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Riada

Sun, 1 Dec 2024 16:48:23 GMT

In 2018, Colombia's second most powerful waterway was stopped because of a controversial infrastructure project: the Hidroituango dam. Once completed, this massive hydropower project is projected to provide for 20% of the country’s energy needs. Yet, the social and environmental impacts are perhaps equivalent in scale to the dam’s colossal size. Already the area's inhabitants have suffered forced displacement, massacres, and systematic persecution, along with a permanent alteration in their ways of living.

Riada is an ethnographic inquiry into the impacts of this infrastructure project. The film’s poetic construction brings to life the river and the communities who have waged a thirty year battle to preserve their way of life. The film takes viewers through the river waterways in the Hidroituango dam's influence area to meet peasants, gold panners, fishermen, and scientists. Finished on the verge of the dam's inauguration date, this 100-minute journey poetically connects the survivor's raw oral stories and the harrowing landscape in three acts: swirls, debris, and mutations.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

25th Bogota Int'l Documentary Showcase (MIDBO), Colombia 2024

19th Galician Ethnographic Film Showcase (MICE), Spain 2024

Latin American Anthropology Film Festival (ALA), Argentina 2024

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The First Contacts

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

The First Contacts
Buy Now: $295.00

With the colonization of Brazil's mid-West in the 1950s and the construction of the Transamazônica and other highways in the 1970s, whites began to make large-scale contact with Indians, with disastrous results. Epidemics decimated populations of groups such as the Cinta-Larga, with the deaths amounting in some cases to veritable genocide. Groups of Indians were separated from relatives, their land parceled out to settlers under the auspices a colonial mythology that advocated "progress" over the rights of indigenous people. Archive footage shows the "pacification" of the Xavantes People, the Cinta Larga People in Rondônia, and the Parakanas in the south of Pará, and how this catastrophic contact decimated these populations. Even into the year 2000, a FUNAI crew works to find small, still-isolated groups that might be under threat from farmers and prospectors. In this video, the last survivor of an annihilated people refuses to make contact.

Disclaimer on Naming:
Please be aware that this documentary may include outdated or potentially offensive language. Such terms are not endorsed by DER but are presented in their original context to promote awareness, education, and discussion. Learn more about DER’s efforts to use reparative language and honor the preferred names of Indigenous communities by clicking here.

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Joe Sun

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:12:00 GMT

Joe Sun
Buy Now: $295.00

Immaluuraq ("Joe Sun" in English) grew up moving among seasonal camps in the Kobuk River region of Alaska now resides in Shungnak. In this film, he describes the life of the earlier Kobuk settlements. He talks about women being isolated from the village when they are menstruating or when they are pregnant. He also talks about the predictions of the legendary Inupiaq prophet, Maniilaq, who was his great uncle.

Maniilaq foretold of things to come that would change the world and the way people lived in it, all of which happened just the way he said it would. Immaluuraq's talk is known as uqaaqtuaq. Such talks were given by elders to young people who came seeking information and advice.

Films in the Alaska Native Heritage Film series:

At the Time of Whaling

The Drums of Winter (Uksuum Cauyai)

From the First People

Note on Term "Eskimo":

The films in this series make use of the name "Eskimo." While once broadly applied, it is a perjorative term and considered offensive. While the inception of the word is a matter of debate, it is no longer used or applied in our film catalog. The context in which the term appears in this series is an acknowledged relic of a colonial past, presented in its original version. DER apologizes for any offense caused.

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The Last Yoik in Saami Forests?

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

The Last Yoik in Saami Forests?
Buy Now: $320.00

Made for the United Nations, this documentary chronicles the logging damage that has taken place in the forests of Finnish Lapland over the past 50 years. Home to the indigenous Saami peoples, these Northern old growth forests are essential to Saami reindeer herding, a traditional way of life that the Saami hope to continue into future generations. Population growth in Finland has created economic pressure - prompting migration to the Saami lands in the North. The resulting forest cutting severely depletes the lichen necessary for free reindeer grazing, and logging infrastructure disrupts the entire forest ecosystem. A tense conflict emerges between the alliance of Greenpeace and Saami activists, who in 2005 set up a "Forest Rescue Station" in the woods to stop the cutting, and logging workers, worried about losing their jobs, who create their own "anti-terror camp" in response. The situation becomes dramatic as those in the "anti-terror" camp continually assault the Greenpeace workers with noise and threatening behavior. Last Yoik in Saami Forests? implicates the state-owned logging company Metsahallitus in the exploitation of Saami resources, and shows that the Finnish government has done little to preserve this natural resource. The film explores possible economic alternatives to logging, such as tourism, as well as more efficient uses for Lappish timber than paper pulp, fuel or railways stocks - the wood is an excellent building material that could be commanding a higher price. The issue of indigenous land rights is the heart of the problem, and as of the completion of this film in 2007, it remains unresolved.

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Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000
Buy Now: $295.00

In the 1960s, the Nashua River in New Hampshire and central Massachusetts was one of the 10 most polluted in the country, clogged with multicolored, toxic sludge from nearby paper mills.

