November 30, 2007
Contact: Caroline Jenkins Hanna
Director of Media Relations

413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Artist and filmmaker Jean-Marie Teno, a Copeland fellow at Amherst College, will present one of his short films along with several clips from his other works on Monday, Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Amherst College’s Merrill Science Center, Lecture Room 2. A reception and conversation with the artist will follow at the Mead Art Museum. All of the events are free and open to the public.

Teno was born in Cameroon and educated at the University of Valenciennes, France. A filmmaker whose works include documentary and fiction films, Teno often focuses on the post-colonial experience in Africa. Foregrounding the gaps between perception and perspective, his work reframes many of the standard perspectives developed by early documentary filmmakers who trained their anthropological gaze on Africa. His prize-winning documentary Le Malentendu Colonial, in particular, turns an anthropological eye on European society by offering a detailed critique of the German colonial adventure in Namibia.

Each year, the Copeland Colloquium brings a group of visiting scholars and artists to Amherst College. This year’s colloquium theme, “Art and Identity in the Global Community,” was proposed by a group of faculty as the outcome of cross-disciplinary discussions on “the ways in which artists and scholars are revising notions of community identity as well as aesthetic conventions in response to new developments in media and migration.” Faculty representing seven different academic departments and the Mead Art Museum joined to become sponsors and organizers of this year’s Copeland Colloquium. Five international artists, working in a broad spectrum of mediums, are now in residence for both semesters of the academic year. Two of the other Copeland Fellows made presentations earlier this year, while the remaining two will discuss their work on the first Mondays of February and March. Teno is being sponsored as a fellow by Amherst’s William R. Keenan, Jr. Professor of Black Studies and English, Rhonda Cobham-Sander, Professor Leah Hewitt and Senior Lecturer Helen von Schmidt.

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