Documentary Educational Resources - Subject / History / Memory / All Films

Ballad on the Shore

Wed, 2 Oct 2024 17:47:26 GMT

Ballad on the Shore
Buy Now: $320.00

Ma Chi Hang’s ethnomusicological film records a centuries-old oral tradition of fishermen and fisherwomen who identify as People on Water (水上人 ). Living in fishing communities on Grass Island and in Aberdeen, Hong Kong, they sing ballads about life on and in connection with the sea. The ballads, sung in what the practitioners call ''fisherman language'' are melodic and the lyrics poetic and rich.

The lyrics of these ballads tell the stories of the trials and tribulations of the life of the fisherman. They tell of a past way of life on the water and reflect a strong attachment to and knowledge of their maritime environment–where to anchor safely, where to avoid big waves or windy and cold conditions, and where fish are plentiful. “Anchor large boats at the tip of To Nin, a sampan sends the lover to Sai See Island.....” Ballads have been traditionally passed down from one generation to the next, but with the boat people's way of life disappearing and the songs reaching fewer and fewer listeners today, will the ballads continue to be sung?

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Taiwan 2023

Sinophone Musics Film Festival, Taiwan 2022

RAI Film Festival, UK 2019

MOViE MOViE Life Is Art Festival, Hong Kong 2018

Chiayi Int'l Art Doc Film Festival, Taiwan 2018

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Goodbye, Captain

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 14:42:23 GMT

Goodbye, Captain
Buy Now: $320.00

Goodbye, Captain relates the story of Brazil's indigenous Gavião people and their efforts to maintain their language, livelihood, and identity throughout a half-century of upheavals. At the center of this historical narrative is "Captain" Krôhôkrenhum Jopaipairé, leader of the Gavião community in the south of Pará. Krôhôkrenhum shares the history of his people and details his commitment to restoring the community’s cultural traditions.

Krôhôkrenhum’s tells filmmaker Vincent Carelli the history of his community, beginning with the wars of the “brave Indian” and the terrible devastation that began with contact with the kupen or white man, who brought with them new diseases and left few survivors scattered around the region. Further encroachment of the kupen resulted in the loss of Gavião lands and resources, including the nut trees that offered them economic independence, the imposition of slave labor, and a generation raised outside of their culture and language.

As the story continues, strategic alliances with other Gavião groups enable Krôhôkrenhum and his people to rebel against harmful government policies and ultimately gain control of their plantation and obtain financial autonomy. Contact with other Gavião groups also inspires Krôhôkrenhum and the community to revitalize the Gavião language and ceremonies.

Woven throughout this history is the relationship between the captain and Vincent Carelli, who began filming the community using a VHS camera in 1987. The film opens with Carelli’s return of an audio-visual archive to the Gavião community and the promise of fulfilling Krôhôkrenhum’s wish to maintain the memory of his people.

Selected Screenings & Awards

Prix Mondes en Regards, Jean Rouch International Ethnographic Film Festival, France, 2023
Sheffield International Documentary Festival, United Kingdom, 2022

Doclisboa International Film Festival, Portugal, 2022

IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival), Amsterdam, 2022

It’s All True - International Documentary Festival, Brazil, 2022

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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.

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Dead Presumed Missing?

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Dead Presumed Missing?
Buy Now: $295.00

Between 1963-74, about 2000 Turkish and Greek Cypriots disappeared during hostilities between the two communities of Cyprus. Following an abortive coup in 1974, Turkey invaded and occupied the north of the island. 200,000 Greek Cypriots, a third of the population, fled their homes, becoming refugees in the south. During the Turkish invasion, many died in the war, but their bodies were never recovered. Others (including women and children) vanished behind the advancing Turkish army. To this day, Turkey refuses to offer any explanations. The fate and whereabouts of the Greek and Turkish Cypriots missing remains an official secret. In the confusion of 1974, some, but not all, of the missing Greek Cypriots were buried hurriedly on the Greek side. The return of the remains of the rest cannot be realized since they are behind Turkish lines. In spite of various attempts at resolution, including a UN Committee, both sides still guard the unidentified hidden bones of each others' missing persons The film was shot in 2001 when the possibility of DNA identifiication redefined the problem and gave it a new urgency. By following the desperate attempts of two Greek women to discover the fates of their loved ones, the film explores the signficance of mortuary rituals and the different political lives of dead bodies among the Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Useful in Political Anthropology classes, and to those interested in ethnic violence, recuperation, memory, rituals, DNA identification, and politics of the body.

