Documentary Educational Resources - By Title / L / All Films

Light Upon Light

Mon, 2 Oct 2023 11:47:00 GMT

One day, an Egyptian friend gave Danish anthropologist Christian Suhr a piece of advice: Stop focusing on all the darkness in the world, and look at the light instead. Tired of studying the tensions between Muslim and Western world views in Europe, Suhr began to study religious experiences of light in post-revolutionary Egypt.

Light Upon Light explores how practitioners of Sufi Islam search for light at a time of deep darkness and political turmoil. Throughout his journey in Cairo and back home in Denmark, Suhr engages in conversations with friends and acquaintances while also observing and participating in rituals that open the hearts of practitioners to the light of God. While speaking to universal human concerns, the film offers a nuanced portrayal of religious practices as the filmmaker seeks to understand the experiences of those he meets as well as his own experience of divine light.

“Danish director and anthropologist Christian Suhr’s feature documentary offers a respectful yet compelling peek into the surprisingly diverse communities of Sufi worshippers within the Islamic tradition of Egypt.” – Deborah Young, Film Verdict

“It is groundbreaking that a Danish director (Christian Suhr) is part of an Arab production. It is a symptom of a greater transformation in the cultural power relationship between Western and Arab documentary filmmaking – a relationship that historically has been very unequal. For long there has been a hegemony, where Western production companies have led the productions of documentaries also from the Arab world. Here the hegemony is turned upside down.” — Rasmus Steen, Head of Documentary, IMS

Selected Screenings & Awards

Special Mention, Jean Rouch International Film Festival, France, 2023

Opening Film, Ethnofest – Athens Ethnographic Film Festival, Greece, 2022

World Premiere, CPH:DOX, Denmark, 2022

International Premiere, Cairo IFF, Egypt, 2022
German International Ethnographic Film Festival, Germany, 2024

Dhaka International Film Festival, 2024

Society of the Anthropology of Consciousness Annual Meeting, USA, 2024

Jean Rouch Hors-les-murs Festival, France, 2024
European Association of Social Anthropologists Conference, Spain, 2024

American Academy of Religion, USA, 2023

Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, Canada, 2023

Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) Film Festival, Canada, 2023

Freiburger Filmforum, Germany, 2023

Tripoli Film Festival, Lebanon, 2023

NAFA Film Festival, Denmark, 2023

Mind & Life Europe Conference, ESRi, Italy, 2023

FIFEQ Montreal, Canada 2023

FIFEQ Ville de Quebec, Canada 2023

Ethnocineca, Austria, 2023

Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt, 2023

Arabian Nights Festival, Cinemateque, Denmark, 2022

Amsterdam Ethnographic Filmday, Netherlands, 2022

Ethnokino, Switzerland, 2022

Practices, Aesthetics and Entanglements Conference, Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, 2022

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A Long Way Home

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:50:23 GMT

A Long Way Home
Buy Now: $320.00

A Long Way Home takes us on a fascinating journey into both the grim days of recent Chinese history and the dazzling cultural scene in present-day China. The film centers around five of the most significant representatives of contemporary Chinese counterculture: the visual artists the Gao Brothers, the choreographer and dancer Wen Hui, the animation artist Pi San and the poet Ye Fu. With bravery and subversive wit, they each shed light on the social problems in their country from their unique perspective. Their vision is of a democratic and humane civil society, and, increasingly, their struggle seems as relevant for the world today as it is for China.

Extras:

Interview with Luc Schaedler at Dharamshala International Film Festival (4:45 min)
Ye Fu - On Writing His First Poems (3:30 min)

Wen Hui - Are You A Proletarian? (2:30 min)
Pi San - On Leaving the Country (1 min)
Pi San - Blow Up School (original Kuang Kuang clip) (7:45 min)
Gao Shen - On His Long Way Home (1:30 min)

Selected Screenings
Nomination Prix de Soleure, Nomination für Swiss Film Award, Solothurner Filmtage, Switzerland, 2018

EPOS Intl. Art Filmfestival, Tel Aviv (Israel), 2020

Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels, France, 2019
42e Festival des films du monde Montréal, Canada, 2018
Dharamshala International Film Festival, India, 2018
Innsbruck International Film Festival, Austria, 2019

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Life Is a Very Strange Thing

Tue, 2 Jul 2019 09:22:22 GMT

Life Is a Very Strange Thing
Buy Now: $320.00

Life Is A Very Strange Thing is an intriguing mosaic of post-colonial France revealed through four generations of a remarkable French family.

