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Manon Haag

A graduate of our MSc in Film, Exhibition and Curation, Manon is the marketing coordinator of the Africa in Motion film festival.

Name

Manon Haag
Degree 

MSc in Film, Exhibition and Curation
Year of Graduation 2016
Manon Haag

Why did you choose the University of Edinburgh?  

Before arriving in Edinburgh, I had studied different aspects of film at both Lycée Jacques Prévert and Université Denis Diderot in Paris. Freshly arrived in Scotland, the Africa in Motion Festival was the first opportunity given to us as a new masters cohort on the Film, Exhibition and Curation programme. I was intrigued, having been seldom exposed to African films despite seven years of studying cinema.

So I volunteered for the festival to get to know Edinburgh’s audiences and make new friends but, I must stress, without thinking it would prove as useful as it did in finding jobs in the future. Now I couldn’t recommend more trying out volunteering for such an inclusive and friendly organisation.

Tell us about your experiences since leaving the University

Having completed my masters at the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) in 2016, I won a highly competitive and fully-funded Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Scholarship to complete my PhD at the University of Glasgow.
 

I am also now the Africa in Motion Festival’s marketing coordinator. My role includes an element of research into the films in the programme and their production contexts. I enjoy working in a position where I am stepping out of my comfort zone and my research interests to discover exciting and stimulating films and facts, and become familiar with a number of historical and political issues in African arts.

This year, we had a very strong programme with some classic gems such as 'Trances', a documentary restored by Martin Scorsese, and 'Al-Mumia', regardsed as the ‘Citizen Kane' of Egyptian cinema, which was screened at a lavish red carpet night at the Dominion Cinema. 

We also organised an exciting programme in partnership with a research group at LLC focusing on Afro-Latin Visibility in Focus, which involves screenings and discussions across Edinburgh and Glasgow, with input from invited speakers including Ramón Perea Lemos, Dixie Lee, and Roberto Zurbano.

 
 

The networks I built during my time at Edinburgh, and my volunteering, have proved crucial in finding jobs, allowing me to stay in Scotland.

Manon Haag

Alumni wisdom

The networks I built during my time at Edinburgh, and my volunteering, have proved crucial in finding jobs, allowing me to stay in Scotland.

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