
Meanwhile, we would be happy if you could block your dates.

We look forward to your presence at the festival. Please also circulate this
information among those who might be interested to attend or write about the
festival.

With Best Wishes
MLF Festival Team
-- 
Magic Lantern Foundation
J-1881, Chittaranjan Park
New Delhi - 110 019
Ph:(011) 26273244; 41605239
email: <underconstruct...@magiclanternfoundation.org>,
<magiclantern.foundat...@gmail.com>
Website: www.magiclanternfoundation.org




--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
*www.tank.tv: Now Showing Paul McCarthy, until 29th Feb
*

"The Father Begat the Son
The Son Begat the Father"
Paul McCarthy,* Family Tyranny*.

Throughout February tank.tv will have the pleasure of exhibiting two works
by Paul McCarthy.

*Family Tyranny* & *Cultural Soup* were cut from two days of taped
performance at a community television studio in 1987. Featuring McCarthy's
fellow artist Mike Kelley, the videos are disturbing tableaux of familial
horror, steeped in the stomach turning abjection that characterises the
artist's now renowned body of work.

Performed within a barely credible domestic set the format and characters in
the videos enact several tropes of televised entertainment  - the unruly
teenager (as Mike Kelley attempts an escape through a window-like aperture)
and the ‘how-to’ format of the cooking or DIY programme. The characters,
just like the set, sit on the very edge of plausibility whilst the props
also take on a life of their own at the border between representation and
reality. It is this juncture, between fact and fiction, that McCarthy
occupies in order to examine the dark fictions of cultural convention.

Rather than produce these works as performance in 1987 McCarthy used that
very contemporary tool of representation – video – to situate *Family
Tyranny *and *Cultural Soup* closer to the domestic sphere than an ephemeral
art event would have allowed. tank.tv is pleased to be able to re-situate
this work once again within the context of an online community that
experiences broadcast media in a way that could not previously have been
imagined.

This show is held in conjunction with a screening of McCarthy's *Contemporary
Cure All *and* **F-Fort* on the 6th February at 7pm in Tate Modern's Starr
Auditorium. Book your tickets early through the Tate box office.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 ------------------------------
www.tank.tv <http://tank.tv/>
www.tank.tv/freshmoves.htm


-- 
-- 
- - - - - - - - - - - -

tank.tv
2nd Floor
Princess House
50 - 60 Eastcastle Street
London
W1W 8EA

pr...@tank.tv
T: +44 (0)207323 3475
F: +44 (0)207631 4280

http://www.tank.tv

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Fresh Moves - Out now! Order your copy on www.tank.tv

"A significant archive of creative practices in the early years of
twenty-first century England"
Tyler Coburn, Tomorrow Unlimited

---

tank.tv is an inspirational showcase for innovative work in film and
video. Dedicated to exhibiting and promoting emerging and established
international artists, www.tank.tv acts as a major online gallery and
archive for video art. A platform for contemporary moving images.


--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
The School of Arts and Aesthetics
Jawaharlal Nehru University

Presents

"Partition, Cinema, Mourning"


A Talk by
Bhaskar Sarkar
Associate Profesor of Film and Media Studies,
University of California at Santa Barbara

Author of
Mourning the Nation:Indian Cinema in the Wake of Partition

At
The School of Arts and Aesthetics Auditorium
11th February, 2010 at 5 pm
Tea will be served from 4.30 pm onwards

_______________________________________________
announcements mailing list
announceme...@sarai.net
http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements

--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
netEX: calls & deadlines -->February 2010
-------------------------------------
NewMediafest'2010
10 Years [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne
-------------------------------------
newsletter contents

a) . news
b)  calls & deadlines
-->
04 Calls:  2010 deadlines internal
22 Calls:  February 2010 deadlines external
11 Calls: ongoing external/internal
------------------------------------------------
a) news

1)  On 1 January 2010 [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne
launched  NewMediaFest'2010
10 Years [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne
global heritage of digital culture
a festival context in an exchange between virtual and physical space
1 January -31 December 2010
http://2010.newmedifest.org

2) NewMediaFest'2010 announces the first venue in 2010
The presentation of the entire CologneOFF V festival program on
CeC - Carnival of e-Creativity Sattal/India
http://www.theaea.org/cec_cac/cec10/index.htm

