Margaret Mead's Festival in the Digital Age

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Saturday, 05 November 2011 05:00

Written by Lynne Shannon

The 35th Annual Margaret Mead Film Festival is being held November 10 - 13, 2011 at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, New York City.

Originally known as the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, this is the longest-running showcase for international documentaries in the United States.

The festival was intended not only to give a voice to those who had not had the attention of the world, but also for filmmakers who wanted to make a difference by telling their stories and exposing their own experiences.

Says Ariella Ben-Dov, the Festival‛s creative director, "Every year the Mead Festival introduces audiences to cultures and communities that might otherwise be inaccessible. With filmmakers present at the screenings, the films spotlight the struggle to preserve traditions and cultures against great odds."

One of the highlights is the 35th Anniversary Retrospective, a "celebration of the festival’s most influential features over the past three decades".

Over the years, the topics have ranged from the endangerment of micro-cultures by the onset of progress to overlooked historic footnotes as the experience of European Gypsies during the Holocaust (Porraimos), and to current matters such as a stark look at our food supply (The Future of Food).

The Retrospective presents the following films:

• Trance and Dance in Bali by Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead (1952)
• Les Maitres Fous / The Mad Masters by Jean Rouch (1955)
• N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Woman by John Marshall, Adrienne Miesmer and Sue Cabezas (1980)
• Jero on Jero: A Balinese Trance Séance Observed by Linda Connor, Patsy Asch, Timothy Asch (1980)
• A Wife Among Wives, from David and Judith MacDougall‛s Turkana Conversations Trilogy (1982)
• Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance by Alanis Obomsawin (1993)

The Opening Night film is the New York premiere of Grande Hotel, directed by Lotte Stoops. Located in the West African seaside town of Beira, Mozambique, the once-luxurious hotel is now the haven of thousands of squatters.

The Closing Night film is Flames of God, directed by Meshakai Wolf. The film follows Romani songwriter and poet Muzafer Bislim on his journey from Macedonia to France for the International Biennial of Poets in Paris.

This year, the Mead Festival also presents Dreams of Outer Space, a film series about the human quest to conquer space.

A fitting addition, as this is Native American Heritage Month, is a screening of Skydancer, directed by Katja Esson. The film tells the story behind the iconic Charles C. Ebbets photograph "Lunch atop a Skyscraper," as told by descendants of some of the ironworkers, Native Americans of the Mohawk tribe from Akwesasne Reservation.

Following the screening there will be a live performance by Mohawk musicians Bear Fox and Katsitsionni Fox, along with the film's composer, Robby Baier.

Some of the other films are:

To the Light
directed by Yuanchen Liu
For many families in China, "coal mining has become a principal source of income and the only alternative to factory jobs in distant cities" despite serious, even fatally dangerous conditions.

Memoirs of a Plague
directed by Robert Nugent
The film follows entomologists and sage locals as they track locust invasions in Ethiopia, Egypt and Australia.

Jaguar
directed by Jean Rouch (1967)
The film chronicles the journey of three Nigerian men to Ghana‛s Gold Coast in 1953 in search of a better life. Since the film predates portable sound-sync, Rouch reassembled the film 10 years later and asked the three travelers to add their own narration.

A few films over the years have gone on to receive Academy Award nominations, but that is not the real focus here. This Festival is more hopeful of taking viewers from how-interesting to "What can I do?"

And nowadays, that question has a lot of answers.

For more information, visit www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2011.

Margaret Mead Film Festival
November 10 - 13, 2011

American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 77th Street
New York City
212-769-5100

HDFEST New York Saw the Future - It's Now

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 04 November 2011 05:00

Written by L E Shannon

The 2011 edition of HDFEST New York is taking place November 9 - 10, 2011 at Sony Wonder Technology Lab in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

Back in 2000, HDFEST foresaw the future of film and entertainment as going high-definition and digital to a degree few others believed at the time.

"HDFEST is digital democracy in action. High-Def has the potential to level the playing field between the big budgets and the indies more than any other technological breakthrough since digital video, and perhaps, ultimately even much more."

And we see this proliferating today.

The Opening Night film is the documentary feature from Australia, Last Stand at Nymboida, directed by Jeff Bird who co-wrote with Paddy Gorman. The film recounts the rebellion of a band of tough coal miners in Australia‛s most dangerous coal mine when they were faced wtih losing their jobs in 1975. The director is expected to attend.

Also screening:

Beatboxing-The Fifth Element of Hip-Hop
dir. Klaus Schneyder
In the late 1970s a youth culture emerged from disadvantaged neighborhoods of New York. It combined graffiti writing, DJing, break dancing and rapping, with the musical side flavored by "Beatboxing". The result of poverty and lack of instruments was one pioneering artist‛s idea to imitate drum rhythms with his mouth, coining the term "Human Beatbox". (A prime example of this ability is the actor Michael Winslow.)

