Documentary Educational Resources - Geography / North America / United States / Maryland / All Films

Out of Order

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:51:00 GMT

In Out of Order, six former Catholic nuns tell why they entered and why they left religious life. The women (filmmaker Diane Christian is one of them) describe their years in the convent and their return to the secular world.

The former nuns talk about single life and marriage (three are married, one to a former priest), about the changed place of religion in their lives, about sex roles, about institutional supports and burdens, about work. Three of the women teach - one at a state university, one in an inner city grammar school, one at a suburban high school. One woman is an artist, one an insurance agent, one a private investor. The film shows them at work and at home in New York, Massachusetts, Texas and Maryland.

Out of Order offers unique insight into female socialization and identity in modern America by probing ideals and realities of womanhood, sex, work and service from an unknown and unusual perspective.

Primary funding for Out of Order was provided by a production grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital restoration was funded by University at Buffalo's Samuel P. Capen Chair in American Culture.

Visit Maryland to see additional products in this category.

Out of the Maya Tombs

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:51:00 GMT

Out of the Maya Tombs
Buy Now: $340.00

Over the past 50 years, thousands of exquisitely painted Maya vases, almost all looted from royal tombs, have flooded into the world's public and private collections. These amazing works of art, filled with humor and mystery, have opened an extraordinary window on the Maya past. But the race to unearth these treasures has destroyed ancient temples and palaces, culminating in the takeover of entire ancient cities by looter armies.

Out of the Maya Tombs enters the world of the vases to explore the royal life and rich mythology of the Maya, as well as the tangled issues involved in the collection and study of Maya art. The story is told by villagers, looters, archaeologists, scholars, dealers and curators. For each, these vases have a radically different value and meaning.

On a purely sensual level, Out of the Maya Tombs celebrates the artistry of these vases. It uses visual fascination as the doorway to intellectual and emotional engagement. Dramatic re-enactments and animated graphics created from ancient artwork bring Maya history and culture to life.

VERSIONS AND EXTRAS

The home use edition DVD includes the 96 minute full-length feature version of Out of the Maya Tombs.

The educational edition 2-DVD set includes two versions of Out of the Maya Tombs: the 96 minute full-length feature version, and a 54 minute abridgement. It also includes 9 short films or sequences providing a closer look at various characters and themes in the film.

Extra features include:

The Explorer (4 min)
Ian Graham races against time to document the ancient Maya monuments of the Petén jungle before they can be ravaged by looters.

The Chicleros (4 min)
From a chicle tappers' encampment deep in the Petén jungle of Guatemala, we follow two chicleros as they search for xate, their dry season crop.

The Archaeologists (7 min)
We follow archaeologists as they excavate, clean, sort and label pottery sherds, used for dating of sites; then we follow Ron Bishop and Dorie Reents-Budet as they use the neutron activation analysis of a vast database of sherds to profile looted Maya vessels and trace their origins.

The Smuggler (7 min)
We meet looter and smuggler Lee Moore, and follow the story of the theft of the huge painted facade of a Maya temple in Yucatán -- and its eventual recovery and return to Mexico.

The Dealer (3 min)
Mesoamerican antiquities dealer Ron Dammann, of the Stendahl Galleries in Los Angeles, recalls what he calls "the wild and wooly days of Pre-Columbian Art."

The Collectors (5 min)
A profile of pioneering collector Robert Woods Bliss, from his first interest in Mesoamerican art in the 1920s to his founding of the museum and research center at Dumbarton Oaks. A brief excerpt from the film Breaking the Maya Code illustrates the crucial role played by Dumbarton Oaks in Maya studies.

The Curator (8 min)
The impact of the 1970 UNESCO accords on cultural patrimony and the 2008 U.S. Museum Directors' agreement. This agreement specifies that any antiquity accepted into a museum collection must have paperwork showing that it entered the United States prior to the date of the UNESCO convention. It has had a profound impact on the collection, donation and repatriation of ancient art.

The Guardians (5 min)
Two former looters work with members of the Wildlife Conservation Society to protect endangered scarlet macaws in the deep jungle of Northern Guatemala.

The 36 Glyph Mask (5 min)
We follow a single Maya treasure from the moment of its looting to its last known home in a Santa Fe art gallery. A story without an ending; perhaps this short film will encourage a happy resolution.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO VERSIONS

Out of the Maya Tombs traces the excavation beginning in the 1970s, sometimes by archaeologists but more often by looters, of great numbers of painted vases from the royal Maya tombs in the Petén jungle of Guatemala; the impact of these vases on Maya studies, the art market, and museums; and the issues of scientific method and ethics raised by their collection, study and exhibition.

The feature version provides context for this story in the broader history of the exploration and looting of the Petén, and places the issues raised by the collection and exhibition of looted Maya vases in the broader context of the history of the collection and exhibition of ancient art. The 54-minute version omits much of this additional contextual material.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Best Film, International Festival of Archaeological Film, Rovereto, Italy, 2014

Best Film Jury Award, The Archaeology Channel International Film Festival, Eugene, Oregon, 2014

Best Archaeology Film, Arkhaios Cultural Heritage and Archaeology Film Festival, Hilton Head, SC, 2014

Special Audience Prize, International Archaeological Film Festival of Bidasoa, Irun, Spain, 2014

Visit Maryland to see additional products in this category.

Transnational Fiesta: 1992

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:57:00 GMT

Transnational Fiesta: 1992
Buy Now: $320.00

Until recently, it was widely assumed that Native communities throughout the Americas would be absorbed into the mainstream or otherwise disappear. But 500 years after the beginning of the Conquest, indigenous peoples are asserting their presence and identity with renewed vigor.

