An event showcasing an unmissable two and a half hours of the best action and adventure films from around the world.
Excess proceeds generated by ticket sales will be donated to the England and Wales Mountain Rescue (charity No.222596). The more tickets we sell the more money we can donate to this admirable cause!
The films we are excited to show you:

ALONE ON A RIVER

In November 2012, an international team of paddlers set out for the distant reaches of the Langu Khola, in the recently opened Dolpo region of Nepal. It took them a month to complete the mission, trekking over 5,000m passes and paddling class 5 rapids for 560 kilometres in remote locations, utterly alone and without hope of rescue if something went wrong. In their words; one of the most rewarding expeditions in kayaking history.

COMPULSION

A short film which examines the lure of cave exploration, and the personal motives that draw cavers back – even to the point of pushing the dangerous boundaries of a cave system.

DOWN THE LINE

A handful of dedicated Vancouverites are bringing a new sport to their local mountains, a sport that has always been linked exclusively to Utah and the Alps: canyoneering. Against all expectations, the surroundings of Vancouver are an amazing playground for canyoneers and one thing sets the region apart from all others; none of the canyons have ever been explored. Nobody even knows where they are. We follow Damien and Liucia in their quest for ‘first descent’ canyons in the mountains of Squamish, in a cinematic journey down deep slots and magnificent waterfalls. Their love for exploration is dangerous and very committing. Once in a canyon, the only way out is down!

IMAGINATE

Two years in the making, street trials rider Danny MacAskill releases his brand new riding film. Whilst previous projects have focused on locations and journeys, MacAskill’s Imaginate sees Danny take a completely different approach to riding. Enter Danny’s mind and enjoy…

ROCKIN CUBA

Striking a subtle balance between a musical and a pure sport-climbing movie, this film is the fruit of many years of labour. The movie leaves no detail to chance; everything fits smoothly and seamlessly together. The musicians accompany the climbers in an intricate dance that pushes the genre of films to new heights. This is first and foremost the story of six climbers traveling to Cuba to put up new sport routes; Mickaël Fuselier and Nina Caprez are joined by Enzo Oddo, Mélissa Le Nevé, Cédric Lachat and Sébastien Boussogne. This fun-loving group bolted an entire area of new routes in the Viñales Valley, but there’s an entirely different adventure, bringing together the movie’s characters through music.

THE BOY WHO FLIES (festival cut)

Following a dream, Canadian paraglider pilot Benjamin Jordan travels to Malawi to teach children the joys of kite flying. There he meets Godfrey, a young man who has always dreamed of flying though has never had the means.The odd pair tour the country on bikes, building kites with local children while motivating them to follow their dreams, no matter the challenge. They are destined for Malawi’s highest peak, where after weeks of ground training, the two will attempt to fly down and make Godfrey the first Malawian paraglider pilot. Observing himself through the eyes of the Malawians, Jordan must come to grips with truths about who he is as a westerner, while Godfrey is required to reach deeper into his faith than ever before as he prepares to leap off a mountain and trust the paraglider. Shining a new light on Malawian culture and lifestyle, “The Boy Who Flies” dives deep into the unique perspectives of both characters as they confront and overcome the challenges on their journey, each in their own unique way.

WRANGELLED

The Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska is 13.2 million acres full of spectacular mountains and glaciers. In April of 2013, four friends ventured into a remote section of the park to live on a glacier for two weeks, setting up base camp in the centre of untouched terrain, below some incredible ski lines…

Deconstruction as Old Testament midrash, with New Testament implications.

Valentine Cunningham is a University Lecturer (CUF) in English, Professor of English Language and Literature and Vice-President of Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford. He has previously served as Dean of Corpus as well as Chair of the Oxford English Faculty, and was made a titular Professor of English Language and Literature in 1996. He works widely across literary-historical-cultural periods, areas and genres, as well as in literary theory. Originally and still a Victorianist, he has edited the Blackwells Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetics, Adam Bede (Oxford World Classics) and Reading Victorian Poetry Now (forthcoming, 2011). He maintains a strong interest in fiction, especially more recent fiction including Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Iris Murdoch. A main research interest has been and remains the literature of the 1930s, not least the writing of the Spanish Civil War. In more recent times, he has published extensively on musico-literary topics, on Theology- and Bible-and-Literature, as well as in literary theory.

