This year’s Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting featured two pre-conference symposia with strong ties to the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology: Film as Ethnography, Activism, and Public Work in Ethnomusicology (co-organized by Dr. Rebecca Dirksen and Dr. Jennie Gubner) and Heritage and the Politics of Inclusion in Latin American Brass Bands (co-organized by Dr. Javier Léon and Dr. Juan Eduardo Wolf).

Held on November 6, 2019, the Film as Ethnography, Activism, and Public Work in Ethnomusicology symposium featured a full day of talks and presentations on music and film; an interactive open table session featuring instruction on audio/visual equipment and technologies, editing techniques, film distribution and festival participation, film in archival settings, best practices in pedagogical methods, information on the latest publications and related resources, and walk-up project advising; and a masterclass led by award-winning Bloomington-based documentary filmmaker Jacky Comforty, geared toward advancing the progress of five films-in-progress selected for inclusion via peer-review.

Thirty-six scholars/filmmakers based in the US, Canada, the Caribbean, Colombia, Brazil, the UK, Turkey, and South Africa were invited presenters who joined us in person on campus, and more than eighty registered participants and eight Folk/Ethno graduate student volunteers joined the conversation. This symposium was held in tandem with the IU Cinema Creative Collaborations film series Honking Horn and Jazzy Feet: Brass Bands in the Streets, organized by Dr. Dirksen and featuring the two-day residency of filmmaker Lily Keber from New Orleans and the virtual residency of filmmaker Ana María Arango from Chocó, Colombia.

On November 6 and 7, the IU Cinema screened Keber’s film Buckjumping (2018) and Arango’s films Los Sonidos invisibles (2007) and Velo qué bonito (2014).

The full program is archived here: https://bit.ly/3fq3sQy