A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Evaporating Borders

The Njegos Foundation for Serbian Language and Culture presents EVAPORATING BORDERS a film by Iva Radivojević.

Friday, September 25, 2015, 6:00pm, Marshall D. Shulman Seminar Room (1219 IAB, 420 West 118th St.)

Originally from Yugoslavia, a country that no longer exists except in books and films, Iva Radivojević’s family immigrated to Cyprus to escape political unrest. Raised in Cyprus, she is approaching the film as a personal exploration of what it means to have a hybrid existence in which one is always searching for an identity.

The title “Evaporating Borders” corresponds to the idea that the erosion of boundaries and borders (both physical and metaphoric) defamiliarize the narratives of selfhood through which identities take shape and reproduce themselves. The flow of populations, commodities and information is associated with loss of traditions, memories and histories. This poses a threat to national identity and translates to discrimination, prejudice, and intolerance. What is apparent in Cyprus is emblematic of hierarchical racial structures around the world, looking to cultures and peoples outside Western borders from a position of superiority.

While the film examines what it means to disassociate from these beliefs, it also explores the principles of inequality precipitated by certain cultures over others, classes against other classes, the concept of motherland, and an essentialized conception of identity. Though the film is told from the director’s personal experience and point-of-view, it is less about her own story than an exploration of the mentioned themes.

The director of the film will join us for the Q&A section.

This event is co-sponsored by the Program of Hellenic Studies at Columbia.


SA

 

People Directory

Vuk Kulenović

Vuk Kulenovic (born 1946) is a contemporary composer and teacher based in Boston, Massachusetts. He teaches counterpoint, orchestration and directed study at Berklee College of Music. He actively composes and has commissions from around the world. His influences are wide-tanging, including jazz, Indian ragas, Balkan folk music, rock and many other contemporary styles. He has written over 100 works for symphony orchestra, solo instruments, chamber ensembles, choral and vocal pieces, ballet, and scores for film and stage music.

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Publishing

Treasures New and Old

Writings by and about St. Nikolai Velemirovich

Before us is a book about a theologian, a minister, a missionary, a writer, a poet, an apostle, a saint, a man of dialogue: this book is about St. Nikolai Velimirovic, Bishop of Ohrid and Zhicha (1880 - 1956), who along with his many other attributes is regarded, with good reason, as an Enlightener of the Americas, The renewed interest in this man and his works has resulted in the materialization of this book for English-speaking readers who wish to become acquainted with this extraordinary person. The collected texts provide an extensive over view of his life, present important testimonies about his personality, and offer essential insights into his theology. The authors penetrate the depths of his thought with remarkable precision and also elucidate his actions. The authros agree that the appearance of Nikolai Velimirovich marks an era of change in the ecclesiastical and theological paradigm as a result of his spirituality, ecclsiastical work, and theological position.