Documentary Educational Resources - Subject / Music, Dance & Theater / Theater / All Films

Fully Awake

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Hidden in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Black Mountain College (1933 - 1957) was an influential experiment in education that inspired and shaped twentieth century American art. Fully Awake: Black Mountain College is a documentary film that explores the college's progressive pedagogy and radical approach to arts education. Highly democratic and faculty-owned, the school promoted practical responsibilities and the creative arts as equally important components to intellectual development.

During WWII, Black Mountain College was a haven for refugee European artists such as Josef and Anni Albers who arrived from the Bauhaus in Germany. In the socially conservative 1940s and 50s, the college also became a refuge for the American avant-garde, (Franz Kline, John Cage, Buckminster Fuller, Merce Cunningham, Robert Creeley, Jacob Lawrence, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, and M.C. Richards). Fully Awake explores how the confluence of this diverse community came together to create a unique educational model.

Through narration, archive photography, and interviews with students, teachers, historians, and current artists, Fully Awake investigates the development of this very special place - the site of Buckminster Fuller's first geodesic dome, John Cage's first 'happening', and the Black Mountain Review - and how its collaborative curriculum inspired innovations that would change the very definition of "art." Through probing the legacy of Black Mountain College, Fully Awake points to a progressive pedagogical model that can continue to inspire students today.

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Gesture Performance

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:26:00 GMT

Gesture Performance
Buy Now: $295.00

Deaf youth talk about some of the painful experiences they had as Russian children in an environment where they were ostracized and not understood. They are speaking from their current perspective as student actors and actresses in the very special Theatre School for the Deaf in Moscow. The relationship between the students, with their family and friends and their professors at the school is thoroughly explored. Prof. Semakov notes " working with the deaf, and any theatre work involving mime and gesture requires a lot of focus on physical expressiveness. The language is made of gestures, it's a very image-rich language. It involves a selection, a search for new gestures to convey ideas and words." We see the students at rehearsals and get to know them individually. In the end Sveta tells us "I want to enter the Director's Course and collect an ensemble of deaf actors. My mother suggests heading abroad and working in the theatre there. I'm not sure. We'll see..." It is apparent that the methods used here have assisted these hearing impaired youth to find a new sense of themselves and given them confidence to express complex feelings and ideas. As a result of their commitment and work in the theater, their world view has expanded with opportunities for a successful future.

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Hajari Bhand of Rajasthan

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:26:00 GMT

Hajari Bhand of Rajasthan
Buy Now: $320.00

Hajari Bhand of Chittorgarh, Rajasthan is renowned in the nearby courts, villages and towns of Mewar for his skill as a bahurupiya - a wandering mimic performing mostly comic routines. This videotape highlights Hajari Bhand's mastery of twenty different disguises and his performances of various routines in village settings, interspersed with interview material.

Wandering mimics such as Hajari Bhand perform their routines in the streets, courtyards, and market places of North India - particularly of Rajasthan. Their guises, mimicry and humor are all fashioned from a close study of the dress and behavior patterns of professional castes, character types, and figures from mythology. These mimics offer a comic census of known types – a vast assortment of gods and goddesses, tradesmen and rogues, noblemen and holy men, professionals and tribals, beggars and fools.

Bhands perform several functions for their society. Acting as wild cards in an otherwise carefully labeled deck, they entertain, they interpret behavior, and they diffuse tensions in conflict situations. The skill and humor of the Bhand's profession is evident in Hajari Bhand's performances and commentary.

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Keep the Dance Alive

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:13:00 GMT

Keep the Dance Alive
Buy Now: $320.00

A unique voyage through the music, dance and spirit possession practices of the Ovahimba people of north-western Namibia and south-western Angola, Keep the Dance Alive features remarkable footage of how dance and spirit possession is integrated into everyday life from infancy to death.

The documentary presents a singular vision of the Ovahimba people, that of director Rina Sherman who filmed the lives of an Omuhimba family for seven years. She focuses on how singing, rhythm and voice work together with dance and spirit possession to compose a complete imaginary universe and a dense and complex social structure.

Keep the Dance Alive is part of The Ovahimba Years Project, a long-term multi-disciplinary ethnographic study of the Ovahimba and other Otjiherero-language-speaking peoples of northwestern Namibia and southwestern Angola.

Films in the Ovahimba Years series

Keep The Dance Alive

Shake Your Brains

When Visitors Come

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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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Play, Jankunú Play

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 10:58:00 GMT

Play, Jankunú Play
Buy Now: $320.00

The Garifuna are a Central American people of West African and Native American descent. One of their most popular rituals is wanaragua, a three-fold system of masked Christmas processionals commonly called Jankunú. This ritual is a unique blend of African, European, and Native American (Arawak and Carib) art traditions in which social and cultural identities are expressed through music, dance, and costume. As dancers adorn themselves in colorful regalia to mimic past foreign oppressors they symbolically affirm their identity. They perform stylized movements to the accompaniment of drums and social commentary songs composed by men. Descriptions of the three processions and dance styles are interspersed with interviews by Garifuna singers, drummers, dancers, cultural advocates, and scholars on the significance of rituals.

