Documentary Educational Resources - Indigenous Studies / Media & Communications / All Films

Ujirei (Regeneration)

Wed, 10 May 2023 10:21:02 GMT

Ujirei (Regeneration)
Buy Now: $320.00

For Ayoreo peoples in the Gran Chaco of northern Paraguay, the future remains unclear. In this radical experimental film, Ayoreo leader Mateo Sobode Chiqueno visually explores the terms of present-day life on an evangelical mission. The filmmaker creates a visionary cinematic reflection on what it means to affirm Ayoreo life in the aftermath of colonial violence and social upheaval.

The filmmaker Sobode writes, “Ujirei refers to many things. We Ayoreo know that some plants can grow new versions of themselves after they have been damaged. A whole new tree can emerge from a severed stump or even a piece of wood. Ujirei is the word in our language for that kind of new growth. But it can also refer to something that emerges from a prior version. Everything in this film is a sort of ujirei. Maybe even the film itself is an ujirei too.

I made this film so that people in other countries can learn about my people. I want them to know about what happened to us Ayoreo in the past. I want them to think about what kind of futures we are creating from the present. I want people to watch this film and know that we should be respected as human beings.

Those who watch this film may have questions. They may ask: how does the film show the idea of ujirei? How do outsiders treat Ayoreo people in Paraguay? Why do outsiders not respect Ayoreo people? Why did the missionaries take Ayoreo people out of the forest? How are Ayoreo people creating new possibilities and what are they?”

“Ujirei is a further illustration of how the collaborative production of Indigenous cinema remains an effective technique for enacting a decolonizing, anti-essentialist, and anti-extractive anthropological praxis.”- Lucas Bessire & Bernard Belisario, Tipití –Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

"One of the most radical films of emerging Indigenous cinema.” - Vincent Carelli, founder of Video in the Villages

Selected Screenings & Awards

Merit in Film Award, Latin American Studies Association, Colombia, 2024

University of Zurich Ethnographic Museum, Switzerland, 2021

Cine Kurumun - Festival Internacional de Cinema Indígena, Brazil, 2021

Festival Internacional de Cine y las Artes Indígena de Wallmapu (FICWALLMAPU), Chile, 2018

Premio Internacional Anaconda, Paraguay, 2018

Festival Int'l de Cine y Comunicación de los Pueblos Indígenas y Originarios, Guatemala, 2018

Anaconda Prize Indigenous Film Festival, Paraguay, 2018

Forumdoc Festival, Brazil, 2017

Visit Media & Communications to see additional products in this category.

'Are'are Music and Shaping Bamboo

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 09:18:00 GMT

'Are'are Music and Shaping Bamboo
Buy Now: $340.00

'Are'are Music (color, 141 min, 1979)

A fascinating documentation of the traditional musical culture of the 'Are'are people of the Solomon Islands, in the South-Western Pacific. The three LP records published after a first one-year field-research in 1969-70 were a "phenomenal surprise" (Garfias) as they revealed a completely unknown music (outside of the Solomon Islands) of an exceptional beauty and complexity in its instrumental and vocal polyphonies. It seemed to the researcher an absolute necessity to document visually what had been published on sound recordings, showing in detail all the playing techniques, body movements of performers, and spatial coordination of music ensembles and dancers. The documentary consists of a comprehensive inventory of all the twenty musical genres of the 'Are'are people and is structured according to native classification, along with explanations by master musician 'Irisipau.

Shaping Bamboo (color, 33 min, 1979)

For the 'Are'are people of the Solomon Islands, the most valued music is that of the four types of panpipe ensembles. With the exception of slit drums, all musical instruments are made of bamboo; therefore the general word for instruments and the music performed with them is "bamboo" ('au). This film shows the making of panpipes, from the cutting the bamboo in the forest to the making of the final bindings. The most important part of the work consists in shaping each tube to its necessary length. Most 'Are'are panpipe makers measure the length of old instruments before they shape new tubes. Master musician 'Irisipau, surprisingly, takes the measure using his body, and adjusts the final tuning by ear. For the first time we can see here how the instruments and their artificial equiheptatonic scale—seven equidistant degrees in an octave—are practically tuned.

Both films have been previously issued as the Society for Ethnomusicology Audiovisual Series no. 1.

“The film is a splendid introduction when seen once through, but it is far more profitable to see it again and again with the aid of the printed analytic materials, of course... In sum, Musique 'Are'are is both a tour de force and a marathon.”
— Peter Crowe, Ethnomusicology, 31(2), 1987

“It is difficult to resist superlatives when considering the entire volume of Hugo Zemp's 'Are'are work over the years....('Are'are Music and Shaping Bamboo) are a model of thoroughness, imagination, and cohesiveness, and will remain valuable even beyond their considerable eminence as ethnographic documentation of this particular culture.”
— Robert Garfias, Ethnomusicology, 40(1), 1996

“[Zemp's work on the 'Are'are, including the films] is the single most detailed documentation to date of any Melanesian music world... I can think of very few projects that deserve such praise.”
— Steven Feld, Oceania, June 1997

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Klaus Wachsman Prize, Society for Ethnomusicology, 1985 for Shaping Bamboo

Visit Media & Communications to see additional products in this category.

