Documentary Educational Resources - Subject / Music, Dance & Theater / Dance / All Films

SanDance!

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 10:15:02 GMT

Set in the transcendent dance culture of Africa’s San First Peoples, SanDance! celebrates humanity’s original essence of dance.

This enchanting film follows San dancers from rehearsals in remote villages in Namibia, South Africa and Botswana to their electrifying performances at the Kuru San Dance Festival in Botswana. Held on full moon, the festival draws San dancers and musicians from across southern Africa to the largest annual gathering of San peoples. The film expresses the hopes and dreams of San dancers as they strive to revitalize their beautiful dance traditions, which are threatened by ongoing marginalization of the San’s fragile hunter-gatherer culture.

Radiating from the Kuru San Dance Festival into the visionary world of the trance-healing dance, SanDance! illuminates the spiritual traditions that underpin ancestral San culture across southern Africa.

Proceeds from SanDance! directly benefit the KDT, and the dance groups featured in this film.

“The film’s immersion into Southern Africa’s indigenous cultures touches on a wide berth of subjects including ancient history, recent history, colonialism, genocide, dance, language, subsistence, ecology, and philosophy. Because of its shorter runtime and mass of content, SanDance! will easily fit into many curricula.” – Frank Gunderson, Yearbook of Traditional Music

“SanDance! is billed as a journey to the heart of Africa’s original dance culture, but it’s much more than that. It opens a door into a segment of African culture that is in danger of dying out... Richard Wicksteed has spent decades filming and working with the San, making at least 10 films of varying length. The level of acceptance and their trust in him is clear from this sensitive and well-paced portrayal of an important culture under threat... I watched [the film] more than once, and still want to watch it again. For the dance. For the music. For the story. For the pleasure.” – Michael Britton, Music in Africa

Selected Screenings & Awards

Best Documentary, Garden Route Int'l Film Festival, South Africa, 2021

Award of Excellence, Documentary Feature, Impact Docs Award, 2021

Globe Award, ARFF, Barcelona, Spain 2021

Best Cinematography, International Feature, Thin Line Festival, USA 2021

International Council for Traditional Music, Ghana, 2023

Award of Excellence - Original Score, Docs Without Borders, USA, 2021

Award of Excellence, IndieFEST Film Awards, USA 2021

Best Cinematography, ABQ Indie Film Fest, USA, 2021

Best Feature - Documentary, Bucharest Film Awards, Romania, 2021

Buenos Aires Film Festival, Brazil, 2021

Osaka International Film Festival, Japan, 2021

Garifuna International Indigenous Film Festival, USA, 2021

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dancedance/RE♦VOLUTION

Tue, 9 Oct 2018 15:11:00 GMT

dancedance/RE♦VOLUTION
Buy Now: $125.00

dancedance/RE♦VOLUTION is an introduction to the vibrant diversity of contemporary dance in South Africa. Rooted in both tradition and the idioms of modern movement, this half-hour documentary introduces new audiences to work ranging from site-specific solos to multi-media physical theater.

The struggle for freedom is ongoing in post-apartheid South Africa. Dancemakers are discovering new opportunities and new language to address issues of race and gender, utilizing fresh approaches grounded in history, memory and personal identity.

Featured Choreographers:

Gregory Maqoma — Headlined the American Dance Festival 2015 with his solo Exit/Exist
Jay Pather — Choreographer of Firebird, which was performed at the Hollywood BowlOscar Buthelezi — First African choreographer to win the prestigious Kurt Jooss Prize for Choreography
Lliane Loots — Founder of JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, Artistic Director Flatfoot Dance Company
Mzo Gasa — Founder and director of the Sibonelo Dance Project
Athena Mazarakis — Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award for "elev(i)ate2" at the NationalArts Festival, South Africa

“South Africans are a nation who dance ... and revolutions need beauty.”— Lliane Loots, Choreograper