Rare footage of wárini, the now extinct ritual that is the Africanized predecessor to wanaragua, is accompanied by commentary on the significance of the ritual. Examples of wanaragua drumming and dance styles demonstrate how drummers rhythmically interpret the unique movements of each dancer. Translations of song texts show the Garifuna language on screen and reveal themes commonly found in songs. Gender play and role reversal become part of the revelry as Garifuna men mimic European women. Occasionally, Garifuna women, disguised as male wanaragua dancers, join in the festivities. The antics and songs of Charikanari, a ritual featuring stock characters such as the Two-Foot Cow and Devil, are also presented. Images of similar processionals in other locations include photos of Masquerade in St. Kitts-Nevis, Gombey in Bermuda, Jonkonnu in Jamaica, John Kuner (now extinct) in North Carolina, Junkanoo in the Bahamas, and Fancy Dress in Cape Coast, Ghana.

Also included are photographs and footage of wanaragua as performed by Garifuna from Guatemala and Honduras with oral accounts explaining why costumes in these countries differ from those traditionally worn in Belize. Play Jankunú Play places the viewer within the context of the Garifuna world at Christmas where music, dance, and art reflect the past to empower the future.

"Play Jankunú Play is a highly significant accomplishment for the Garifuna people, in their effort to preserve their culture and share their rich heritage with the world. It is an invaluable communication tool that can lead to greater understanding among peoples and a deeper appreciation for cultural diversity.”
— Andy Palacio, Deputy Administrator/Cultural Ambassador, National Institute of Culture and History, Belize

"The documentary film Play Jankunú Play introduces us to a fascinating Garifuna ritual tradition which continues to flourish in Belize, one of the lesser known countries of Central America. Oliver Greene, the film's author, draws upon his extensive fieldwork to bring to life this little known segment of African Diaspora culture. With visual allusions to parallel traditions in Jamaica, the Bahamas, Ghana, and elsewhere, the film offers the viewer a rich tapestry of Garifuna dance, drumming, and song, explicated by revealing commentary. We are provided with insight into the Garifuna people and reflections on the meaning of the arts in human life. Scholarly in depth, the film will appeal to a large audience including those with interest in world dance, world music, and in the African Diaspora.”
— Richard A. Long, Atticus Haygood Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Emeritus, Emory University, Atlanta, GA

“Greene shows us with well-chosen images and narration how Garifuna Jankunú connects with both African masquerades and the broader African-Caribbean Yuletide performance tradition known as Jonkonnu (or John Canoe) - which, according to one scholar, ...could lay good claim to being the most ancient and most enduring non-European cultural form in the Caribbean... This visually striking and culturally sensitive documentary will be welcomed not just by students of the Garinagu and the Central American countries they inhabit, but by all those who are interested in the performance arts of the Black Atlantic.” — Kenneth Bilby, Director of Research, Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College, Chicago, IL

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Annual Carribean Studies Association Conference, Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, 2007

Garifuna Community Forum, Bronx, NY, 2007

Annual Conference of the National Garifuna Council, Dangriga, Belize, 2007

Annual Meeting for the Society for Ethnomusicology, Honoulu, HI, 2006

African Studies Association Conference, Rutgers University, NJ, 2007

XVI International Festival of Ethnological Film, Belgrade, Serbia, 2007

"Ownership and Appropriation," Joint Conference of the ASA, the ASAANZ and the AAS, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 2008

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Richard Leacock & Valerie Lalonde: The Paris Years 1989-2009

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 08:59:00 GMT

Richard Leacock & Valerie Lalonde: The Paris Years 1989-2009
Buy Now: $675.00

Richard Leacock was one of the few genuine pioneers in the field of documentary filmmaking and one of its greatest innovators — along with Al Maysles, D.A. Pennebaker and Robert Drew, he helped to create the shining interval that came to be known as cinema-verité. He made his first movie at the age of 14, and he never stopped filming until his death in 2011 at the age of 89. In Leacock's hands, the camera became an astonishingly sensitive instrument. A lot has been made of his work as a cameraman on Robert Flaherty's Louisiana Story, but his greatest influence was the ceaselessly changing world itself and the equipment he used to record and interpret certain of its events.