Changa Revisited

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Changa Revisited
Buy Now: $320.00

Changa Revisited is the story of Tanzania Maasai elder Toreto ole Koisenge and his family, seen from two points in time across a thirty year divide. His life has drastically changed since anthropologist Peter Biella first visited his home thirty years ago. Then he had six hundred cattle. Now disease has reduced his herd to twenty. The world of Maasai pastoralists has gotten smaller and smaller since the Tanzania government forced them to live in permanent villages and end the seasonal cattle migrations. “The world is upside-down…what can you do except change?” says Toreto. The film draws on hundreds of photographs and audio recordings taken in 1980 by Peter Biella. These images, woven with contemporary video footage, create a deeply personal portrait of the unfolding of a family's life through three decades of tumultuous change.

Visit Media & Communications to see additional products in this category.

Dancing with a Dog

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Dancing with a Dog
Buy Now: $295.00

In Dancing With a Dog we experience the rhythm of daily life on the Rio Amônea. Kowire and his wife Withawo get up early to take care of their eight children, preparing food and making handcrafts for sale. Kowire is helping his son to build a house, and after work for the day is finished there is fish and cassava root for dinner.

On weekends, the Piâretsi celebration is full of with drinking, dancing and soccer. Everyone is fully at ease in the presence of the cameraman; there is plenty of joking and Kowire goes home a little drunk on caissiema beer.

Films in the Indigenous Video Makers series

Dancing with a Dog
From the Ikpeng Children to the World
Kinja Iakaha, A Day in the Village
The Living Forest
Moyngo
Nguné Elü
One Must Be Curious
A Path to Live
The Rainy Season
Shomõtsi
Trainees for the Future
Wapté Mnhõnõ, The Xavante's Initiation
Wai'á Rini, The Power of the Dream

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.

Visit Media & Communications to see additional products in this category.

Daritidzé, Trainee Healer

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Daritidzé, Trainee Healer
Buy Now: $295.00

The Xavante people of Aldeia Nova ask Xavante videomaker Divino Tserewahú to film their Wai'á ceremony, after watching his film Wai'á rini, the Power of the Dream. Elders in Aldeia Nova want to preserve this tough but rewarding ritual.

Out in the hot sun all day, for three weeks the young men of the community undergo strengthening physical suffering in order to develop their curative powers. The trial culminates with the men's fainting and being revived by their families; after their initiation the trainees replace their elders as spiritual guardians. "To be a Wa'ia, you have to suffer like this," explains one man. Everyone in the village watches and takes part in the men's ceremony, proud of their sons and brothers.

Films in the Video in the Villages series

Daritidzé, Trainee Healer
The Girl's Celebration
Jungle Secrets
Pemp
The Spirit of TV
Video Cannibalism
Video in the Villages Presents Itself
Video in the Villages

Visit Media & Communications to see additional products in this category.

Dead Birds Re-encountered

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Dead Birds Re-encountered
Buy Now: $320.00

In 1961, Robert Gardner organized an expedition to the Highlands of New Guinea to film the Hubula [known as Dani* outside of the community]. He stayed for six months to create an essay on the themes of violence and death most dramatically witnessed within the intense ritual warfare between rival Hubula villages, and ultimately on the role of violence in human life and culture. The end result was his seminal film, Dead Birds.

Twenty-eight years later, Gardner returned to the Hubula villages to see what had become of the people he had met and to show them the film. Dead Birds Re-encountered is a captivating, reflexive epilogue. The film observes the changes nearly three decades have brought to Hubula life and culture, raising questions about modernization, tourism, cross-cultural relations, and the meaning of friendship.

"I have been told by people who know better that it is a risky business returning to a place where you have enjoyed some remarkable experience. But I will say that going back to the Highlands of Western New Guinea (aka West Papua) was enormously engaging. I saw people I cared for deeply and who became part of my life wherever I lived. Making a film about all this was not at all difficult." — Robert Gardner

*Note on term “Dani”

The preferred name for the community in this film is Hubula. The name "Dani" as used in this film is an exonym used by Moni, a neighboring group of people living west of the Baliem Valley. The name has been reproduced in many colonial and postcolonial texts, even until today.

Visit Media & Communications to see additional products in this category.

Fate of the Lhapa

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Fate of the Lhapa
Buy Now: $320.00

Fate of the Lhapa is a feature-length documentary about the last three Tibetan shamans (lhapas) living in a Tibetan refugee camp in Nepal. With no other descendants to carry on their healing practices and a younger generation attending schools, acculturating, and modernizing, these "sucking doctors" are practicing an endangered tradition. Each lhapa requested that their story be filmed so that an historical record would be created. Their fear was that the next heir might not appear until after the old men's deaths. Subsequently, with no lhapa alive to mentor the children, the documentary would be used to transmit the knowledge to the next generation.

