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    Past Events

    Michaelmas 2007

  • We screened some Docs from the BBC Why Democracy? series by asking you to vote for the doc film you wanted to see.
    Why Democracy? is an international documentary project using film to start a global conversation about democracy. Choice of films include documentaries on the U.S. Army's use of torture in Afghanistan and Iraq, Chinese school children experiencing democracy for the first time, or political struggles and revolutions in Bolivia, and more.

  • We screened ‘We Feed the World’ at the Arts picturehouse.
    ‘We Feed the World’ is a film about food and globalisation, fishermen and farmers, long-distance lorry drivers and high-powered corporate executives, the flow of goods and cash flow – a film about scarcity amid plenty.


  • In association with CU Amnesty International we screened ‘The Devil Came on Horseback' and raised £192.15 for Global Grassroots.
    Using the exclusive photographs and first hand testimony of former U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle, ‘The Devil Came on Horseback’ takes the viewer on an emotionally charged journey into the heart of Darfur, Sudan.



  • An evening with the people behind Current TV.
    We hosted a presentation by Al Gore’s doc film initiative to find out what it has to offer to young documentary film-makers.

  • In association with Student Action for Refugees, we hosted a double screening of ‘Ghosts’ and a new Nick Broomfield doc.
    Broomfield’s new documentary highlights the plight of tens of thousands of refused asylum seekers who are being forced into abject poverty in an attempt to drive them out of the country.

  • Finally, we screened ‘Odessa… Odessa’ which was followed by an illuminating Q&A session with director Michale Boganim.
    ‘Odessa…Odessa’ is a mesmerizing, probing, and deeply moving portrait of a Jewish community scattered to the ends of the earth - a journey from the Ukrainian city of Odessa to the "Little Odessas" in Brooklyn, New York and Ashdod, Israel.

    Lent 2008

  • To start off the term, we held our first Soc Doc Soc MicroDocs Competition, in association with Fourdocs and Apple Computers. Here, entrants were asked to make a 59 second documentary for a chance to win Apple’s latest film-editing software Final Cut Studio 2.

  • In concordance with the competition, we ran an introductory workshop on how to use Apple movie editing software with the help of the University's Apple Campus representative.

  • We held a joint screening with Cambridge University Amnesty International Society of the film, ‘A Strange Kind of Freedom’, followed by a presentation and Q&As with producer, Enver Tohti.
    ‘A Strange Kind of Freedom’ concerns the plight of five Uighur men from Turkestan/Xinjiang, a disputed area in the western part of China, who, whilst seeking work in Afghanistan and Pakistan to support their families were caught up in the war on terror and falsely imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay. When they were finally granted their freedom they were sent to Albania, where they now live in limbo with no money or papers to travel.




  • Patrick Uden and Charlie Philips from Fourdocs came up to Cambridge to judge our Microdocs competition. Following a presentation of the films and a session of critique and debate, the three best films were awarded prizes generously donated by Apple.


  • We held a screening of Edith Champagne’s ‘The Man Who Could Be King’, followed by a Q&A session with the director herself.
    'The Man Who Would Be King' follows Adongo Agada, a Sudanese refugee living in Canada, who receives unexpected news that he has been designated the new king of the Anyuak tribe in Southern Sudan. Great responsibility, danger and demigod status come with the position - as well as eight wives. But Adongo is a converted Christian who hopes to bring his family to Canada. If he refuses, the Anyuaks will be thrown into anarchy. An extraordinary story of a man torn by tribal obligation and family loyalty.




  • The organisers of the Cambridge Super 8 Film Festival 2008 visited the society to talk about the Super 8 format, their Super 8 group and the festival itself. They screened some of the shorts from last year’s festival. Visit their website for more information about the festival.

  • In association with the Cambridge branch of campaign group, Hands off Venezuela, we presented John Pilger's controversial documentary The War on Democracy . John Pilger is a critically acclaimed documentary maker and journalist for the Guardian. The War on Democracy is his first major film for the cinema - in a career that has produced more than 55 television documentaries. Set in Latin America and the US, it explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile.

  • Finally, Cambridge student Tianqi Yu presented 'Photographing Shenzhen', her film which which was previously broadcast on the Discovery Channel. Shenzhen is a 26-year old city built up by migrants and among the first cities open to the world in modern China. Tianqi moved there with her family at the age of nine. For the Chinese New Year celebration, her father - the photographer Yu Haibo - took her to the places he used to visit and showed her how Shenzhen has changed. In Photographing Shenzen we experience the development of modern China through what she saw and with her own family story as migrants.