What can going to the toilet in China tell us about encounters with the unknown?
The founder of feminist international relations, Cynthia Enloe, explains that to get a critical bottom-up understanding of international politics we need to switch from research in the halls of power to take “notes in a brothel, a kitchen, or a latrine.”
In this spirit, toilet adventures (2015, 15min) explores the politics of shitting in China.
It uses on-camera interviews with a dozen participants from China, Thailand, and the West to explore the very mundane personal experience of going to the bathroom in the PRC.
The film is part of the broader project that shifts away from the state-to-state framing of mainstream IR to explore issues at the cutting edge of critical IR and China studies: the role of person-to-person relations, the importance of the everyday, and the value of emotions and embodied knowledge.
The goal is to provide a nuanced view of encounters with the unknown—in this case, Chinese public toilets—and to show how different people addressed this alien situation, often with good humor: there was a lot of laughing as people recounted their uncomfortable experiences.
Credits
Bill Callahan: Director, Producer, Editor, Camera
toilet adventures was short listed for the AHRC's Research in Film Award for "Experimental" films in 2015
Festival appearances / awards
Short-listed for the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Research in Film Award, 2015
Riga Pasaules Film Festival, Riga, Latvia, April 26, 2018
Short Movie Club, Minsk, February 2017
Columbia Gorge International Film Festival, California, March 2016
Pune International Film Festival, India, January 2016
Lancaster University, UK, November 4, 2015
University of Erlangen, Germany, June 25, 2015
Goa International Film Festival, India, May-June 2015
Ethnografilm Festival, Paris, April 8-12, 2015
LSE Literary Festival Fringe, February 25, 2015
Riga Pasaules Film Festival, Riga, Latvia, April 26, 2018
Short Movie Club, Minsk, February 2017
Columbia Gorge International Film Festival, California, March 2016
Pune International Film Festival, India, January 2016
Lancaster University, UK, November 4, 2015
University of Erlangen, Germany, June 25, 2015
Goa International Film Festival, India, May-June 2015
Ethnografilm Festival, Paris, April 8-12, 2015
LSE Literary Festival Fringe, February 25, 2015