------------------------------------------------
b) Calls & deadlines
--->
------------------------------------------------
2010: deadlines internal
NewMediaFest'2010 has currently 4 calls running

CologneOFF VI - Let's Celebrate! - deadline 5 April 2010
Call for film & videoart
5 Years Cologne Online Film Festival
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1907

VideoChannel - deadline 2 March 2010
[self] ~imaging - artists portraying themselves in film & video
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1852

NewMediaFest'2010
VideoChannel - deadline 2 April 2010
One Minute Films of OMFC (One Minute Film Collection)
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=447

NewMediaFest'2010
*ongoing deadline 1 September 2009 - 1 September 2010
Java Museum - Forum for internet Technology in Contemporary Art
will be celebrating in 2010 its 10th anniversary and is looking for
Internet based art from the years 2000-2010
details, regulations and entry form can be found on
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1428


------------------------------------------------
February 2010 deadlines: external
------------------------------------------------
28 February
Le Ville Matte residency Cagliari/Italy
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1922

28 February
Detmold ShortFilm Festival /Germany
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1954

19 February
Anti - Contemporary Art Festival Kuopio/Finland
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1964

15 February
Cynetart Competition 2010 - Dresden/Germany
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1942

28 February
Residency 2010 at Edith Russ Haus Oldenburg/Germany
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1832

28 February
Arse Elektronika 2010
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1640

26 February
Crosstalk Videoart Festival Budapest/Hungary
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1634

23 February
Currents 2010 - Santa Fe/New Mexico (USA)
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1892

19 February
Media City Film Festival 2010 Windsor/Canada
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1632

15 February
Australian International Experimental Film Festival
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1886

15 February
2nd International New Media Art Festival Damascus/Syria
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1933

15 February
Athens Video Art Festival 2010
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1838

15 February
56th Oberhausen Short Film Festival (German competition)
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1653

15 February
Videofestival Bochum (Germany)
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1807

14 February
re-new Digital Arts Festival Copenhagen/DK
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1961

5 February
14th Annual Shortfilm and Video Festival Tempe/Arizona (USA)
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1876

5 February
LUMEN_EX Digital Art Award 2010
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1889

2 February
Rhizome Curatorial Fellow
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1973

1 February
GO SHORT Online Competition Nijmegen/NL
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1925

1 February
Sounding landscapes - soundart
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1804

1 February
Writers residency in Bialsytok/Poland
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=1902
-----------------------------------------------
Ongoing calls: external/internal
-----------------------------------------------
---> SFC - Shoah Film Collection by VideoChannel & A Virtual Memorial Foundation
---> Selfshadows 2.= - net based project by Javier Bedrina
-->Videos for Bivouac Projects Sumter/USA
-->OUTCASTING - web based screenings
-->Films and video screenings Sioux City (USA)
-->Laisle screenings Rio de Janeiro/Brazil
-->Videos for Helsinki based video gallery - 00130 Gallery
-->Web based works for 00130 Gallery Helsinki/Finland
-->Project: Repetition as a Model for Progression by Marianne Holm Hansen
-->US webjournal Atomic Unicorn seeks netart and video art for coming editions
-->TAGallery

and more deadlines on http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?page_id=4

-----------------------------------------------
NetEX - networked experience
http://netex.nmartproject.net
#
calls in the external section-->
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?cat=3
#
calls in the internal section-->
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?cat=1
-----------------------------------------------
#
This newsletter is also released on
http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?cat=9
#
netEX - networked experiences
is a free information service powered by
[NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne
http://www.nmartproject.net -
the experimental platform for art and new media
from Cologne/Germany
#
info & contact:
info (at) nmartproject.net


_______________________________________________
announcements mailing list
announceme...@sarai.net
http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements

--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Details at
http://psychologynews.posterous.com/free-counselling-sessions-in-bangalore

If you or someone you know would like to avail of free counselling sessions
in B'lore, get in touch with Sangita.

Excerpts from her mail:

I am training to be a counsellor at Parivarthan which is a counselling,
research and training center.

I am enrolled in their one year Basic Skills in Counselling programme,since
June of 2009.

Apart from the stress of performance, career growth and workplace
relationships there are also issues like marriage, relationships, loneliness
and depression, parenting etc which impact us at an individual level and
effect our own productivity.

