Documentary Educational Resources - Subject / History / Modernization / 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

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Mundo

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 08:50:58 GMT

Mundo
Buy Now: $295.00

Every day, the elderly Matilde and her dog Lucas tend her herd of sheep and alpacas. Matilde spins wool by hand, and skins an alpaca that was attacked by a fox. Her daily life is steeped in the gospel; the Bible is her faithful companion.

The Aymara community, to which Matilde belongs, has long lived in the mountains and high plains along what are now the borders of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina. After the Spanish evangelization campaigns, a second wave of conversions has reached this community in the last few decades. Now Matilde trusts more in Heaven than in Earth.

In the prologue we hear that, according to their adopted belief, Earth is Satan’s domain. The once revered natural world has been demoted in status—it is now regarded as an unpredictable and threatening place. One outcome of this worldview is that Matilde is convinced that the fox that attacked her alpaca was sent by the devil. All the while, this elderly woman is surrounded by magnificent natural scenes: the majestic mountains stand like silent witnesses to a connection that is changing.

The film is a short yet effective look into one woman's crisis of faith. However, the MVP of the film's runtime is the breathtaking views of the mountains, rivers, and other landscapes found throughout the land the Aymara occupy. It's simple, yet riveting. – Video Librarian

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Best of Fests, IDFA, Netherlands, 2020
Best Short Documentary, FESAALP, Argentina, 2020

Tampere Film Festival, Finland, 2021
LASA2020 Film Festival, USA, 2021
Trento Film Festival, Italy, 2021
Festival de cine en Lenguas Originarias, Peru, 2020

Festival de Biarritz Amérique Latine, France, 2020
Athens Ethnographic Film Fest, Greece, 2020
Festival Cine+Video Indígena, Chile, 2020

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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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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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It's a Young Country

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:44:00 GMT

It's a Young Country
Buy Now: $295.00

Commissioned to make a film for a teaching case at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, filmmaker Charles Mann drew upon seven years as a working economist in Turkey to produce a film that captures the spirit of the country's cultural and economic transformation.

Top management of Akbank, arguably Turkey's most successful bank, provide a window into contemporary Turkey and its prospects as they weigh alternative paths for the bank's future growth. Explaining Akbank's emphasis on innovation and youth, Chairman and Managing Director Suzan Sabancı Dinçer sums up Turkey's demographic transformation: "It's a young country!".

Economic historian Professor Yahya Sezai Tezel provides contextual narrative about the country's economic and cultural restructuring. Director Franco Sacchi's inspired cinematography provides images that support and illustrate the film's narrative arc of transformation. This film provides a real sense of engagement with contemporary Turkey by allowing viewers to see the country through the eyes of people both propelling and reacting to change in coastal and Anatolian towns, in universities, in metropolitan centers.

Films in the Development Communications Workshop series

If It Doesn't Rain

If It Doesn't Rain: First Return

It's A Young Country: Turkey and Akbank

Lifecycles

Malawi's Green Revolution

Paths of Hope

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Khalfan and Zanzibar

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:13:00 GMT

Khalfan and Zanzibar
Buy Now: $295.00

Khalfan and Zanzibar is an anthropological documentary shot on digital video — a new departure for the filmmakers, who previously worked exclusively with 16-mm film. Three separate topics are woven together in this innovative project: 1) the life and work of Khalfan Hemed Khalfan, founder of Zanzibar's Association of the Disabled; 2) scenes from the lives of Zanzibar's disabled — job skill training, a class for deaf children, a soccer scrimmage; 3) the history and culture of Zanzibar.

This video is a study of Mr. Khalfan Hamid Khalfan and the handicapped people's organization Mr. Khalfan founded and continues to run. Mr. Khalfan, a charismatic figure well known in Zanzibar, is himself wheelchair-bound and oversees the tasks of representing, training, and helping handicapped people throughout the island state. Mr. Khalfan coordinates the efforts of donor agencies, state and federal governments, politicians and development experts, but he is not paid by the government and does not belong to any political party. For many years a high school principal, he looks on his work as primarily an educational one, "raising consciousness" about the needs and potential contributions of people with handicaps.

Not a portrait film pure and simple, Khalfan and Zanzibar's differentiation is to place the protagonist in Zanzibar culture, history, ethnicity, religion and everyday life. It intersperses interviews, scenes of Mr. Khalfan's daily chores at work and at home, handicapped people at work and leisure activities, and footage of Zanzibar (with innovative use of superimposed texts discussing history, ethnicity, politics, and Islam). The challenge of the video is to integrate, through visual form and style, the diverse materials mentioned above, in a single unfolding film structure.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Certificate of Merit, INTERCOM Competitions of the Chicago International Film Festival, 2000

Best International Documentary, Brooklyn Film Festival, 2000

Academic Look International Film Festival, Lisbon, Portugal

Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, New York, 2000

Center for Cross Cultural Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 2000

Seagull Media Centre, Kolkata, India, 2001

Dialektus Film Festival, Budapest, Hungary, 2002

5th World Congress of Anthropological Sciences, Florence, Italy, 2003

Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London

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Live From UB

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

Live From UB
Buy Now: $320.00

Mongolia is a vast land — 3 million people live in a country more than twice the size of Texas. Wild horses, gers (Mongolian yurts), and goat and sheep herds dot the expansive landscape just as they did when Ghenghis Khan founded the country in 1206. But there is another, seldom-seen side of Mongolia outside of its bustling capital, Ulaanbaatar (or UB for short). It is home to half of the country's population. It is the financial epicenter of Mongolia's quickly growing economy. And it is the backdrop of an ever-growing vibrant rock music scene.