Upstairs, in the function room, at the Mitre. 7:30pm with drinks and nibbles served from 7pm.

Please share the event with anyone who might be interested.

Professor of Caribbean Literature and Culture at Goldsmiths University, Joan Anim-Addo brings us her voice on Black Women’s Writing and the place of the Black figure in the Humanities. This event will be hosted in connection with Oxford ACS.

In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, a persistent interest in technology emerged in both avant-garde and mainstream literature, and this multimedia presentation by Dr Eric White (Oxford Brookes University) and collaborators examines how radical reading and writing pushed the boundaries of technology into fascinating, and sometimes disturbing, new spaces (ages 12+).
Part of the Oxford Brookes University OutBurst festival at Pegasus, 6-10 May 2014. #OutBurst2014

Writer of autobiography, poetry, fiction and journalism and Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths University Blake Morrison brings some of his latest work and interesting discussion to St. Anne’s.

Popular Representations of Development takes a novel approach to the broad discipline of development studies that goes beyond narrow policy or social science frameworks. Instead, the authors reassess the breadth and popularity of development studies through analysis of literature, films, and other non-conventional forms of representation.

Encompassing the FLJS programmes in development and law, film, and literature, this book colloquium invites attendees to rethink their understanding of development issues in favour of a holistic approach.

Participants include

Professor David Lewis, editor of Popular Representations of Development and Professor of Social Policy and Development, LSE

Dr Catherine Jenkins, Lecturer in Law and Chair of the Centre for Law and Conflict, SOAS

Dr Tim Markham, Head of Department, Media and Cultural Studies, Birkbeck

Dr Amir Paz-Fuchs, Lecturer in Employment Law, University of Sussex

Martin Wynne, Digital Methods Specialist, Oxford e-Research Centre

Professor Roger Griffin (Oxford Brookes University), author of ‘Terrorist’s Creed’, will draw upon actual examples of terrorist attacks and a number of films in this talk to help explain why ‘ordinary’ individuals carry out violent attacks, and what possibilities might exist for deradicalization (for years 14+).
As part of the Oxford Brookes University Festival, Outburst, at Pegasus, 6-10 May 2014. #OutBurst2014

Professor Sally Shuttleworth, Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford and Dr Sally Frampton, Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the University of Oxford, will both talk about the role of Citizen Science in their AHRC Constructing Scientific Communities: Citizen Science in the 19th and 21st Centuries project.

The project uses the framing of ‘Citizen Science’ to consider how ‘public’ participation in science was understood in the nineteenth century. The project brings together historical and literary research in the nineteenth century with contemporary scientific practice, looking at the ways in which patterns of popular communication and engagement in nineteenth-century science can offer models for current practice.

Join English PEN (the literary network which works to defend and promote free expression) for an evening of poetry and debate, with discussion about how publishing and human rights campaigns can join forces to help writers from across the world (ages 15+).
As part of the Oxford Brookes University Festival, Outburst, at Pegasus, 6-10 May 2014. #OutBurst2014

Novelist Ali Smith, author of Artful, Hotel World, and The Accidental, returns to St. Anne’s after holding the Weidenfeld Visiting Professorship in European Comparative Literature in 2012.

William Kelly: Artist of Conscience
Thursday 8 May 2014, 6.30-7.30pm (drinks from 6.15pm)

Ashmolean Museum Education Centre
(Evening entrance via St Giles)

Internationally acclaimed US artist William Kelly talks about his life and work. Kelly’s varied career has seen him work as a taxi driver and a welder, before he went on to become a Fulbright Scholar and Dean at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne. Today Kelly is known as a painter and printmaker and an artist of conscience, committed to a humanist approach in his creative practice. Part of the Why Art Matters series.