The films in this DVD collection were made after Leacock retired from teaching at MIT and moved to Paris, where he met his great love and creative collaborator Valerie Lalonde. The then-new Video-8 cameras delivered them from the enormous costs of shooting on film, and with unlimited time, the energizing power of love and the new lightweight equipment allowed them a freedom to film what had always interested them most — life itself, in all its beauty, charm and poignancy. This freedom is felt in every frame of every title in this collection, which spans the final period in Leacock's creative life. — Kent Jones

This 5-DVD set includes 11 films:

Les Oeufs à la Coque de Richard Leacock (91 min, 1991)

Inspired by both new love and Gulliver's Travels, Les Oeufs à la Coque (aka Richard Leacock's Soft-Boiled Eggs), is a ravishingly beautiful, important film about nothing in particular, a love song dedicated to France, French women in general and one Frenchwoman in particular, and a montage portrait of quotidian life in a country at peace.

A Musical Adventure in Siberia with Sarah Caldwell (56 min 2003)

In 1996, the First Lady of opera, Sarah Caldwell, invited her old friend and collaborator Richard Leacock to join her in Yektarinaberg, a previously closed Siberian industrial city, where she was preparing for the first-ever performance of a symphonic drama by Sergei Prokofiev of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin.

Mambo Madness (32 min, 1995)

The legendary 1960s supermodel Veruschka, aka Vera von Lehndorff, sets in motion a search for a long-lost all-female Communist Mambo band led by a blonde-haired, blue-eyed East German in this literally fabulous fantasy documentary conceived by Hans-Peter Litscher, the Swiss playwright, historian and polymath, and filmed by Leacock and Lalonde in Austria, Russia, France and Cuba.

Gott Sei Dank: A Visit with Helga Feddersen (30 min, 1993)

Years after the great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner introduced Leacock to Feddersen, the German comic actress and theatrical impresario, he and Lalonde visited her home in Hamburg while she was recuperating from a cancer surgery and filmed her talking about her life and times, her illness, and the beauty of forgiveness.

Kren - Parking (3 min, 1992)

A very short portrait of a work of art called Parking by the award-winning Slovak artist Matej Kren. Parking is made of mobile mirrors that reflect and invite reflection with confounding yet hypnotic visuals.

Les Vacances de Monsieur Leacock (20 min, 1992)

A lighthearted, charming visual diary of a cross-country road trip Leacock and Lalonde took across America, Les Vacances was made as a series of vignettes in places as diverse as Monument Valley, the ghostly mountaintop mining town Climax, Colorado, and Los Angeles.

A Celebration of St. Silas (25 min, 1993)

An offshoot of a separate collaboration about vicars for the BBC, this film follows the Anglican vicar who most delighted Leacock and Lalonde, as he prepares for and celebrates the heavenly birthday Mass of St. Silas, who brought the news that circumcision was not a prerequisite for entry to Heaven.

The Killings of Cariola (35 min, 1992)

Fascinated with process of rehearsal, Leacock and Lalonde watched and filmed as London's Cherub Company prepared a production of The Duchess of Malfi by Shakespeare's contemporary, John Webster.

Hooray! We're 50! (30 min, 1993)

A moving snapshot of Leacock's 50th reunion with the Harvard class of 1943, shot primarily by Lalonde and edited by Leacock (who majored in physics there), Hooray! We're 50! is a joyful look at the return from both war and life of an accomplished cast of graduates.

A Hole in the Sea (Le Trou dans la Mer) (30 min, 1994)

Shortly before the opening of the "Chunnel" linking England and France, Leacock and Lalonde were commissioned to film at both ends of the underwater project. They produced a light-hearted portrait of the effects of the massive project on life and the local landscapes, both physical and psychological.

Au Revoir, Marie Laure: Portrait of a Gallery at Work (42 min, 2006)

When she died in 1970, Marie Laure de Noailles left behind a legacy as a patron of the arts, muse of the surrealists and one of the great salonistes of Paris. Marie Laure's antiquaire Pierre Passebon invited her old friend Lalonde to film in the Galerie du Passage in Paris during the last week of an exhibition of Marie Laure's artworks and other possessions. The result was this sensitive meditation on art, friendship, permanence and transience.

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Send in the Clowns

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:46:00 GMT

Send in the Clowns
Buy Now: $320.00

Send in the Clowns follows performers from the organization Clowns Without Borders. Their mission is to travel to areas of crisis and relieve stress and suffering through laughter. The clowns are volunteers, armed with a unique set of skills and an earnest desire to change the world. But is their work any different from all of the other agenda-driven aid organizations?

In 2009 the clowns go to Haiti, a country known as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere with the highest number of NGOs per capita in the world. They have a grueling schedule of three or more shows a day in schools, orphanages and slums. While there is a positive response to their work, the clowns are conflicted by the overwhelming needs of the Haitian people and their effectiveness in a place saturated, yet sustained by international intervention.

On January 12th, 2010 Haiti is hit by a devastating earthquake. An outpouring of aid floods the country in an attempt to address the immediate demands of food and housing. But in the wake of such extreme devastation, what is the point of sending clowns? The clowns decide to shift their focus and return to Haiti in September 2010 to teach workshops to young adults in the hope of having a more lasting impact. The workshop participants embrace the clown activities but share the challenges of their daily lives.

