When: Tuesday, 6. December 2011 18:30
Where: Manchester, The Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street, M1 5BY
Host: English PEN
Contact: (intern@englishpen.org)
More info: www.englishpen.org/events/penevents/Nobel%20Prize%20Winners:%20One%20Year%20On%20/
‘I have no enemies’: Liu Xiaobo (Running time: 30 minutes)
Liu Xiaobo, one of China’s preeminent dissident writers and activists and Honorary President of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC), is the only Nobel laureate currently in detention. Liu was arrested in December 2008 on the eve of the release of Charter 08, an extraordinary declaration he had co-authored calling for political reform, greater human rights, and an end to one-party rule. He was held in a windowless room for more than six months before being formally charged. On 25 December 2009, Liu was convicted of incitement to subversion and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
In 2010, Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his long and non-violent struggle for human rights”. Following the announcement of the prize, the Chinese authorities tried to undercut the award in every way possible. They blocked news reports about the prize; warned foreign governments not to send representatives to the award ceremony; arrested and harassed many of Liu’s supporters, friends, and family; and prevented his wife, Liu Xia, and other family members from travelling to Oslo for the official award ceremony. A year on, she continues to be held largely incommunicado and effectively under house arrest; she is watched by police and prohibited from seeing all but a few family members.
The 30-minute documentary, directed by Claudine Parrish and produced by Nobel Media, features interviews with many of Liu Xiaobo’s friends and colleagues, including celebrated international artist Ai Weiwei. Other interviewees include fellow Tiananmen hunger striker Zhou Duo, President of Independent Chinese PEN Center Tienchi Martin-Liao, and Thorbjørn Jagland, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
In English and Mandarin, with English subtitles.
A Portrait of Mario Vargas Llosa (Running time: 29 mins)
This documentary introduces the 2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature and President Emeritus of PEN International, Mario Vargas Llosa. Vargas Llosa received last year’s prestigious award “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat” in such books as Conversation In The Cathedral, The War of the End of the World, and The Feast of the Goat.
The documentary presents an interview with the Peruvian writer, and explores his life experiences from military dictatorship, a dominating father and political extremes and how these memories are mirrored in his writing. The film also includes readings of extracts from his novels, helping to bring Vargas Llosa’s literature to life.
In Spanish, with English subtitles.
Q&A on the work of English PEN
The screening will be followed by a Q&A on the work of English PEN with Amanda Hopkinson (Professor of Literary Translation at Manchester University) an English PEN board member and a member of its Writers in Prison Committee, and poet John Siddique, a long-standing PEN member who is very involved in PEN’s education programme, Readers and Writers.
How to book
The event is free but as space is limited please reserve your place in advance by emailing intern@englishpen.org