Booking essential – £8/£7
http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/ticketsoxford/#search=Conscience

The spiritual and second-order sense of scripture, according to which, for example, the crossing of the Red Sea denotes Baptism, and Jacob’s ladder denotes the cross, presents at least two epistemological challenges. First, the history of interpretation suggests that some kind of collective judgment has been made between acceptable and unacceptable interpretations, but the rules for making these judgments are unclear. Second, for a variety of reasons, spiritual interpretations of specific persons, objects or events in scripture cannot add to theological knowledge through argumentation. A further challenge, that the spiritual sense depends on belief in providential special divine action (SDA), ought not to exclude the study of this interpretation according to its own principles but may have contributed to a comparative neglect of this topic. Despite its historical popularity and influence, recent academic work on the spiritual sense has therefore been limited.

In this seminar, I examine the spiritual sense in the light of recent work in neuroscience. I argue that although particular spiritual interpretations are dependent on a body of pre-existing theological propositions, and cannot add to these propositions directly, this does not mean that these interpretations lack cognitive value. On the contrary, the spiritual sense is the fruit of a kind of insight most commonly associated with the right hemisphere of the brain, associating embodied experiences with otherwise abstract theological statements and integrating such statements within shared narratives. I further examine work on partial brain dysfunction to underline the risks involved from a neglect of the spiritual sense, and consider practical implications for religious life.

Dr Pinsent is Research Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, a member of the Theology and Religion Faculty at Oxford University and a research fellow of Harris Manchester College. He was formerly a physicist at CERN, has degrees in philosophy and theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University and a second doctorate, in philosophy, from St Louis University. He is the author of The Second-Person Perspective in Aquinas’s Ethics: Virtues and Gifts, and a wide range of other publications on virtue ethics, neurotheology, science and religion, the philosophy of the person, divine action, and the nature of evil.

THIS SEMINAR WILL BE HELD AT THE SUTRO ROOM, TRINITY COLLEGE AT 8:30PM, PRECEDED BY DRINKS AT 8:15PM.

Between the artist and the museum

Friday 9 May 2014, 5-6.30pm (doors will open at 4.45pm)

Ashmolean Museum Headley Lecture Theatre

A symposium with Michael Govan (Humanitas Visiting Professor in Museums, Galleries & Libraries at Oxford University) and Vik Muniz (Artist). Chaired by Paul Hobson (Director, Modern Art Oxford).

Free admission but booking is essential.
http://www.humanities.ox.ac.uk/humanitas/museums-galleries-libraries

Labour MP for Rhondda since 2001. Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform since October 2013. Author of several books including Parliament: The Biography. Part of the Mansfield Lecture Series, convener Baroness Helena Kennedy QC

Step inside the parlour and drawing room of an eighteenth-century home, and together with Dr Nicole Pohl (Oxford Brookes University) and musicians, enjoy readings, music, and the authentic sewing session of a ‘huswif’!
Part of the Oxford Brookes University OutBurst festival at Pegasus, 6-10 May 2014. #OutBurst2014

India: A Short History
With Andrew Robinson, author

Saturday 10 May, 2-3pm, Headley Lecture Theatre

India is the world’s largest democracy and a fast-growing economy. It is also a civilization with roots more than four thousand years old, including the technically advanced cities of the Indus Valley, the Buddha, Hindu dynasties, the Mughal Empire, and the British Raj. This lecture looks at individuals, ideas, and cultures, as well as the rise and fall of kingdoms, political parties, and economies.

Tickets £5/£4
http://www.ashmolean.org/events/Lectures/?id=132

Led by David Aldridge, an academic philosopher, educationalist and experienced role-playing enthusiast, this evening is intended for curious or experienced gamers alike to sample Dungeons and Dragons, celebrating collaborative storytelling and raising serious questions about ethics, metaphysics, and our own potential as human beings (ages 16+).
Part of the Oxford Brookes University festival, Outburst, at Pegasus, 6-10 may 2014. #OutBurst2014

A collaboration between the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre and the Archway Foundation (an Oxford-based mental health charity), this event will feature writing produced by the Archway Foundation’s services during workshops with Brookes’ creative writing students.

In this lecture series, Naomi Richman explores the evolution of the ideas central to major global belief-systems such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Marxism, and their status in the modern world from a social-scientific and secular perspective.