Australian filmmakers Les McLaren and Annie Stiven last saw Frédéric Duvelle in the 1970s when he was a rebellious teenager recording traditional music in remote villages of Papua New Guinea. Forty years later, a chance reunion became an opportunity to fill in missing decades and to discover his remarkable family history, from his Governor grandfather in colonial Indochina to the populist politics and terror attacks of contemporary France.

We meet Frédéric's parents: mother Elisabeth, a politically engaged textile artist who raised Fred and his two sisters in a working-class suburb of Paris; and composer father Charles who grew up in Laos and Cambodia, and became celebrated for his pioneering recordings of traditional music in Africa.

Frédéric's recounts his own unlikely journey from school dropout, to ethnomusicologist then executive of a multinational garbage enterprise. He is a wily raconteur and avid collector of brocante. Shadowed by his endearing ancient dog Punch, encounters with friends in Paris and Bordeaux unfold rich layers of French culture and identity: an enigmatic African artist discusses Cubism; a cameo family lunch with a menu of oysters, history and politics; a 93-year-old WW2 Resistance veteran who forgives; and an irascible brocanteur who can't forget.

The youngest generation confront issues at the heart of cosmopolitan France: Frédéric's niece is an activist with FEMEN who protest against conservative values as the populist right-wing National Front is on the rise, and his daughter has a near encounter on the night of the Bataclan terror attack.

Life Is A Very Strange Thing is part road movie, part meditation. Its unique mix – of observation, archive footage from PNGand Indochina, indigenous music and rich sound design – evokes a lyrical and compelling portrait of family, place, politics, and memory.

“The film crackles with energy, fueled by Duvelle’s irresistible charm and intelligence; as a character, he’s every director’s dream: irascible and an oddball; cuddly, endearing and benevolent. A complex man encapsulated in a film that’s impressive in scope yet full of heart as an intimate study of a storied, colourful individual.” – John Catania, Metro Magazine

“An unusually nuanced, subtle, and insightful foray into the culturalpolitics of contemporary France.” – Steven Feld, School for AdvancedResearch, Santa Fe

“I haven't seen such a brilliantly crafted film for a long time. The film shows us that the story of France is not only local but includes the stories of travellers throughout the colonial and post-colonial world. Yet at the same time it carries us into the life of metropolitan France today with an intimacy that is thoroughly enjoyable.” – David MacDougall, Filmmaker & Film Scholar, Austrailian National University

SELECTED SCREENINGS

Cinematographiques de Cannes, France, 2018

Rencontres - cinema des Antipodes, St Tropez, 2018
Brisbane International Film Festival, Australia, 2017
Antenna Documentary Festival, Sydney, Australia, 2017

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The Last Bonesetter

Fri, 16 Nov 2018 14:21:00 GMT

The Last Bonesetter
Buy Now: $295.00

In some remote areas of the Peruvian Andes, such as the highland hamlet of Chugurpampa, traditional healers have all but disappeared. This is due largely to an unstable subsistence economy brought on by climate change, forcing frequent trips and even permanent outmigration to the coast, with the result that young people are not able to devote the time to learn the healing arts. Yet, due to the rigors of peasant life, there is still a high demand for the musculoskeletal healing tradition of bonesetting.

The Last Bonesetter: An Encounter with Don Felipe traces the career of one of the last "hueseros, " or bonesetters, in the area - 80-year-old Don Felipe. Medical anthropologist Kathryn Oths has long been concerned with the survival of indigenous healing. She first got to know and work with Don Felipe in the 1980s when she carried out 18 months of fieldwork in Chugurpampa. At that time, dozens of healers offered their services to the sick and injured. While she kept up with Don Felipe in the intervening years, she was stunned to discover upon her return 25 years later that he was the sole provider of traditional health care for the large hamlet. Besides being a well-known bonesetter and herbalist, over time he also took on the roles of midwife and a curer of illnesses that are unique to the Andes such as susto (soul loss from fright). While there is a modern medical health post in the hamlet where he lives, it is seldom staffed by doctors and has few medicines to prescribe, Don Felipe is the only reliable source of health care who people trust for miles around.

