【”Predators As Companions: Fearful Symmetry in 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘮” by Dr. Phillip Warnell】

You are cordially invited to a talk titled “Predators As Companions: Fearful Symmetry in 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘮” by Dr. Phillip Warnell. All are welcome to join!

The details of the talk are as follows:

“𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐀𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐒𝐲𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒎”
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝟕^th 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 (𝐓𝐔𝐄)
𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: 𝟑:𝟎𝟎 – 𝟓:𝟎𝟎 𝐩.𝐦. (𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐊𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞)
𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞: 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 (𝐙𝐎𝐎𝐌)
𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧*: here (𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐐𝐑 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐞)

*The Zoom link will be sent to the applicants via email after the registration.

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫: 𝐃𝐫. 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐩 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐥 (Associate Professor in Film at the University of Lincoln, UK; an artist-filmmaker and writer from London)
𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫: 𝐃𝐫. 𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐙𝐨𝐧𝐠 (Assistant Professor of the Department of Humanities and Creative Writing, HKBU)

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤:
Beyond the nature documentary there is 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘮, a wild minded adventure of a tender, if outrageous family unit, conceived in a high-rise social housing apartment block in New York City’s Harlem. Exploring exotic animal husbandry, interspecies behaviour and the presence of wild animals onscreen, the film features the testimony of Antoine Yates, imprisoned for sharing the apartment with his mother, a tiger, an alligator and foster children simultaneously.

Re-imagining the almost impossible situation of predatory creatures as roommates, the film dwells on the isolation of impeded wild minds – where prodigious creatures are kept in the abject, unfamiliar conditions of a metropolis. In collaboration with a UK zoo, The Wellcome Collection (London) and an international film co-production, it examines how poetic resources are needed to counterbalance humanities philosophical assumptions concerning animality, whereby other species have been perpetually condemned as mere subcategories, lacking consciousness, reason or autonomy.

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐛𝐢𝐨:
Phillip Warnell is an artist-filmmaker and writer from London. He produces cinematic and art works exploring a range of philosophical, poetic and sensorial thematics: human-animal relations, the political and cinematic imagination, and presence of those with prescient or extraordinary attributes and the poetics of bodily and life-world circumstances.

He has worked at universities internationally including visiting professorships and fellowships, most recently in the Film Studies Center at Harvard University in 2018. He completed a PhD in 2020, on a decade of film collaborations with philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy. Currently he is an Associate Professor in Film at the University of Lincoln, UK.