In 1991, Teodocio and Julia Quispe, a transmigrant couple living in Washington, returned to their homeland, Cabanaconde, an indigenous peasant community in the southern Andes of Peru, to celebrate the annual patron saint fiesta. It was the first time that this major religious celebration was sponsored by Cabaneños living outside of Peru.

Transnational Fiesta: 1992 documents this landmark celebration as well as the Quispes' multicultural and transnational experiences in Washington and Cabanaconde. Members of their extended family, including North Americans, and other migrants also participate in the Fiesta, where the complexities of cultural identity, religious syncretism, interethnic marriages, migration, and racism all converge.

The film reveals how the perpetuation and constant re-invention of village ceremonial life and identity are influenced by the migrants. It also shows how the migrants' own sense of ethnic identity is shaped both by their ongoing participation in the ceremonial life of their native community and by their experiences in the U.S.

Defying the stereotypical perception of indigenous peoples as backward, isolated, and static in time, the film shows how the Quispes are at the forefront of a global phenomenon, expanding their archipelago of migrant enclaves.

Transnational Fiesta: 1992 will generate thought and discussion in a wide variety of courses in cultural anthropology, Latin American studies, American studies, and social psychology and sociology.

Receive a discount when you purchase both Transnational Fiesta: 1992 and Transnational Fiesta: Twenty Years Later on DVD. Please contact us for more information.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Award of Merit, Suffolk Film and Video Festival, New York, 1993
Bronze Apple Award, National Educational Film and Video Festival, California, 1994
Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, New York, 1994
American Anthropological Association Film & Video Festival, Washington DC, 1993

Visit Maryland to see additional products in this category.

Transnational Fiesta: Twenty Years Later

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:57:00 GMT

Transnational Fiesta: Twenty Years Later
Buy Now: $320.00

Immigration is one of the most pressing issues of our day. Yet, little is known about how migrants reproduce their cultures in their host countries, how they impact their homeland, how their children relate to both worlds, and, especially, how transmigrant communities evolve over the years.

Transnational Fiesta: Twenty Years Later explores cultural change and continuity in the indigenous Andean community, Fiesta, and migrant colony first documented in our award-winning film, Transnational Fiesta: 1992. The film follows a migrant family as they travel back and forth between the U.S. and Peru over a period of three years.

The story begins in Maryland, in 2011, when we re-encounter Teodocio Quispe as he and his family prepare to travel to their hometown, Cabanaconde, to celebrate the patron saint fiesta that Teodocio sponsored two decades earlier, in 1991, when Peru was in the midst of a terrible economic and political crisis. That was the first time a migrant family sponsored the Virgin of Carmen fiesta and it transformed what used to be a local, regional event into a truly transnational one. Twenty years later, Peru is experiencing an unprecedented "economic boom" and this time it is Teodocio's son-in-law, Nilo Abril, who would be taking charge as the main sponsor. Before traveling, however, we participate in the impressive diaspora version of the fiesta in the Maryland-Washington D.C. area, which is now celebrated by a vibrant community that has undergone a tenfold increase in number.

We then travel to Cabanaconde and experience the largest, most expensive celebration of the fiesta ever carried out. The film also shows the striking changes taking place in Cabanaconde, the tensions between locals and migrants, and the abiding strength of the patron saint syncretic tradition. In 2012 and 2013, we return to Maryland to follow up with the family and capture the deep significance of the fiesta as a key manifestation of communal solidarity that unites families and communities over time, space, and across generations.

The film shows in vivid detail the remarkable persistence of Andean culture as well as the ruptures imposed by global capitalism, generational differences, and other forces of change. It also depicts the unique ways in which transnational migrants shape and are shaped by our globalized world.

"A landmark exploration of how globalization has changed our world. The best new film about migration, Latin America, and the predicament of globalization I've seen."
-- Orin Starn, Professor of Anthropology, Duke University

Receive a discount when you purchase both Transnational Fiesta: 1992 and Transnational Fiesta: Twenty Years Later on DVD. Please contact us for more information.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Best Documentary - Peru, International Euro Film Festival, Spain, 2015
Award of Merit, Int'l Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Comedy, Indonesia, 2014
Gold Award, Documentary and Short Int'l Movie Award Festival, Jakarta, Indonesia, 2014
Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, Washington D.C., 2014

Visit Maryland to see additional products in this category.

Tubabs In Africa

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:57:00 GMT

Tubabs In Africa
Buy Now: $320.00

In the Gambia, West Africa, locals have a name for foreigners; they call them "Tubabs" a term derived from "two bob", the standard fee British colonialists used to pay Gambians for odd jobs. In this film we follow a group of students from St. Mary's College in Maryland on a summerlong jaunt deep into the Gambia to study West African language and culture. The result is a story about a group of American teenagers traveling outside their comfort zones in search of adventure, knowledge, and self-discovery.

The filmmakers investigate issues surrounding modern-day colonialism, Westerner's relationship to developing countries, and the traditions of the Gambian people. The film serves as a meditation on that familiar topic, the study-abroad experience, and like any travel experience, the film is most entertaining when things go wrong. The bus breaks down, the students get lost, a mission goes awry, and the very moments that are the most awful at the time end up being the most memorable. Anyone who spent time overseas during college or high school will see a reminder of their travels and recall a bit of the Tubab in themselves.

Suitable for preparation for any fieldwork or travel abroad experience where the goal is to foster awareness and cross-cultural understanding. The film shows the timeless value of experiencing another culture first hand.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival, Oregon, 2004
XII International Festival of Ethnographical Films, Italy, 2004

Georgetown Independent Film Festival, Washington, DC, 2003

Visit Maryland to see additional products in this category.