SCREENINGS & AWARDS

The Big Muddy Film Festival, Southern IL University, 2018

LA Dance Film Festival, Los Angeles, 2018

InShadow - Lisbon ScreenDance Festival, 2017

Videodança São Carlos, Brazil, 2017

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Candles for New Years

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Candles for New Years
Buy Now: $295.00

For 200 years, groups of Lahu have been migrating from southwestern China into the highlands of Southeast Asia's "Golden Triangle" region. Though they share much with other migrants in the ethnic patchwork of the region, the Lahu maintain a vigorous sense of themselves as a distinct people. New Years is their prime time for celebrating what it means to be Lahu. Candles For New Years is the first visual portrait of Lahu life prepared for English-speaking viewers. Anthropologist Jacquetta Hill has followed for more than a decade the fate of a group of Lahu who cleared the forest and built a community north of Chiang Mai, Thailand. In this film, she describes the Lahu New Year as celebrated by the community: the elaborate preparations to appease the spirits they rely upon to bring them good fortune, the dancing & feasting and the mingling with friends and relatives from sister villages.

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Carnaval de Pueblo

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Carnaval de Pueblo
Buy Now: $320.00

Carnival time is big in this small Spanish town in Andalusia. Appropriately described by a local as a 'newspaper', the carnival is a time of dressing up and coming together. The men compose 'spicy' songs about local affairs and sing their social criticisms of national events. This documentary films the composers and singers, as they get ready for the carnival, giving us a glimpse into the lives of the people, their homes and their families. When one composer names a parent of an illegitimate child, the townspeople debate the right of privacy and the difference between entertainment and insult during their irreverent festivities.

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The Cumana Devil

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

The Cumana Devil
Buy Now: $295.00

Luis del Valle Hurtado regularly transforms himself into a drumming, dancing "black satan" in a festival fusion of Indian, Spanish, and African symbols in his hometown of Cumana, Venezuela. Donning the dark garb of the devil, his particular satan is based on the popular image of St. Michael killing Lucifer. He performs at carnivals and regards himself as a cultural phenomenon who is furthering an old tradition. Aware that times are changing and that younger people have lost interest in wearing outlandish costumes, he practices his art with pride and considers himself to be the "true devil", the one who will never die. Although he refuses to teach anyone his craft, Hurtado is famous throughout the neighborhood and his performances are often imitated by children.

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Dances of the Kwakiutl

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Dances of the Kwakiutl
Buy Now: $295.00

Dances of the Kwakiutl is composed of fragments filmed in 1950 in Fort Rupert, British Columbia. They were made during a performance by those still familiar with the tradition of 'Hamatsa' or cannibal dancing. This type of dance was brought to impressive artistic heights by the Kwakiutl people of the Northwest coast.

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Deep Hearts

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Deep Hearts
Buy Now: $320.00

Deep Hearts is a film about the Bororo Fulani, a nomadic society located in the central portion of the Niger Republic of Africa. The title is a reference to an important aspect of these people's thought and demeanor. The Bororo are immensely beautiful. They are also extremely envious of each other's looks. This envy accounts for their truly suspicious nature; one which leads quickly to feelings of fear. They are particularly fearful of being 'devoured' by both the eyes and mouths of those around them with whom they compete as beautiful creatures. The concept of a deep heart is useful because it accommodates their fears by providing a metaphysical space in which to hide their true feelings.

Deep Hearts describes the Gerewol, an occasion during the rainy season when two different and competing lineages come together at a designated watering place to choose the most 'perfect' Bororo male. It is close to being a physical and moral beauty contest in which the winner, selected by a maiden of the opposing lineage, is acclaimed the 'bull.' The film is also an attempt to let this ceremony of the Bororo be a way of speaking to the larger question of choice itself, something which confronts all human beings at all times.

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Friend, Well Come!

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Friend, Well Come!
Buy Now: $295.00

Among the Senufo people of northern Côte d'Ivoire, the balafon (xylophone with calabash resonators) is an emblematic musical instrument.

