Review of the ETHNOCINECA 2008

In 2008 the ETHNOCINECA took place from 21st to 24th May 2008 in line of SOHO IN OTTAKRING in the Radowan-Halle at Yppenplatz in the 16th district of Vienna. It was the first time we dared to step out of the University's 'protecting' structures. Now we can proudly announce - also thanks to the help of all our supporters - that the project 'anthropology goes public' has been a major success and we could host more than 2.500 interested visitors during four days!

Advertised on numerous homepages and internet platforms, in different print media, radio broadcasting and on Okto TV, the ETHNOCINECA started off with the opening party on the Badeschiff where nearly 1.000 people, 2 live bands and 2 DJ-sets partied until the early morning. During the following four days we screened twelve high-quality longer and shorter films, all of which dealed with ethnological and at the same time ordinary topics such as liberation, poverty, injustice etc. from several points of view. From welcoming 300 to 400 film-aficionados every evening we draw that the public interest on anthropological films, which are difficult to access, is surprisingly high.

What was really going on here?

'What is really going on here?', SOHO IN OTTAKRING 2008 aksed and couldn't have formulated the ETHNOCINECA's organizational team's motivation any better. Cultural participation through media is a connective concern on the one hand, but on the other hand also strenghtens our consciousness about the hundred lives we all could have lived.
It was and still is our biggest concern to awaken this new, unknown and thrilling consciousness in the people around and close to us.
Thereby we do not point at somebody or something, we do not indoctrinate, we do not know any better, all we want is to bring closer, to motivate reflection, fascination and dreaming of other worlds and lives.

In this sense we owe great thanks to all the filmmakers, visitors, sponsors and cooperative partners for their intensive support and hope not only to repeat, but to surpass this year's success with ETHNOCINECA 2009!