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Death of the Grandfather or: the Sleep of the Just

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Death of the Grandfather or: the Sleep of the Just
Buy Now: $320.00

A tale, told by his five daughters, of the life and death of a man very representative of a Protestant Switzerland in the early 20th century where life was conditioned by the work ethic. He was first a farmer, then a factory worker, then the head of a small family affair where his daughters became his workers. The business grew into an large factory that would be eventually taken over by the only son. The five stories show us the family and professional context of the first half of the 20th century. They are also five different versions of the serene death of a man who felt he had done his duty. The film illustrates the ideas of Max Weber, known for their importance in understanding the Western civilization that emerged from the Reformation.

Jacqueline Veuve has become known primarily as the chronicler of the ordinary. She has been called "la grande dame des humbles", the great lady of the humble, because she allows time for the unspectacular, patiently depicting little everyday tasks and giving meaning and magnitude

to these minor gestures. There is hardly a detail she does not deem worthy of the keen and benevolent interest that allows its uniqueness and value to be brought to light. She does so with the perseverance of an experienced chronicler and film-maker who has often joined in the battle for the independence of Swiss documentary-film production.

–Susanna Kumschick, 2000

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Diary from Rivesaltes 1941-1942

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Diary from Rivesaltes 1941-1942
Buy Now: $320.00

From August to October 1942, over 2250 Jews were deported from the internment camp of Rivesaltes to Auschwitz by way of Drancy. Among them were 110 children. Friedel Bohny-Reiter, a nurse with the Swiss Aid to Children, worked in this camp in the South of France. Like many others in the formerly unoccupied zone, it was run by the French. Once a military camp, it had been converted in 1941 into a transit camp regrouping Jewish, Gypsy and Spanish people living in the area or who had fled to the free zone as refugees. Thanks to the young nurse from Basel, many children were probably saved from certain death. The film follows the nurse on a visit to that still intact site as well as through the pages of the journal she wrote in those dark days, published by Editions Zoë, Geneva in 1993.

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Divided Loyalties

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Divided Loyalties
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Divided Loyalties studies the stories of Greek and Turkish Cypriot refugees and nationals who seek to reconcile their fractured heritage from the history of the proud, yet divided island: Cyprus. Shot in 16 mm the film reveals both a visual and emotional landscape of the island. Structured around the chronological political legacy of Cyprus, award-winning director and cinematographer Sophia Constantinou explores the memories and personal histories of its natives, as well as her own family. Unknown to many, Cyprus, as of 2001, is one of the most densely militarized zones in the world. The United Nations, Turkey and Great Britain continue to hold strong military presences in Cyprus -severing the island into separate Greek and Turkish territories. Cypriots are constantly reminded of their disjointed identities by the military border zone physically splitting the island into North and South regions. Such turbulence resulted in the scattering of Cypriots around the globe, deunifying familial, individual and collective identities. Important for teaching international relations, middle eastern studies, anthropology, conflict resolution and identity.

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A Family in History

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:52:00 GMT

A Family in History
Buy Now: $320.00

Digitally Remastered 2-DVD Set

Living at Risk: The Story of a Nicaraguan Family, made in 1984-85 at the height of the Contra war, brings us inside Sandinista Nicaragua five years after the revolution that overthrew the dictator Anastasio Somoza. It centers on five siblings of the privileged, well-connected Barrios family, all deeply committed to the revolution and working for it in various capacities, often at considerable risk to themselves.

The second DVD, The Barrios Family 25 Years Later, including a group of 20 short films made in 2009-10, long after the historical opportunity for large-scale social transformation in Nicaragua had passed. This collection of works carry forward the story of the Barrios family and their country, tracing their multi-generational struggle to find ways to live and work according to the ideals that inspired their youth.

This chronicle, unusual for its depth and completeness, is a case study in the opportunities and frustrations history offers to the individuals who live through it. It will be of special interest to students of Latin America, politics, history, sociology and biography.