Returning to Senufo country 40 years after his first encounter with balafon music in 1958, ethnomusicologist Hugo Zemp recalls memories of this and subsequent visits in the early 60s, before participating in a musical event of startling impact. Six orchestras, playing simultaneously but independently, circle with the dancers around the deceased person, who is swathed in fabric by the men before being buried.

The subjective camerawork of this first-person documentary shows us little by little the slow and irresistible build-up in the intensity of the event. An 18-minute sequence-shot allows us to live this unforgettable experience in real time without any interruption.

This DVD includes the extra features:
Senufo Balafons from Burkina Faso (4 min)
Siaka Plays the Maninka Balafon (3 min)
Xylophones Without Resonators (8 min)
Music Class in Abidjan (6 min)

Films in the Masters of the Balafon series

Friend, Well Come! (with 21 minutes of extras)

Funeral Festivities (with 24 minutes of extras)

The Joy of Youth (with 9 minutes of extras)

The Wood and the Calabash

About the Masters of the Balafon series

Balafon is the name given in French-speaking West Africa to a xylophone with calabash resonators. This instrument is emblematic of the Senufo people of the Côte d'Ivoire (the former Ivory Coast). The balafon is played under differing circumstances and in combination with different groups of instruments. Not for nothing do the peoples of the Côte d'Ivoire call the northern part of their country "the land of the balafon."

Filmed in long sequences to preserve the integrity of the music and speech of the musicians, this series of four documentaries introduces the audience to the fascinating world of a living musical tradition. Each documentary can be viewed independently, as a whole, or in sections indicated by chapter titles. The complete series lasts nearly 4 ½ hours (including extras), providing a full account of a sophisticated African musical tradition.

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From the Other Side of the Sky

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

From the Other Side of the Sky
Buy Now: $295.00

From the Other Side of the Sky explains the importance of religious ritual for Brazilian Indians and shows the diversity of religious practices among various groups. The Yanomami Indians, as one of their shamans explains, believe that Omami, the creator, holds up the sky. If no one practices religious rituals the sky will fall down.

Guardian of humans and nature, Omami takes care of everyone, including whites, because as the shaman says, "do you think the government will?" Pankaruru people reach their creator via "the enchanted," spirits summoned by a ritual called "the toré" that involves dancing and elaborate costumes. Maxacali society practices "hawk religion," in which animals play a symbolic role.

The video shows Maxicali people playing the Otter game, in which a man disguised as an otter spirit playfully snatches a child as the whole community watches and jokes. The creator "gave each tribe a religion. We have ours, and they have theirs," a Maxacali leader explains.

Films in the Indians in Brazil series:
A Different Story
The First Contacts
From the Other Side of the Sky
Our Languages
Our Rights
Our Territory
Who Are They?

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Fully Awake

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Fully Awake
Buy Now: $320.00

Hidden in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Black Mountain College (1933 - 1957) was an influential experiment in education that inspired and shaped twentieth century American art. Fully Awake: Black Mountain College is a documentary film that explores the college's progressive pedagogy and radical approach to arts education. Highly democratic and faculty-owned, the school promoted practical responsibilities and the creative arts as equally important components to intellectual development.

During WWII, Black Mountain College was a haven for refugee European artists such as Josef and Anni Albers who arrived from the Bauhaus in Germany. In the socially conservative 1940s and 50s, the college also became a refuge for the American avant-garde, (Franz Kline, John Cage, Buckminster Fuller, Merce Cunningham, Robert Creeley, Jacob Lawrence, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, and M.C. Richards). Fully Awake explores how the confluence of this diverse community came together to create a unique educational model.

Through narration, archive photography, and interviews with students, teachers, historians, and current artists, Fully Awake investigates the development of this very special place - the site of Buckminster Fuller's first geodesic dome, John Cage's first 'happening', and the Black Mountain Review - and how its collaborative curriculum inspired innovations that would change the very definition of "art." Through probing the legacy of Black Mountain College, Fully Awake points to a progressive pedagogical model that can continue to inspire students today.

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