I am here to listen and journey with this individual  to find more effective
ways of working/living.

I hope they will avail of my skills.This is a voluntary service which is not
charged and  confidentiality is guaranteed and sacrosanct to the
relationship .


--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Dear Harsh
 
There are reports that after the Sunday Times article, Gita Sahgal has been 
suspended by AI.
 
Given below is the statement reportedly issued by Gita Sahgal.
 
Gita also happens to be an active member of "Women Against Fundamentalism" 
http://www.womenagainstfundamentalism.org.uk/index.html
 
 
Kshmendra
 
 
"Amnesty International and Cageprisoners"

Statement by Gita Sahgal
7 February 2010
 
This morning the Sunday Times published an article about Amnesty 
International’s association with groups that support the Taliban and promote 
Islamic Right ideas. In that article, I was quoted as raising concerns about 
Amnesty’s very high profile associations with Guantanamo-detainee Moazzam Begg. 
I felt that Amnesty International was risking its reputation by associating 
itself with Begg, who heads an organization, Cageprisoners, that actively 
promotes Islamic Right ideas and individuals. 
 

Within a few hours of the article being published, Amnesty had suspended me 
from my job.
 

A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when a great organisation 
must ask: if it lies to itself, can it demand the truth of others? For in 
defending the torture standard, one of the strongest and most embedded in 
international human rights law, Amnesty International has sanitized the history 
and politics of the ex-Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Begg and completely failed 
to recognize the nature of his organisation Cageprisoners. 
 

The tragedy here is that the necessary defence of the torture standard has been 
inexcusably allied to the political legitimization of individuals and 
organisations belonging to the Islamic Right. 
 

I have always opposed the illegal detention and torture of Muslim men at 
Guantanamo Bay and during the so-called War on Terror. I have been horrified 
and appalled by the treatment of people like Moazzam Begg and I have personally 
told him so. I have vocally opposed attempts by governments to justify ‘torture 
lite’.
 

The issue is not about Moazzam Begg’s freedom of opinion, nor about his right 
to propound his views: he already exercises these rights fully as he should. 
The issue is a fundamental one about the importance of the human rights 
movement maintaining an objective distance from groups and ideas that are 
committed to systematic discrimination and fundamentally undermine the 
universality of human rights. I have raised this issue because of my firm 
belief in human rights for all.
 

I sent two memos to my management asking a series of questions about what 
considerations were given to the nature of the relationship with Moazzam Begg 
and his organisation, Cageprisoners. I have received no answer to my questions. 
There has been a history of warnings within Amnesty that it is inadvisable to 
partner with Begg. Amnesty has created the impression that Begg is not only a 
victim of human rights violations but a defender of human rights. Many of my 
highly respected colleagues, each well-regarded in their area of expertise has 
said so. Each has been set aside.
 

As a result of my speaking to the Sunday Times, Amnesty International has 
announced that it has launched an internal inquiry. This is the moment to press 
for public answers, and to demonstrate that there is already a public demand 
including from Amnesty International members, to restore the integrity of the 
organisation and remind it of its fundamental principles.
 

I have been a human rights campaigner for over three decades, defending the 
rights of women and ethnic minorities, defending religious freedom and the 
rights of victims of torture, and campaigning against illegal detention and 
state repression. I have raised the issue of the association of Amnesty 
International with groups such as Begg’s consistently within the organisation. 
I have now been suspended for trying to do my job and staying faithful to 
Amnesty’s mission to protect and defend human rights universally and 
impartially.
 
- http://www.spectator.co.uk/martinbright/5759197/gita-sahgal-a-statement.thtml
 
- http://stroppyblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/amnesty-reinstate-gita-sahgal.html
 
- http://womensgrid.freecharity.org.uk/?p=4558
 
 
--- On Mon, 2/8/10, Harsh Kapoor <aiin...@gmail.com> wrote:


From: Harsh Kapoor <aiin...@gmail.com>
Subject: [Reader-list] Amnesty International in bed with Jihadi types (just 
like many on the left)
To: "sarai list" <reader-l...@sarai.net>
Date: Monday, February 8, 2010, 12:18 AM


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7017810.ece


>From The Sunday Times
February 7, 2010

Amnesty International is ‘damaged’ by Taliban link
An official at the human rights charity deplores its work with a ‘jihadist’
Amnesty International demonstrators wearing boiler suits

by Richard Kerbaj

A SENIOR official at Amnesty International has accused the charity of
putting the human rights of Al-Qaeda terror suspects above those of
their victims.

Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty’s international
secretariat, believes that collaborating with Moazzam Begg, a former
British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, “fundamentally damages” the
organisation’s reputation.

In an email sent to Amnesty’s top bosses, she suggests the charity has
mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his “jihadi” group,
Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic.

Sahgal describes Begg as “Britain’s most famous supporter of the
Taliban”. He has championed the rights of jailed Al-Qaeda members and
hate preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged spiritual
mentor of the Christmas Day Detroit plane bomber.

Amnesty’s work with Cageprisoners took it to Downing Street last month
to demand the closure of Guantanamo Bay. Begg has also embarked on a
European tour, hosted by Amnesty, urging countries to offer safe haven
to Guantanamo detainees. This is despite concerns about former inmates
returning to terrorism.

Sahgal, who has researched religious fundamentalism for 20 years, has
decided to go public because she feels Amnesty has ignored her
warnings for the past two years about the involvement of Begg in the
charity’s Counter Terror With Justice campaign.

“I believe the campaign fundamentally damages Amnesty International’s
integrity and, more importantly, constitutes a threat to human
rights,” Sahgal wrote in an email to the organisation’s leaders on
January 30. “To be appearing on platforms with Britain’s most famous
supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender, is
a gross error of judgment.”

Amnesty is the world’s biggest human rights organisation with 2.2m
members and a galaxy of celebrity supporters, including Bono, John
Cleese, Yoko Ono, Al Pacino and Sinead O’Connor. Its decision to work
with Begg poses liberal backers with a moral dilemma and raises
questions about the direction in which Amnesty has travelled since it
was set up in 1961 to support “prisoners of conscience”.

“As a former Guantanamo detainee it was legitimate to hear his
experiences, but as a supporter of the Taliban it was absolutely wrong
to legitimise him as a partner,” Sahgal told The Sunday Times.

Begg, 42, from Birmingham, was held at Guantanamo for three years
until 2005 under suspicion of links to Al-Qaeda, which he denies.
Prior to his arrest, Begg lived with his family in Kabul and praised
the Taliban in his memoirs as “better than anything Afghanistan has
had in 20 years”. After his release Begg became the figurehead for
Cageprisoners, which describes itself as “a human rights organisation
that exists solely to raise awareness of the plight of prisoners ...
held as part of the War On Terror”.

Among the Muslim inmates it highlights are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,
alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Abu Hamza, the hook-handed
cleric facing extradition from Britain to America on terror charges,
and Abu Qatada, a preacher described as Osama Bin Laden’s “European
ambassador”.

Sahgal, 53, is not the only critic of Begg at Amnesty. In 2008 a board
member of its US arm opposed Begg’s appearance, via videolink, at its
AGM, but was overruled.

When Begg appeared at Downing Street last month as part of a group
delivering a letter to Gordon Brown calling for the release of the
last British resident held at Guantanamo, he was accompanied by Kate
Allen, head of Amnesty’s UK section since 2000. Allen is a leftwinger
who was the girlfriend of Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London,
for almost 20 years.

This weekend Amnesty said it had launched an internal inquiry after
Sahgal raised her concerns with bosses, including Allen and Claudio
Cordone, the interim secretary-general.

Anne Fitzgerald, policy director of Amnesty’s international
secretariat, said the charity had formed a relationship with Begg
because he was a “compelling speaker” on detention. She said he had
been paid expenses for his attendance at its events.

Asked if she thought Begg was a human rights advocate, Fitzgerald
said: “It’s something you’d have to speak to him about. I don’t have
the information to answer that.”

Yesterday Begg dismissed Sahgal’s claims as “ridiculous”. He defended
his support for the Taliban and the decision by Cageprisoners to
highlight the plight of detainees linked to Al-Qaeda: “We need to be
engaging with those people who we find most unpalatable. I don’t
consider anybody a terrorist until they have been charged and
convicted of terrorism.”
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  • reader-list Digest, Vol 79, Issue 9 reader-list-request