Hoping to demonstrate the value of bonesetting and inspire younger generations to continue his legacy of traditional healing, Oths and her research team facilitated a conference at a regional hospital to showcase Don Felipe’s techniques and prowess on local patients for academics, doctors, and healers from around Peru. The ethnographic portrait of Don Felipe, set against a backdrop of breathtaking mountain landscapes, embeds him in his local culture and the everyday routines of life. This is a story of the mission to save the knowledge of one of the last remaining healers of his kind in the northern Peruvian Andes before it’s too late, including current efforts to find him an apprentice.

Also included on the DVD

Así Sobrevivimos (How We Survive): Getting By in a Changing Climate (7 min, 2018)

In Chugurpampa, high in the northern Peruvian Andes, a changing climate is putting pressure on a peasant agricultural community already living close to the margins. While the highlanders have historically subsisted on what they raise—which includes a wide array of vegetables, grains, tubers, and livestock—in recent years, disease, drought, and hail have destroyed harvests. Many families, unable to cope with these calamities, have abandoned their lands for opportunities on the coast. Whereas 25 years ago traditional healers were abundant, few now enter healing roles as a result of the instability. The only remaining traditional provider is Don Felipe Llaro, an 80-year-old bonesetter and herbalist. The future of an ancient medical tradition is in peril.

Selected Screenings and Awards

Honorable Mention, Jury for Music, Archaeology Channel International Film Festival, 2020

Ethnografilm Festival, France, 2016

Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival (AAA), 2016

First Medical Anthropology Symposium in Peru, 2016

Society for Applied Anthropology, Vancouver, BC, CA, 2016

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The Living Maya

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 13:21:00 GMT

The Living Maya
Buy Now: $340.00

This series documents life in a Yucatan village, focusing on one family over the course of a year. The films explore the ancient agricultural and religious customs that ground contemporary Maya life in traditional values – even as modern Mexico comes to the village.

Part 1Introduces the village of Chican and the Colli-Colli family, and examines the structure of Maya agricultural and village life.

Part 2Hard-pressed by an illness in the family, the Colli-Colli face financial and emotional challenges using traditional solidarity to muster resources and comfort. Drought threatens the village's crucial corn crop.

Part 3As the Colli-Colli resolve their difficulties and the village harvests a mediocre corn crop, viewers are left with an understanding of the underlying rationales of Maya life and with questions about their own assumptions, priorities, and values.

Part 4The Colli-Colli's two youngest sons plead to be placed in school in Merida – the first of their family to reject traditional life.

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¡Luchando!

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

¡Luchando!
Buy Now: $320.00

Shot in Cuba in 1994, ¡Luchando! examines how people were surviving the hardships caused first by the US "blockade" of Cuba (beginning in the early 1960s) and increased by the more recent loss of trade with the countries of Eastern Europe. The film portrays the everyday life, atmosphere and character of Cuba at the time of filming.

The central personality in the film is Abel Prieto, who is both the President of UNEAC, the national writers and artists union, and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The film features a variety of local performing artists including a dissident theater group in Havana, a more traditional African theater group in Santiago, and the film star Jorge Perugorria. Also included are street interviews exploring the range of the peoples feelings for their country, and contemporary Cuban music.

Made by Australian documentary filmmaker, Russel Porter was invited to teach at the international film and television school (EICTV) located some forty kilometers from Havana. While there, Porter took the opportunity to make a film about life in Cuba today. Apart from Russel and producer Denise Patience, the film crew was Cuban: cinematographer Alejandro Perez, sound recordist Lenin de los Reyes, production manager Elaine Santos, and local liaison Alex Alday.

The film is useful for Latin American studies, political science programs, cultural studies; theater, art, music, and human rights programs.

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A Life Without Words

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

A Life Without Words
Buy Now: $320.00

What would life be like without language? For too many deaf people raised in rural outposts, access to a sign-language community is denied and they are condemned to a life without words.

