Project start 1 March 2024
April-July. Curation of a programme strand on auteur cinema in the Soviet peripheries for the Film Summer School in Antwerp, held in July 2024, with films from the Caucasus region and Central Asia.
April. Visit to Wiesbaden for the festival goEast (not from project funds); Publication: Cinema from the post-Soviet space at Wiesbaden’s goEast
May. Visit to Cannes (not from project funds): meetings with reps from Central Asia; attendance of a pitching workshop for Central Asian projects organised by CNC; attend signing of bilateral agreements with Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan
2-16 June: visit to Almaty and Bishkek
Almaty: meeting with GNTsPK (interview); meeting with Kazakh Association of Film Critics (which would become a member of FIPRESCI, the International Association of Film Critics); meeting with editor-in-chief of Saryn, a journal devoted to arts in Central Asia (editorial board member); meetings at Kazakhfilm; attendance at EurasiaDoc and at presentations on the cinema sector in the CARs; attendance at a think-tank meeting on cultural policies;
Bishkek: visit to museum of contemporary art in Kuntuu; visit to Bishkek IFF (by invitation, as media rep). Publication: The Second Bishkek International Film Festival (2024);
Planning a special issue on Kyrgyz cinema, to be co-ordinated by Sultan Usuvaliev (Russian) and Birgit Beumers (English), content by Sultan Usuvaliev and Gulbara Tolomushova
Attendance (by invitation) of Kosice Art IFF from 21-28 June as jury member of the Central European competition
6-12 July: Antwerp Film Summer School/ Zomer Film College at Cinea (invitation): keynote, presentation (lectures) on films.
11 Sept-2 Oct: visit to Tashkent and Bishkek
Tashkent: invitation as jury chair of the short film competition at the International Film Festival (11-20 Sept). Festival cancelled, but opportunity to view films and attend pitching; attendance of a parallel film festival; interviews.
Bishkek/Ashuu (20-26 Sept): invitation to post-space camp, presentation of new films in post-production, short films; discussion with producers, filmmakers from the region
Tashkent (27 Sept–1 Oct): meetings and interviews with filmmakers, distributors, producers; attendance at seminar organised by Goethe Institute on the history of the Tashkent IFF 1968
Bishkek Impact Lab, 1 October: juror (online)
October: Passau University signs MoUs with two arts institutes at Astana, Kazakhstan, for an exchange of doctoral students under external supervision
October: online attendance of Alternativa labs (socially engaged filmmaking in Central Asia)
November/December: visit to UK (not from project funds): meetings with publishers in London (T&F, Bloomsbury); meeting in Cambridge with Gulnara Abikeyeva (book project)
21-24 November, Boston: ASEEES conference, panel on Cinema of the Periphery & Central Asia, Presentation: "Displaced Narratives"
7-12 January: Visit to Lisbon for ECSAS/CESS conference and presentation "The Famine on Screen"
23 January-23 February: visit of doctoral students from Astana in Passau with their supervisor Inna Smailova: supervisions; visit to Innsbruck University for a seminar presentation on the Aral Sea
30 January. Screening of Tul at Passau, Perspektive Osteuropa, with actress Guzel Zhan introducting the film
31 Jan – 1 Feb: symposium in Krumau (co-organiser with Thomas Wünsch, Kristina Wittkamp), presentations of the doctoral students from Astana
February. Visit (with doctoral students) to Berlinale and EFM (not from project fund), meetings with Kazakh, Azeri, and Georgian delegations
March-May. Writing, editing, translating for the special issue of KinoKultura Kyrgyzstan (#22)
18 March. Visit to Cambridge (invited) for a seminar on Central Asia and Soviet peripheries
9-23 April. Visit to Bishkek and Tashkent.
Bishkek: jury chairman of national competition of short films at UMUT (invited); meetings with festival management, preparation for print edition of issue #22
Diploma of UMUT and Department of Cinema for support of Kyrgyz Cinema
Tashkent: meetings at the film studio; interview about distribution sector; meetings at universities and with directors (Rosmatova, Shakhobitdinov, Malikov)
May. attendance of CoE conferences 17/18 May in Cannes; meeting with FIAPF about status of festivals in CARs
9-16 June: Bishkek IFF (by invitation): presentation of the print edition of KinoKultura special issue; attendance of pitching of CAR projects; visit to Kyrgyzfilm. Publication: The Third BIFF
Diploma of BIFF (for the establishment of a FIPRESCI jury)
July. Publication of Sexuality, Nudity and the Body in Soviet Cinema, edited by Birgit Beumers, Catherine Géry, Eugenie Zvonkine, published 2025 (Copyright 2026) [not project-related]
October. Submission of manuscript Directory of World Cinema: Central Asia to intellect books, due to be published in IV/2026.
October/November. ASEEES, virtual convention: "Returns to the Past? Memory erasure in Central Asian Cinema"
July 2024. Cinema from the post-Soviet space at Wiesbaden’s goEast KinoKultura 85
July 2024. The Second Bishkek International Film Festival (2024) KinoKultura 85
May 2025. KinoKultura Special Issue Kyrgyzstan, published as book in English and Russian (Bishkek IFF)
July 2025. The Third Bishkek IFF, KinoKultura 89