Disc 1 - Living at Risk: The Story of a Nicaraguan Family (59 min, 1985, 4:3 fullscreen)

The film centers on five brothers and sisters who commit themselves to remaining and working with the revolutionary government in various professional capacities: medicine, community organizing, agricultural reform. This valuable documentary provides a dimension lacking in other films about Nicaragua: a sense of the fabric of everyday life, of the ways in which perpetual danger and tension are incorporated into the ongoing vital routines of doing one's job, raising one's family, going to market, finding entertainment, treating the sick, feeding the hungry. Level-headed and deeply felt, Living At Risk conveys above all an impression of quiet, believable heroism, most vividly in a dramatic sequence of a doctor delivering a vaccine to a remote village where his predecessor was recently executed by the counter-revolutionaries.

Disc 2 - The Barrios Family 25 Years Later (131 min, 2011, 16:9 anamorphic)

Made in 2009-2010, long after the historical opportunity for large-scale social transformation in Nicaragua had passed. This set of 20 short films — portraits, interviews, short documentaries — carries forward the story of the Barrios family, tracing their multi-generational struggle to find ways to live and work according to the ideals that once inspired them to put their lives at risk.

Film Festivals, Awards, Screenings

6th International Festival of Anthropology Film Festival, University of British Columbia, Canada, 2012
Film Forum, New York
Red Ribbon, American Film Festival
Vancouver Film Festival
Festival dei Popoli, Florence, Italy
Robert Flaherty Seminar
Melbourne Film Festival
Cinéma du réel, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Tyneside Film Festival, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
Telecast by WNET, New York and other public television stations

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Fantome Island

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:52:00 GMT

Fantome Island
Buy Now: $320.00

In 1945 seven-year-old Joe Eggmolesse was diagnosed with Leprosy. He was taken from his family under police escort and transported by rail and sea over a thousand kilometres to Fantome Island where he was to be incarcerated for the next ten years.

The isolated tropical island off the North Queensland coast became home to a close-knit community of indigenous “lepers” whose marginalized existence was hidden from white society and has until now remained absent from the mainstream historical record. Cared for by nuns from the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary their isolation was the consequence of apartheid-like policies developed by the Queensland government and medical establishment which espoused a eugenicist philosophy and regarded racial segregation as standard practice.

As one of the few surviving former patients Joe returns to the island for a long awaited event, the Fantome Island Remembrance Day. As a 73 year old Elder he confronts the memory of his childhood on the island to pay tribute to those who lived and died there and to inscribe his own unique story into official Australian history. Drawing on an evocative archive, this film exposes how an ideology of racism and eugenics worked to justify horrific treatment of Australia's Indigenous communities.

In uncovering this shameful history, Fantome Island is a testimony of strength and endurance, demonstrating one man's incredible capacity for forgiveness and love.

Selected Festivals

Official Selection, Etnofilm, 5th Ethnographic FilmFestival, Rovijn Croatia, 2013

John Oxley Memory Award - State Library Of Qld, 2012

Best Australian Documentary, Human Rights Arts & FilmFestival, Melbourne, 2012

Finalist, ATOM Awards - Best Documentary History, Social& Political Issues, 2012

First Factual Films Festival, Adelaide, 2012

Brisbane International Film Festival, 2011

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A Hard Life

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:26:00 GMT

A Hard Life
Buy Now: $320.00

Kalliopi Kalogerou has spent her whole life in the Greek village of Ano Ravenia where she was born in 1900. Simple witness of the century, she lived through Turkish domination and successive occupations linked to different wars. Most of her family stays elsewhere, in Greece or abroad (USA, Canada, Germany, Bulgaria); her shattered family world is representative of the Greek diaspora.

A Hard Life focuses on Kalogerou's life story, told to a young Epirot friend, Eleni Pangratiou-Alexakis, and to her daughter, Evguenia, both of whom have settled in the States. The result is a rich, yet austere film where nothing distracts the viewer from the dialogue and the face of the storyteller. It also constitutes an ordinary yet important testimony on this long and painful page of Greek history (1900-1983).

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Paris, 1996

Göttingen International Film Festival, Germany, 1996

NAFA Film Festival, Bergen, Norway, 1996

Films in the Greek series:

Charcoal-Makers

Every Day Is Not A Feast Day

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