Sander Hölsgens

About

I am a visual anthropologist working with sound and moving images to explore skateboard cultures, experimental documentary practices, and troubled ecologies. I currently co-run Documenting Complexity, a collaborative research project on the intersection of documentary and activism. As a lecturer at the University of Groningen and Leiden University, I teach practice-led courses in media ethnography, audiovisual culture, and storytelling. My films are most recently screened at the British Museum, Royal Academy of Arts and London Korean Film Festival. In 2018, I finished my PhD on the South Korean skate scene. I then co-founded Pushing Boarders, an intentionally inclusive event on skateboarding connecting socially progressive groups and individuals.

Questions

What is the most important question (s) you need to know the answer to at this moment in time to empower you and our communities to reach a future you would be excited to live in?

“Is there a way to live together?” (Anna Tsing, 2019)

What exactly do you do and why?

I conduct long-term fieldwork to work alongside communities, build solidarity, and create space for alternative possibilities.

Links

Pushing Boarders 2019 Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjSX0yZuZYY&ab_channel=PushingBoarders

Hell and Marble: Inside South Korea’s Skate Scene: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a3ykez/hell-and-marble-inside-south-koreas-skate-scene

Skate and awake: how Skate Kitchen confronts skateboarding’s wall of machismo: https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/skate-kitchen-crystal-moselle-inclusive-skateboarding-collective-fiction-film

Building a Professional Skate Career with Candy Jacobs: http://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2020/04/02/building-skate-career-candy-jacobs/