The Centre for Screen Cultures, in collaboration with the Centre for Contemporary Art, is delighted to welcome to St Andrews the artist and filmmaker Jyoti Mistry. Join us for a screening of Jyoti’s trilogy of films We Come In Peace, They Said, and for a Q&A which will be conducted by Dr Sandro Weilenmann (University of Maastricht) and Prof Glyn Davis (Film Studies, St Andrews). The event will be from 5pm to 7pm on Wednesday 16 April in the Buchanan Lecture Theatre. All are welcome!
Born in Durban, South Africa, Jyoti has made critically acclaimed films in multiple genres and her installation work draws from cinematic traditions but is often re-contextualized for galleries and museums that are outside of the linear cinematic experience. Her films have screened at festivals including Toronto, Winterthur, Rotterdam and Durban and in exhibitions at Kunsthaus Zürich, Museum der Moderne Salzburg and Kunsthalle Wien. She has been artist in residence at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam and the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and was a member of the International Short Film Jury at the 68th Berlinale. She is currently Professor of Film at the University of Gothenburg, and Visiting Professor at SOAS in London.
The three films that make up We Come In Peace, They Said are When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Black Man (2017, 10 minutes), Cause of Death (2020, 20 minutes), and Loving In Between (2023, 18 minutes). This archival trilogy on race, gender, and sexuality deals with the racialization of Black masculinity and racist violence, intersectional sexism and femicide, queer sexuality and love. The footage is drawn from colonial archives, travelogues, and amateur films to create poetic visual forms that comment on historical and contemporary violence and our political consciousness. By layering animation with the archival footage, the works produce visceral experiences that invite dialogue. Language that disempowers and marginalizes one group over another exposes the social and political structures that continue to oppress groups of people.
This event is not ticketed – just show up on the day. We hope to see you there!