On Monday April 3rd, 2017, “One Table Two Elephants” will be screened at the Deutsches Haus 42 Washington Mews, New York, NY from 6:00 – 8:00 PM
This film essay is about bushmen bboys, a flower kingdom and the ghost of a princess. Entering the city through its plants and wetlands, the many-layered, painful and liberating history of the city emerges as we meet how biologists, hip hoppers, and wetland activists each searches for ways to craft symbols of unity and cohesion. But this is a fraught and difficult task. Perhaps not even desirable. Plants, aliens, memories and ghosts keep troubling efforts of weaving stories about this place called Cape Town. Situated and grounded in lived experiences across a range of groups, this film follows different ways of knowing and tries to be a vehicle toward difficult yet urgently needed conversations about how race, nature and the city are intertwined in our postcolonial world. The film is directed towards a wider audience, from the general public to students and scholars. For teaching, it brings texture and understanding to understand a city like Cape Town, but also provides ample possibilities to translate what is happening “there” to conversations about your own city and surroundings.
Created by: Jacob von Heland and Henrik Ernstson. Produced by: Telltales Film in collaboration with KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory and the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. Photography: Johan von Reybekiel. Sound: Jonathan Chiles. Funded by: Swedish Research Council Formas. Production coordination: Jessica Rattle and Nceba Mangese. Previously invited screenings (rough cut) at: Rachel Carson Centre, Munich, Germany; National University of Technology, Windhoek, Namibia; Stellenbosch University, South Africa; University Roma Tre, Rome, Italy; KTH Stockholm, Sweden; Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA. More info and 5 minutes “teaser” here: http://www.
Bio:
Dr. Henrik Ernstson is a Research Fellow at the KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory in Stockholm and an Honorary Visiting Scholar at the African Centre for Cities at University of Cape Town, South Africa. He recently concluded a Postdoc with Stanford University’s Department of History (2013-2015). In his work he is developing a situated approach to urban political ecology with a special focus on global South urbanism and he extensive collaboration in South Africa, Uganda, UK, USA and Sweden and he has lead interdisciplinary research groups with studies in Cape Town, New Orleans, Stockholm and now recently in Kampala, but also ‘post-disciplinary’ collaborations around film and speculative design as research methods within the growing field of the Environmental Humanities. Read more about his work at Situated Ecologies: http://www.