Such injustice deserves our attention and is explored with care in this haunting story of two deaf siblings, Dulce Maria (28) and Francisco (22), who have been raised their entire lives without access to any written, spoken, or signed language on a farm in northern Nicaragua. They are visited by a Deaf sign-language teacher who works for a local NGO and is determined to teach the siblings their first words. As the two begin their awakening to language, their resistance is clear, but so is their marvel at the teacher and this process.

Their stories are interwoven with the economic and familial history of their family. As we enter their isolated world, uncomfortable questions arise about education, psychology, language, ethics, class, and NGO work. With an unsettling mix of tragedy and hope, this moving work avoids hard and fast answers to the challenging questions it poses.

“The film, flowing with sublime images, is as poignant as it is captivating. We follow the awakening of Dulce Maria and Francisco with our heart hurting and a tight smile on our lips. Their "lives without words" reveal more than thousands of books. Not to be missed for anything.” — La Dépêche du Midi

“A masterpiece of aesthetic images and a plea for language as a fundamental human right.” — DOK.fest Munich

“A film of beautiful images and deep pain. It delves into
the world of rural Latin America with a view that is neither anthropological nor paternalistic.” — El Otro Cine

“It makes you think about how extraordinary it is to have language… It's beautifully done.” — Faye Ginsburg, anthropologist

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Winner, Best Documentary, Maine Deaf Festival, USA, 2014

Winner, Best Film, CINEDEAF Rome International Deaf Film Festival, Italy, 2013

Winner, Margaret Mead Filmmakers Award, Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, 2012

Winner, Prix Documentaire, Cinélatino Rencontres de Toulouse, France, 2012

Winner, Prix Lycéen, Cinélatino Rencontres de Toulouse, France, 2012

Special Mention - Emerging International Filmmaker, Open City London Documentary Film Festival, U.K., 2012

Eyes and Lenses Film Festival, Poland, 2014

Maine Deaf Film Festival, USA, 2014

ETHNOCINECA, Austria, 2014

Days of Ethnographic Film, Slovenia, 2014

The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival, USA, 2014

CINEDEAF Rome International Deaf Film Festival, Italy, 2013

HumanDOC International Film Festival, Poland, 2013

Intimate Lens Ethnographic Film Festival, Italy, 2013

Havana Film Festival, Cuba, 2012

DOK.fest International Documentary Film Festival, Germany, 2012

Istanbul International Film Festival, Turkey, 2012

Douarnenez Film Festival, France, 2012

Beeld voor Beeld Film Festival, Netherlands, 2012

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A Little Corner of Paradise

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

A Little Corner of Paradise
Buy Now: $320.00

This is the story of the rebirth of Ossona, a hamlet in Val d'Herens in the Valais canton, which was abandoned in the sixties and has now become the pilot project for an agro-tourism site. From 2005 to 2008, we followed the restoration of this site, listed as a sustainable development zone, and those involved in the project.

Some of them are aged between 14 and 16 years old and were born in Haiti, Morocco and Sion. These youth attend an institution for teenagers in difficulty. Can their minds be transformed by tiring work in the mountains? Once a week, through building and farming work, they completely put themselves into restoring this ghost hamlet. The other participants are between 75 and 90 years old. After having spent their childhood in self-sufficiency here in Ossona they left to discover "modern" life when the dams were being built. As witnesses, they have returned to tell their stories... What can representatives of the valley's old folks and multicultural youth have in common? What do they have to talk about, what can they pass on to each other?

The film retraces this adventure up to the end of the first stage with rural self-catering cottages and an inn, but it also recounts the financial, administrative, political and ecological obstacle course faced equally by the commune of St-Martin and the peasant on his land. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. Chronicle of a rebirth. The power of hope.

