A bit of blunt honesty: a culturala update & Films of Resistance
A long-awaited update on things here at culturala, some good news, some bad news, some exciting news...
Dear friends,
Maria here, editor of culturala. I hope you’re having a good Monday morning – and that you’re feeling well in these, I must say, tumultuous times. It’s been a very long time since we wrote to you, and for that, I owe you a personal apology. You’ve not been forgotten, but life has been a bit tricky lately. And thus, this newsletter. It’s a bit of a read, so please bear with me!
Culturala has been my baby since its first inception about three years ago. It’s been a blessing, a curse, a headache, and an absolutely amazing project to be working at. It’s taught me A LOT, and showed all the possibilities that a network can have. But, you know, money… I always wanted this to be a volunteer-run project, because that’s where my ideals lie (not in people not being able to eat, but in a different relationship to work). I wanted a lot of things for culturala, but, as a collectively-run project, it went ahead of me and created something else, something of its own, something that’s more beautiful than I could have imagined. And for that, I’m eternally in awe of all the people who’ve been (and some who still are) in the team: Alejandra, Lauren, Bruno, Laureen, Fiona, Sarah, Kelly, Verena…
However, as an unpaid project, it also meant that the team was always in flux: if we live by the current day’s rhythm, two years is the maximum of unpaid cultural work within that. And that’s fair! But, for culturala, it also meant that the team has been changing and rotating with fluctuating levels of involvement.
That all worked perfectly, until we got to a point where I, for non-culturala reasons, ended up in a mentally really dark place. To put it simply, last September-October, I ran out of energy. And it became clear that without my energy, this beautiful project couldn’t continue – it just wasn’t decentralised, sustainable and financially stable enough yet. It was also at a moment where three of our team crews were moving countries or making big life changes, so they were also, kind of, unavailable.
Suddenly, culturala was without a team and with a mentally burnt out editor. And then the war on Gaza started, and it hit me personally incredibly hard, because how do you write about art when a country that is claiming to represent your people is committing a genocide?
I started doing other things. I moved to the countryside. I adopted a rescue dog. Slowly, I found a different rhythm. I exited the productivity cycle, and started organising. I started reading and researching again. I started learning about how you create horizontality, sustainably. And I realised, that in a year or so, I’d like to leave culturala – that I’d like to move to doing other things, printing other things. I saw that culturala has grown beyond me.
I also saw that culturala needs a new team, with a new structure, and financial sustainability. Since this realisation, we’ve already got our sponsor confirmed (thank you, Roger!), 75% of a team (still looking for one more designer and producer!), and we’re now (slowly, as that’s my new post-breakdown motto) working on re-designing how it all will work. We’re also re-formulating ourselves into what we actually have been doing: culturala is, in fact, a publishing collective. But we’re also taking our time to make this right and to make this good and to make this sustainable. And I genuinely hope you will stay with us for the change.
So, what about memory? That’s right, some of you might remember that there was an issue coming out this year – and there is! We’ve got all the pieces in, and I’m now working on editing them, with a bit of help coming soon. There is, however, a delay: in part, because I am truly out of energy (sorry dear contributors!), and in part, because we’re still lacking the money to print the issue. If you have ideas on how to resolve this later issue, would like to sponsor, or would like to be part of the team – please give us a shout! We really need you right now.
In the meantime, the other question: how do you speak about art at a time of genocide. I believe that often, we can all do only what we do best. Remembering how the biggest resistance to genocide is culture, the need for unity in this struggle, and the inability (and long-term unsustainability in terms of power structures) of aid to enter, coupled with so many’s insistance on nuance and the multitude of approaches – I called Bruno, our film ambassador, and asked if he’d like to set something up. So, we started working on a film screening, and soon enough Abla Kandalaft, Ameena Adileh and Carmen Caruso joined us, as they were also looking for a different way to show Palestinian films.
Abla and Ameena had a lot of films as Palestinian directors had been sending them their shorts to show at benefits for Palestine, and so suddenly this became more than a screening. Instead, it grew into an initiative: Films of Resistance. It’s a decentralised resource, inviting anyone and everyone to organise screenings either of films that have already been curated into this program, or of others, to support the Palestinian struggle.
You’ll hear more about the initiative in upcoming newsletters, but TL;DR is that this initiatives believes in culture as a way to raise common understanding, empathy, and to sustain resistance. Because so much resistance is needed now, everywhere.
More urgently, our first screening is coming up at Genesis Cinema in London, on the 14th of June and we have a crazy hall of 500 cap – so please come, please share, please join the collective and organise one yourself!
Here’s a press release with more info, a dropbox link with all the media, a signal group if you’d like to organise your own, and a ticket link, of course, for the 14th of June at 6pm!
With love, as always,
Maria