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| 2010 | |
| February 28, Sunday, 2-4pm | SRH welcomes a unique dance and slide presentation, "Dancing through Uyghur Autonomous Xinjiang", by Tara Catherine Pandeya. Tara is an international performing artist, teacher and choreographer who specializes in Central Asian dance forms. In addition to choreography, adult dance classes and workshops, Tara also works with several award winning arts education programs in the Bay Area. Most recently, she completed a four month dance residency in Uyghur Autonomous Xinjiang, China. Along with studying Uyghur, Kazakh and Uzbek dance at the Xinjiang Arts Institute, she conducted dance research with traditional artists and was also fortunate to travel to the Takla Makan desert capturing footage of traditional 'meshureb' (community dance and music). At SRH, she will be presenting some dance and pictures from her Uyghur trip. |
| February 21, Sunday, 1-3pm | SRH presents the exhibit: THE WORLD PATTERN: ETCHINGS BY CHRISTOPHER CASTLE, a British-born visual artist and composer. He exhibits his paintings and prints widely in the U.S. and Europe. His painting and etching studio is in Emeryville. The exhibit includes twelve patterns that are related to the Silk Road. All works are available for purchase. The price list is at SRH and by email castle.art@sbcglobal.net upon request. |
| Various dates |
In 2010, Silk Road House presents: Documentary Films of Central Asia: Two Epochs of National Identity Formation
The Silk Road House of Berkeley continues the screening of rare Central Asian films. The new DVD collection is the second part of the project initiated by the Open Society Institute. If the first part of the collection included ten feature films – two films from each Central Asian country – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, then the second part includes seventy documentary films from the entire region. Both DVD collections have been prepared by Gulnara Abikeyeva, director of Public Fund “Center of Central Asian Cinematography”. The aim of the project was to present to the world community the films of Central Asia of two periods -- the Soviet 1960s “Thaw” period as well as the 1990s period of Independence, which was more fruitful in the documentary sense. Those films are hardly known abroad. Ten films of the first part of the project, introduced and commented on by Alma Kunanbaeva, were shown at the Silk Road House in Berkeley during the last year. This year Alma Kunanbaeva will be screening the documentary part of the project. Screenings with discussions will take place at SRH by Saturdays at 5pm according to the following schedule:
A complete list of films is here. All films have English subtitles. All events are free and open to the public. These screenings became possible thanks to a generous gift of the Open Society Institute, Budapest. |
| January 30, Saturday, 5pm |
Silk Road House presents "The Gift to Stalin" (Kazakhstan, 2008)
An Aldongar production, in association with Tor Films, Kazakhfilm. Produced by Boris Cherdabayev. Directed by Rustem Abdrashev. Screenplay by Pavel Finn. Music by Kuat Shildebaev. Cast: Nurjuman Ikhtimbayev, Dalen Shintemirov, Yekaterina Rednikova, Bakhtiar Khoja. Russian, Kazakh, Hebrew dialogues with English subtitles.
"The Gift to Stalin" is a story about an eight-year-old Jewish boy Sasha who was sent to Kazakhstan. He was saved from death by an old Kazakh man, Kasym, who takes him to an aging shaman who returns the boy to full health and dubs him Sabyr which means `tolerant, uncomplaining'. Subsequently, Kasym and Sabyr reside in a dusty village of refugees… The film is set in 1949. The title, The Gift to Stalin, has two significances. In 1949, Soviet government carried out a nuclear test for anniversary of Stalin's 70th birthday. Many innocent people became the victims to the nuclear test. The other significance is about Sashka's dream. He hoped that if he gives Stalin a gift, he will be able to see his parents again not knowing that they were killed. SRH screenings are introduced and commented by Alma Kunanbaeva. |
| January 10, Sunday, 1-3pm |
Silk Road House presents "Manifestations of Islam Among the Kazakh and Turkmen Populations of Central Asia", a lecture with slides by Gulnar Kendirbai, Adjunct Assistant Professor of History, The Harriman Institute/History Department, Columbia University, New York.
Gulnar Kendirbai specializes in Eurasian and Central Asian intellectual history, involving the late Russian empire and the former Soviet Union. Her research and teaching interests also include colonialism, nationalism, ethnicity, Islam, nomadism, and cultural anthropology. She received her two PhDs from the Eotvos-Lorand University in Budapest (1987) and the University of Tuebingen in Germany (2003). The last one was entitled as "Bridging Colonial Gaps: Kazakh Intellectuals and the Imperial State". She is the author of "Land and People: The Russian Colonization of the Kazakh Steppe" (Berlin, 2002, in English). She also published her papers in the Encyclopedia "The Turks", Central Asian Survey, Nationalities Papers, Asian Affairs, Central Asiatic Journal, Inner Asia, Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas, and other journals. She has received fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, the American Councils (ACTR/ACCELS), the DAAD, and the Thyssen Foundation in Germany. Currently she is working on a book "Challenging Colonial Power: A History of the Kazakh National Movement Alash, 1905-1938". |
| For the 2009 events, go to here. | |
| For the 2008 events, go to here. | |
| For the 2007 events, go to here. | |