Reviews

"(Jacqueline Veuve) has filmed, better than anyone, the world of country folk and their disappearing trades. A Little Corner of Paradise takes a deeper look at these themes and transmits a forgotten knowledge to youth." — Presse Locarno

"A Little Corner of Paradise dazzles like a fairy tale and invokes a melancholy for things that no longer exist." — Presse Locarno

"In cinema, there's nothing more difficult than imparting a sense of spontaneity ... to take the viewer to a place as if for the first time, to give her the illusion of experiencing what she sees as if it were a direct transmission. Here Mme. Veuve creates a direct line to paradise!" — Thierry Jobin, Le Temps

Films in the Wood Crafts series

Armand Rouiller, Sledge-maker
Arnold Golay, Toy-maker

The Bapst Brothers, Carriers

Claude Lebet, Luthier

François Pernet, Carpenter and Sculptor
Joseph Doutaz & Olivier Veuve, Shingle-makers

A Little Corner of Paradise

Marcellin Babey, Turner
Michel Marlétaz, Cooper

Pink Mountain Sand

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A Long Journey To Guadalupe

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

A Long Journey To Guadalupe
Buy Now: $320.00

The veneration for Tonantzin-Guadalupe has been an essential Mexican theme underlying Mexican cultural and political values since the 16th century. Guided by the testimonies of Indigenous people, Mexicans of mixed heritage, and Chicanos, we can understand why.

The film was shot in 16mm and produced between July 1987 and February 1996. Ten years after the 1521 Spanish conquest, young Indian Juan Diego was graced by the apparition of the Mother of God on Tepeyac Hill; a first Bishop of Mexico scoffed at this news, until a further miracle convinced the church to build a basilica in the deity's honor. While encouraging a Virgin Mary "cult" no doubt helped invaders impose Christianity on the populace, scholars point out that earth mother Tonantzin's role in indigenous creeds predate this development by 2,500 years. Thus the "new,"compound divinity represented a covert "act of conquest by the Indians over the invading religion," one that developed potent political symbolism during Mexico's various independence struggles.

The director, who is Mexican, states that "this is a testimony about the Mexican cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe, where the pilgrims signify the Mexican of all times and the pilgrimages, our history. For me this film literally means a nine year long journey to the unfathomable heart of Mexico and a better world with more peace and social justice." While the filmmaker teaches documentary film at Centro de Capacitacion Cinematografica in Mexico City where he is the head of the Academic Council, he always works together with his wife, social anthropologist Ana Pino Sandoval.

This film is of interest in Anthropology, Latin American Studies, Religion and general audiences.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

32nd Chicago International Film Festival, Gold Plaque Award, 1996

Ariel Award Nominee, Mexican Academy of Film Art and Sciences, 1996

Native America's International Exposition, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1996

Margaret Mead Film Festival, 1996

Society For Visual Anthropology, 1997

Cinequest Film Festival, 1997

and many other international festivals and awards

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La Memoire Dure

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

La Memoire Dure
Buy Now: $320.00

Ibrahim lived with his uncle in the woods in Mali, for a few days he attended Koran school. He arrived in France using his cousin's passport. Alpha comes from Liberia, he lived in the city and during the war his family was dispersed; he arrived in France with a false passport. Nawel lived in Algeria where his large family was forced to have him adopted and taken to France. All these children attended the same preparation class for learning French in a compulsory school in Paris taught by the teacher Pascale. This fast course (total immersion) is aimed at inserting them as soon as possible in normal primary school classes.

For 9 months, the film director, an anthropologist teaching Visual Anthropology at the University of Tromso in Norway, filmed these children from various nationalities, showing how they were received in France and the relationship established between teachers and pupils. The children learn not only the language but also the values of their host society. Each child has strengths that often cannot be utilized effectively by the school but that are brought to light in the film. The struggle and endurance of the teacher reveals her to be a dedicated and passionate educator.

The children, their parents or care takers, teachers and administrators were involved as part of the filmmaking process. Issues of immigration, cultural assimilation, social integration and educational philosophy are analyzed within the context of this film.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Jury Prize, Nuoro International Film Festival Italy, 2000

Tromsø International Film Festival, Norway 2001

Festival International du Cinema du Reel, Paris, France, Centre Pompidou 2001

Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Musee de l’Homme, Paris 2001

Beeld for Beeld, Anthropological Film Festival, Amsterdam 2001

British Film Institute, London, Conference: Global Image or Global Media? U.K. 2001

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