Around that time, housewife Marion Stoddart moved to the area with her family, so close to the river they could smell its noxious fumes. At a low point in her life, she decided to fight her own emptiness by taking on the biggest challenge she could find - cleaning up the Nashua.

Her dramatic success in mobilizing the community showed people that change was possible, even though they'd lost hope. Marion's efforts helped get the Massachusetts Clean Rivers Act passed so that companies weren't allowed to pollute rivers like the Nashua anymore. In the process, she won a United Nations award, was profiled in National Geographic, and had a widely-read children's book written about her. Her secret? An ordinary person can do extraordinary things when they refuse to give up.

Thanks to Marion, children in the Nashua River Watershed and around the world have come to understand that one person can make a difference, even when the odds seem impossible.

“Individuals like Marion Stoddart--who are able, against great odds, to effect significant environmental change within their lifetimes--are one of our best teaching tools and opportunities to inspire.”
— Professor Ninian Stein, San Jose State University

“A grassroots crusader for the Nashua River, Marion Stoddart serves alongside Rachel Carson as a powerful example of an individual's capacity to muster vast environmental change even in the face of industrial and political inertia. Edwards' film captures Stoddart's determination and single-mindedness with nuance and perspective, offering not only the story of her victories, but the personal and family risks she took to achieve them.”
— Caitlin Boyle, Founder, Film Sprout

“Work of 1000 is more than just a documentary detailing the success of environmental activism in changing things for the greater good; It is the story behind the success - that a person, a housewife in the 1960s - can do the work of a thousand and make a difference in the world. It's a powerful message; one we can all learn from.”
— Daniel Edmonds, Vox Magazine

“Having the screening of Work of 1,000 followed by an interview with Marion Stoddart was a compelling lifetime experience. When you learn what one 'ordinary' person can and did do, you are moved and inspired. ”
— Owen Smith Shuman, Director, Groton Public Library

"Americans feeling distraught as they watch thousands of gallons of oil pour into the Gulf of Mexico every day might take heart from this story about Massachusetts environmental visionary, Marion Stoddart.”
— John Dyer, Boston Globe

“Marion's story and the results of her work give me hope for the future.”
— Patricia B. Campbell, Ph.D. Researcher in Science and Math Education Equity

“This film provides unique learning opportunities and will enhance interest in the environmental science and engineering fields and leadership development for all.”
— Larisa Schelkin, Executive Director of the DOME Foundation

"Thanks to Susan Edwards' new documentary Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000, we get to meet one of America's most dedicated environmentalists.”
— Pamela Burke, The Woman's Eye

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Best Short Documentary, Silent River Film Festival, USA, 2012

Best Documentary Short, Rivers' Edge Festival, Paducah, KY, 2011

AT&T Award for Environmental Stewardship and Conservation, Arpa International Film Festival, 2011

Projecting Change Award, Project Change Film Festival, Vancouver Canada, 2011

Speak Out Award, 44th Annual Humbolt Film Festival, Arcata, CA, 2011

Best Short Documentary, Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival, New Zealand, 2010

Best "Call To Action", Green Screen Environmental Film Festival, Venice, CA 2010

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Melting Wok

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

Melting Wok
Buy Now: $295.00

Mainak Bhaumik's film provides insight into India's often-overlooked Chinese population, examining the thriving Chinatown in Kolkata, Bengal. There, skilled Chinese immigrants have historically established themselves in business - especially tanneries and shoemaking - and created a unique Indo-Chinese cuisine. Exploring the factors that make up Chinese-Indian identity, the film looks at the Indian cultural stereotypes of Chinese immigrants and the effects of government resettling of Chinese-Indians during the 1962 border conflict between the two countries. A portrait emerges of a hardworking and traditionally enclosed immigrant community, but one that is becoming increasingly assimilated with mainstream Indian culture.

Melting Wok pays attention to the unique contributions and experiences of Chinese-Indians, while also helping the audience to understand the larger phenomena of immigration and cultural identity.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

European Association of Social Anthropologists' Film, Video & New Media Festival, Slovenia, 2008

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Patagonia

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 10:57:00 GMT

Patagonia
Buy Now: $320.00

As a child, Father Alberto de Agostini dreamed of Tierra del Fuego, inspired by his brother Juan, publisher of the book Tierra del Fuego, and Don Bosco, founder of the Salesian order. After becoming a Salesian himself, Father de Agostini studied geography. In 1910, he finally fulfilled his dream and settled in Punta Arenas, where he lived until 1958. During these years he assiduously explored the region, discovering the unknown zones, such as the Ice Fields; baptizing creeks and hills; establishing maps and simultaneously filming these places. In 1945, he published The Andes of Patagonia. De Agostini filmed and photographed the last survivors of several ethnic groups.

Available for the first time in the U.S., de Agostini's 1928 film Patagonia documents the daily lives of the three native groups who inhabited Tierra del Fuego between Chile and southern Argentina: the Onas, the Alacalufes, and the Tehuelches. Featuring life amidst a rough terrain of rocky ice-capped mountains, majestic glaciers, and thunderous rapids, the film presents an early record of their hunting methods, healing rituals, clothes and basket making and way of life. Alberto also shows the colonization of Tierra del Fuego, from a rocky frigid terrain into an area with newly paved roads and agricultural productivity.

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