6 Lectures run on Mondays starting the 12th May.
6-7pm, Roy Griffiths Room. ARCO Building, Keble College.
Free, open to all, and followed by discussion.

Weeks 1 and 2: Christianity and Secularisation. Week 3: Buddhism. Week 4: Judaism. Week 5: Islam. Week 6: Marxism, Nationalism and Scientific Humanism

For more information, contact Dr Bea Prentiss,

A view from the Pacific: re-envisioning the art museum

Tuesday 13 May 2014, 5-6.30pm (doors will open at 4.45pm)

Ashmolean Museum Headley Lecture Theatre

A lecture by Michael Govan (Humanitas Visiting Professor in Museums, Galleries & Libraries at Oxford University). Chaired by Professor Christopher Brown (Director, Ashmolean Museum). The event will be followed by a drinks reception to which members of the audience are warmly invited.

Free admission but booking is essential.
http://www.humanities.ox.ac.uk/humanitas/museums-galleries-libraries

Tour: Joseph Beuys & Jörg Immendorff
With Colin Harrison, Senior Curator of European Art

3–3.45pm on Wednesday 14 May and Wednesday 11 June

Tours are free, no booking is required. Please meet in Gallery 2.

http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/details/?exh=92

Short talk followed by questions and discussion. All welcome.

Magic Museums at Night

Special Ashmolean Late Night Opening
Friday 16 May
7–10pm

FREE ENTRY

For 2014’s Museums At Night event, the Ashmolean is putting on an evening of magic. Curators will be presenting the magical and mystical objects of the collection while visitors are invited for magic shows and workshops, tarot reading, stargazing, flamenco dance and more.

https://www.facebook.com/events/448472011951907/

Magnificence, Love and Scaffolds: Politics at the Court of Henry VIII, With Dr Suzannah Lipscomb
Saturday 17 May, 11am–12pm, Ioannou Centre

Historian, author, and broadcaster Dr Suzannah Lipscomb will speak on the politics of spectacle, persuasion, magnificence, and the politics of love at the court of Henry VIII. The court revolved around the splendid person of the king himself. And although politics was the only game worth playing, it was a dangerous game, ‘for the most part’, Sir Thomas More observed, ‘played on scaffolds’.

Tickets £8/£7
http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/ticketsoxford/#search=Magnificence

Clay Live – Special Ceramics Demonstration
With Clive Bowen and Dylan Bowen

Sunday 18 May, 10.30am-3.30pm
Ashmolean Museum Education Centre

Slipware specialists, father and son, Clive and Dylan Bowen demonstrate their work and talk about what has influenced their pottery.

£25/£20 concessions, booking essential.
http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/ticketsoxford/#search=clay

In “The Soul of the World”, renowned philosopher Roger Scruton defends the experience of the sacred against today’s fashionable forms of atheism. He argues that our personal relationships, moral intuitions, and aesthetic judgments hint at a transcendent dimension that cannot be understood through the lens of science alone. Join us for what is sure to be a fascinating, thought provoking evening with one of our most high profile philosophers.

How can we rewild animals to today’s environment?
How does the future of lethal viruses is going to be? Are they going to stick around with us as long as humanity exists

Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum – Beatrice Blackwood Lecture 2014
With doors opening at 18.00 for a drinks reception in the Pitt Rivers Museum, join the Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum for author and biographer Victoria Glendinning’s lecture on Sir Stamford Raffles, maverick colonial administrator and founder of Singapore.

Note: Entry via the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road.

http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/specialevents.html#raffles

On Thursday 22nd at 6pm the Simpkins Lee will host a panel discussion exploring the battle for women’s education. Featuring a heavyweight line-up of Jane Robinson (author of the bestselling ‘Bluestockings’), Sarah Pine (OUSU VP for Women), Lyndall Gordon (alumni and Fellow of St. Hilda’s College) and Tim Whitmarsh (Head of ‘Women and the Humanities’ at TORCH), it promises to be a smashing 45 minute insight into the world of women’s colleges, the battle for equality, and why ‘women’s studies’ deserves a place on the curriculum.