Sunday May 17 | 6:00 PM | KINOTEKA 4
Discussion: Modern Witches – a New Face of Rebellion?
after the screening of HEX dir. Maja Holand
Partner: Okultura
In the romantic imagination, the figure of the rebel often took the form of Lucifer, the ‘fallen angel’ who defied the divine order. Nowadays, more and more often, various emancipatory movements are modelled on another powerful, demonised figure – that of the witch. In Maja Holand’s film, three Norwegian women, lacking musical talent but taking on the roles of modern witches, decide to form a black metal band and, to their own surprise, achieve success. They manage to find their place in a patriarchal environment, smuggling feminist content into it. During our discussion, we will examine the figure of the witch in contemporary feminist art and socially engaged esotericism. We will also reflect on whether the growing popularity of witches is merely a capitalist fad or a force with the potential for real change.
Guests:
Olga Drenda – writer, translator, anthropologist and ethnologist, author of books including ‘Duchologia. Rzeczy i ludzie w czasach transformacji’ and ‘Wyroby. Pomysłowość wokół nas’, a researcher of unconventional trends in popular culture and the collective imagination.
Paweł Frelik – cultural studies scholar specialising in audiovisual media and non-mainstream culture, director of the American Studies Center at the University of Warsaw, science fiction researcher, and former lyricist for the black metal band Vader.
Dariusz Misiuna – a sociologist researching repressed cultural content, translator of books on counterculture, psychedelia and esotericism, founder of the Okultura publishing house and the journal for researchers of Western esotericism, ‘Hermaion’.