These tales of nomadic childhoods, shamanic callings and apprenticeships, cosmologies of disease and treatments, and of their flight from Tibet during the Chinese occupation in the late 1950s will be juxtaposed with images of present-day life in the camp, current healing practices and shared concerns of the future and the fate of their tradition. This is a touching portrayal of life in exile in a refugee camp in Nepal.

Visit Media & Communications to see additional products in this category.

Gods and Kings

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:26:00 GMT

Gods and Kings
Buy Now: $320.00

In the muddy market square of Momostenango, Guatemala, where shamans burn offerings in the shadow of the Catholic church, prehispanic gods dance beside horror movie monsters and dictators from the dark days of the Cold War. Unlike the folkloric performances long studied by anthropologists, this new dance won't show up on any postcard. In some villages, it's even been banned for frightening tourists. So how did these fiberglass masks of Xena: Warrior Princess come to be blessed in the smoke of Maya altars?

Presenting a striking case never before documented on film, Gods and Kings illuminates the way creations of mass-culture take on new meanings as they travel around the world. In a town where a Hollywood B-movie villain is a real evil spirit, stories can't be taken lightly and it always matters who's telling them.

Visit Media & Communications to see additional products in this category.

Incidents of Travel In Chichen Itza

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:45:00 GMT

Incidents of Travel In Chichen Itza
Buy Now: $320.00

This original ethnographic video depicts how New Agers, the Mexican state, tourists, and 1920s archaeologists all contend to “clear” the site of the antique Maya city of Chichen Itza in order to produce their own idealized and unobstructed visions of “Maya” while the local Maya themselves struggle to occupy the site as vendors and artisans.

The setting is the spring Equinox, when a shadow said to represent the Maya serpent-god Kukulkan appears on one temple pyramid. As more than 40,000 New Age spiritualists and secular tourists from the United States and Mexico converge to witness this solar phenomenon, the video depicts the surrounding social event as a complicated entanglement of expected dualisms concerning tourism. Going beyond previous films that reduce tourism to neo-colonial and exoticizing social relations, this video portrays a Maya cultural site where US New Agers — rather than local Mayas — appear as exotic ritualists who are on display for other secular tourists and for local Mayas.

While the video does examine representations of Mayas by visiting New Agers as part of globalizing discourses on the exotic and evolution, it also shows how during the ongoing economic crisis, resident Mayas struggle against the Mexican state — rather than against tourists — that regularly “sweeps” them from the tourist zone in order to anchor the nation in an image of pure antiquity.

This video also asks what kind of fieldwork is possible as part of such a spectacle. It questions the status of ethnographic authority as people from the various groups converging on the event, ironically including the anthropologist-videomakers, trade positions and compete to speak about the Maya.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival, Award 1997

Margaret Mead Festival, 1997

Royal Anthropological Institute, Material Culture and Archaeology Prize, 1998

Latin American Studies Association Film Festival, Washington DC, 2001

Visit Media & Communications to see additional products in this category.

Itam Hakim Hopiit

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:45:00 GMT

Itam Hakim Hopiit
Buy Now: $320.00

Recently inducted into the National Film Registry, Itam Hakim Hopiit, which translates as "we / someone, the Hopi," is a poetic visualization of Hopi philosophy. Made at the time of the Hopi Tricentennial - marking 300 years since the 1680 Pueblo Revolt against Spanish colonial rule – the film presents a view of Hopi culture and history. Speaking in Hopi, a community elder shares personal recollections and cultural history, recounting stories of the Hopi emergence, perseverance, and the Bow Clan migration stories of his father. Through use of the film medium, Masayesva challenges viewers to understand the Hopi conception of time as cyclic, in which the world starts, ends, and starts again.

" ...The film offers a cultural bridge of a very different kind, evoking a culture and an environment through the look and sound of it and the fluidly majestic pace of its unfolding...to impart the drama of distant rainstorms across desert landscapes or cause one to gasp in astonishment at the rainbow that enters the frame during a revelatory pan, for indeed the lyricism of Masayesva Jr.'s imagery and the tone of reverence for the earth, whose caretakers the Hopi consider themselves to be, has the power to transport the viewer. It is the achievement of Masayesva Jr.'s work that even the most committed interpreters among us stand to be converted, if only for a moment, and taught the quiet virtues of observation.".

–Michael Renov, University of Southern California

"In this innovative work one of the last members of the Hopi historians' clan, Ross Macaya, recounts various epochs in Hopi history.... Macaya's tale concludes with a particularly Hopi type of history–the Hopi Prophesy."

– Elizabeth Weatherford, National Museum of the American Indian, in Art Journal

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Gold Hugo Award, Chicago International Film Festival, 1984

Museum of Modern Art, NYC

The Whitney Museum of American Art

The Long Beach Museum

National Museum of the Native American

Selected museums in Japan, the Netherlands, France, and the former Soviet Union

Visit Media & Communications to see additional products in this category.