Two series of short films include:

• Quirk of Fate
• Purple Flowers
• A Russian Elephant in the Room
• Missing Elizabeth
• Duet
• Dust Machine
• Perhaps Tomorrow
• Cookie
• Departures
• Passing Through
• A Musing
• Helen's Ducks

Also included are animation, experimental and music videos:

• Ivan – music video with vocalist Leika Mochan as vegetables in her kitchen take on lives of their own
• Rosewell – the rock band‛s music video, the first in Chile to use a 3D motion capture technique
• Chapel Song – music video for lovers
• Guovssahasa Nieida / Dancing Virgin – experimental dance film
• Ad Infinitum – an experimental film as "sculptural continuum" as it shifts between 3D and 2D designs
• Triboluminescence – an experimental "impression of constant movement and a seamless unfolding of glowing abstract forms"
• Hot Velcro Action – short film about the wonders of Velcro
• Place Stamp Here – animated short film about a girl and a black dog
• 8 Second Dance – a short film made by 12 students of Digital Animation Center

For more information, go to hdfest.com/hdfestnewyork2011.htm

HDFEST New York
November 9 - 10, 2011

Sony Wonder Technology Lab
Sony Plaza Public Arcade
56th Street & Madison Avenue
New York City

Other Israel in Film

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 04 November 2011 05:00

Written by Lynne Shannon

The 5th Annual Other Israel Film Festival screens November 10 - 17, 2011 at the JCC in Manhattan, New York City.

The Other Israel Film Festival presents films and panels about the history, culture and identity of Arab and other minority populations in Israel.

The Opening Night film is the New York premiere of the documentary Dolphin Boy, directed by Dani Menkin and Yonatan Nir. The film relates the saga of an Arab teenager from the North of Israel who, following brutal torture by classmates, suffered such severe PTSD that his last hope of recovery turned out to be dolphin-assisted therapy. The filmmakers will be present for Q&A.

The Closing Night film is My Lovely Sister, directed by Marco Carmel, starring Moshe Ivgy, Evelin HaGoel, Reymonde Amsellem. Based on a Jewish Moroccan folktale, the film is about rivalry between two sisters, one of whom has married an Arab man.

Some of the other films are:

Homecoming
dir. Orna Ben Dor, Noa Maiman
This documentary follows three non-Jewish Israeli teens who were born in Israel to foreign workers -- from the Congo, Peru and the Philippines. The film deals with the politics of immigration and culture in another venue.

Naomi (Hitpartzut X)
dir. Eitan Tzur
This thriller is about a 58-year-old Astrophysics professor who is obsessed with this young wife. He discovers and confronts his wife‛s lover -- and takes action.

The Human Turbine
dir. Danny Verete
In a Palestinian village in the Hebron Mountains surrounded by Jewish settlements, residents of both neighborhoods group together to develop their own wind and solar energy to provide electricity for the caves and tents the villagers call home.

Special Events:

The Festival joins with New York University‛s Taub Center for Israel Studies for a special presentation of the film 77 Steps, directed by Ibtisam Mara’ana. In this film, the director shares her experiences of discrimination as she attempted to find an apartment in Tel Aviv after leaving her Arab-Muslim village.  

The screening will be followed by panel discussion of the recently published book Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within with the co-authors Ilan Peleg and Dov Waxman, along with the director and other participants.

Under One Tent: Arab Participation in Recent Social Uprising in Israel – The panel discussion includes:

• Dov Waxman, author
• Noa Maiman, filmmaker/political activist
• Tamar Zandberg, Tel Aviv City Council Member
• Ibtisam Mara'ana, filmmaker

Palestinian Cinema in Israel – A conversation between filmmaker Mohammad Bakri and author Prof. Ella Shohat, whose groundbreaking Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation was recently re-published in a new edition.

Other Israel SpeakEasy Café – A steady stream of intimate conversations and in-depth discussions with filmmakers, scholars and experts, including:

• Eitan Tzur, director of Naomi (Hitpartzut X)
• Sabine Lubbe Bakker, Ester Gould, directors of Shout
• Sigal Emanuel, director of A Place of Her Own
• Yehuda Bitton, producer of The Human Turbine
• Ronit Kertsner, director of Torn
• Peter Kosminsky, director of The Promise

Other Israel for the Whole Family – Two presentations for adults and children alike are:

Storytelling – Snow in Jerusalem by Deborah Da Costa, a book about two boys who live in Jerusalem’s Old City and care for a beautiful stray cat -- without knowing it‛s the same cat.

Screening – The family film David & Kamal, directed by Kikuo Kawasaki. Kamal, an Arab Jerusalemite and David, an American Jew, are 9-year-old boys who meet in Jerusalem's Old City where Kamal is "dodging bullies and trying to sell postcards". They become friends as they go through unexpected adventures together.

Says founder Carole Zabar, "Through these films, the festival aims to present the lives, dreams and strengths of the Arab minority and to show their participation in Israeli life.

"Growing up in a democratic Jewish state has without any doubt shaped the cultural and national identity of all of its inhabitants and citizens -- who know no other home. These films and artistic expressions are paving the way to co-existence and a new, more inclusive culture in the Middle East."

For more information, visit www.otherisrael.org.

The Jewish Community Center (JCC)
The Samuel Priest Rose Building
334 Amsterdam Avenue at W 76th Street
New York City
646-505-5708
www.jccmanhattan.org