Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology: University of Manchester

New book just out! 📘 'Future Perfect' by .donofrio (MAVA, PhD alumna) is the latest addition to the series 'Anthropology, Creative Practice and Ethnography', our collaboration with

'Future Perfect' emerges from practice-based research that focuses on experiences of migration and border crossing during what are perceived as existential 'turning points' by the protagonists themselves. It recognizes the fundamental role that imagination plays in people's perceptions of reality, in their decisions and actions, and finally in the way they narrate their experiences. As a consequence, it makes a stance for ethnographic practice to include more creative and collaborative methodologies in order to explore such intangible and unstructured realms of existence. In particular, this ethnography developed theoretically and methodologically in close collaboration with a group of Egyptian men who crossed the Mediterranean Sea in search of better living opportunities in Italy, by engaging them through a range of the co-creative processes such as theatre improvisations, storytelling practices, collaborative filmmaking and participatory animation.

The book is available in affordable, colour-printed hardcover format and in . But if you buy a hard copy you get access to Alexandra's award-winning documentary 'It Was Tomorrow'.

Check it out at the link in our bio.

After shooting their mini-projects, Short Course in Ethnographic Documentary students took to the editing suites to complete their short films!

Week two, in addition to teaching them to use Premiere Pro, included an advanced audio recording and editing workshop with Jon Tipler, screenings with Rupert Cox and .aljeally, and a final feedback session on their first documentaries.

Our project of the week is 'Pathos - The Art of Life' by Alexandra Porter. This collaborative documentary follows four American artists, using their work as a narrative entry point into their embodied experience of chronic illness.

The film moves between close observations of artistic process—hands at work, tools, breath, pauses of fatigue—and reflective conversations staged within a shared gallery space. Archival footage and layered soundscapes interweave with moments of stillness, emphasising the artists’ altered relationships to time, normality and futurity. Painting, performance, sculpture and printmaking become aesthetic forms through which illness is not simply described but materially reconfigured.

Made for our MA in Visual Anthropology. Watch at the link in our bio!

Congratulations to .donofrio (MAVA and PhD GCVA alumna, previously teaching staff) on the premiere of her new film 'The Secret Life of Toys' at last week (co-directed with .zavarise).

Produced by , the film follows Roberto Papetti, one of the most famous and one of the last master toy makers working in Italy today, on a journey with children across the country through imagination, craftsmanship, peace and ecology.

📷️ 1,2 by Stefano Tedioli, 3-5 by Daniele Zanolini

More highlights from filmmaking exercises, practical workshops and lectures in Week 1 of this year's Short Course in Ethnographic Documentary. Looking forward to seeing students' short film projects!

Really inspiring and creative efforts in week one of this year's Short Course in Ethnographic Documentary. From an introduction to working with Sony FX6 cameras, shotgun and radio microphones to specialised workshops on interviewing techniques, students are now off shooting their mini projects for editing next week!

This Friday two of our former MA Visual Anthropology students will screen a short film they made during the Ethnographic Documentary course at 's Horizons Festival.

Book a free ticket at the link in our bio to watch 'A Sudanese Dinner' - The Sudanese tradition of sharing a weekly meal with family and friends reshapes itself on the other side of the world. By .aljeally and Alejandro Small

Things you can do with a Zoom H5 Studio Handy Recorder:
Capture multispecies entanglements.

Part of the kit available to our MA Visual Anthropology students!

New students already experimenting in this year's Short Course in Ethnographic Filmmaking!