Live From UB follows one young rock band, Mohanik, as they develop their unique Mongolian rock sound and record their second album. They struggle with what it means to be Mongolian and how to reconcile their Mongolian identity with western Rock. Interspersed throughout are exclusive interviews with a range of Mongolian music industry experts, rock and pop stars, anthropologists, and heads of state, highlighted by rare archival footage or rock concerts.

The tale of Mongolian rock is the tale of modern Mongolia itself. In 1990, the Soviet-style government welcomed multiparty elections after a year of peaceful protests in UB's central square. Rock music played a central role. For the youth of the 70s and 80s, rock music symbolized freedom. They yearned to have the same freedom of expression and free market economy they knew existed beyond their borders. They used music to reach their peers and spark a revolution. Although the transition was peaceful, it was not easy. The new Mongolia spiraled into deep unemployment and become almost completely dependent on foreign aid for its survival; the music revolution would have to wait.

By the mid-1990s, the economy began to stabilize and Mongolia was poised to join the outside world. Just as people were turning to foreign models of industry, finance and government, they were intrigued by new culture. MTV flooded the Mongolian airwaves and suddenly teenagers were exposed to Punk, Grunge, Heavy Metal, Hip Hop, Pop, Indie, Dance, Techno. They consumed, imitated and practiced these new styles. Mongolian versions of Nirvana, Boyz II Men, TLC, and Madonna all emerged. The next decade was a period of growth and stabilization for Mongolia. They slowly weaned themselves off of foreign aid. They poured resources into their now booming mining sector. New buildings began to crowd UB. With this new stability came a renewed desire to once again assert to the world what it means to be Mongolian.

Now, the generation of Mongolians born into a new democracy are taking the stage and using it to explore their unique place in Mongolia and beyond. Suddenly, musicians are incorporating different aspects of Mongolian tradition back into their music. Rappers have a backing band of traditional instrumentalists. Groups are coupling ancient tunes with hard rock treatment, and pop stars are wearing traditional garb when they perform at home and abroad.

LIVE FROM UB shows the viewer a side of Mongolia that is often overlooked in international media - a Mongolia that is both eager to be recognized internationally and happy to embrace its own unique heritage, that juggles the pressures of globalization and being part of a small landlocked country between two political giants of Russia and China - yet refuses to give up on the idea that Mongolia will once again be a great force in the world.

The history of Mongolian pop music comes to light in Lauren Knapp's informative documentary... Recommended.
–Video Librarian

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Winner, Best Mongolian Film, Mongolia International Film Festival, 2015

Winner, Best Emerging Documentary Filmmaker, Asian American International Film Festival, New York, 2015

Winner, Audience Choice for Documentary Feature, Asian American International Film Festival, New York, 2015

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival Bucheon, S. Korea, 2016

DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon, 2016

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Makiko's New World

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

Makiko's New World
Buy Now: $320.00

Early in the 20th century, new opportunities were opened to Japanese women, thanks to modern home use goods and to the new technologies of self-awareness offered by snapshot cameras, family albums, and mass produced diary books.

Nakano Makiko and her family were on the hinge of historical change in 1910, the year that she kept a daily record of her activities as the young wife in a busy merchant household in Kyoto. Makiko's New World transports its viewers into the almost-forgotten milieu of urban Japan a century ago. The program blends historical photos and film footage with pictures from family albums and with dramatized re-enactments of events Makiko recorded in her diary.

The program is suitable for classroom use in secondary schools, colleges, and universities, and for civic study groups. For class sessions shorter than 50 minutes the program can be shown in two segments of approximately 29 minutes each. It can also be used in conjunction with Kazuko Smith's prize winning English translation, Makiko's Diary (1995), available from Stanford University press.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Selected for screening by the Asian Studies Association.

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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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The Sprouts of Capitalism in China

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:47:00 GMT

The Sprouts of Capitalism in China
Buy Now: $295.00

This documentary tells the fascinating story of one of China's newly rich entrepreneurs, Yang Daquan, of Pengzhou City in Sichuan.

Mr. Yang came from a rich gentry family and was given away as an infant when his family disintegrated at the beginning of the socialist era. He grew up in the countryside as a poor peasant and came to the city in the late 70's as a construction worker. After years of struggle, he now owns a construction material plant and an ice cream factory and is a major investor in the local real estate market.

The film searches for the drive behind his determination for economic success and links his personal story to the turbulent history of China in the past several decades. We are introduced to Mr. Yang's wife, who is a full partner in running the family businesses, as well as the couple's eight-year-old son, who attends an expensive private school that concentrates on teaching foreign languages. Scenes of the family reveal Mr. Yang's memories of the past and his dreams for the future.

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