One year later, we find a country still struggling with basic necessities and it's unclear where all the pledged funds have gone. The Haitian workshop participants reflect on their lives in the past year and have a strong reaction to the aid they have received. So how do the clowns measure up amidst all of the other efforts? Send in the Clowns begins as a film about artists with good intentions but slowly reveals Haiti's crippling and conflicted relationship with an arguably more absurd global aid industry.

“Send in the Clowns is less a story of corruption and ill-will than of structural failures with implications far beyond the Haitian case. The film is beautifully shot and constructed, able to hold the attention of undergraduates, grad students, and jaded development professionals alike. It is suitable for use in undergraduate and graduate courses on international development, international organizations, policy planning, cultural studies and anthropology, as well as courses on the Caribbean. It could also be useful in courses on international public health and a valuable training tool for UN agencies and NGOs.”
— David A. Feingold, Ph.D., Director, Ophidian Research Institute, Bangkok, Thailand

“As someone who has had the privilege to live and work in post earthquake Haiti for 5 years, I was relieved at the honest approach Send in the Clowns has taken to educate its viewers on the real experience of both Haitians and relief workers. The film opens doors for an honest dialog about the relief efforts in Haiti, and is truly a tool for educational purposes. Send in the Clowns is one of the best films I have seen that explains the dilemma of charitable aid and the human spirit. ”
—Julie Colombino, Founder, Rebuild Globally

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Screening at United Nations, CINE-ONU program, Brussels, 2015

Rising 15, Coventry Peace Forum, UK, 2015

Awareness Film Festival, Los Angeles, 2015

Socially Relevant Film Festival, New York, 2014

Global Peace Festival, Florida, 2014

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ShakitMa no Veh

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:46:00 GMT

ShakitMa no Veh
Buy Now: $320.00

The Goddess Shaktima is the most popular goddess in the region of Saurashtra known as Jhalavad. This documentary presents the story of Shaktima as performed by the tradictional muslim Bhavai troupe led by Amrit Kalu Rudatala of Kankavati village. Baisabgarh village, sponsored this event on July 11th, 2004.

Shaktima is beloved of all castes and her story is sung, recited, painted and performed in the many towns and villages. Known as the maker of Jhalavad, as the powerful mother, and the protector of children, she rides the great lion, is the subduer of the demon Babrabhoot and weds the warrior hero Harpal, himself an incarnation of the God Shiv. Large and small temples to her stand all over the land and celebrate her glory.

The play presents Hindu notions of time: cosmic time, legendary time, historical time and contemporary time. The Goddess is presented in many apsects, as demoness, as queen, as maker of polity, as mother and protector of children, and finally as the earth mother herself. The hero Harpal demonstrates his ability to contest the will of the divine, subdue demonic foes and establish a royal lineage that gives order, security, and stablity to the multicaste and multi-religious society of this land.

Shot in accordance with local norms, the film presents the play in its entirety with the viewer positioned frontally as a Hindu worshipper before a puja shrine. It shows the use of song, prayer, poetry and speech to demonstrate the variety of speech acts and to illustrate that Gujarati, Sanskrit and Dingal langauages are locally understood. This underlines that even peasants are multilingual in this area.

This film will be useful to students of film, theater, music, religion and anthropology and to students of Indic poetry and aesthetics.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Association for Asian Studies Conference, Boston, MA, 2007

Association for Asian Studies Conference, Boston, MA, 2008

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The Redfern Story

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:57:00 GMT

The Redfern Story
Buy Now: $320.00

By the early 1970s, the Sydney suburb of Redfern had grown to be the largest aboriginal community in Australia. Gradual revocation of reserve lands forced many to move to this affordable suburb, quickly overpopulating the area and resulting in tensions between the new inhabitants and police. Though a 1967 Referendum promised to provide long-awaited support to Aboriginal Australians, little changed, and many still struggled with daily experiences of racism and prejudice. In 1971, a small group of Redfern activists came together to seek out ways in which they could address the systematic oppression faced by their community.

The Redfern Story documents the crucial work of a group of Redfern activists who used theatre to bring the fight for indigenous rights to the larger public in Australia. Influenced by the Black Power movement in the United States, founder Bob Maza and his peers began their work with informal street theatre and protests in 1971. The project quickly grew as a creative outlet for the community, and its success developed in tandem with a number of other community-led organizations, including the Australian Medical and Legal Services. By its close in 1977, the National Black Theatre had become a hub for Aboriginal activism extending beyond theatre. The film combines interviews with community activists, archival news, and performance footage to offer a historically rich look at the emerging indigenous rights movement in Australia.

Filmmaker Darlene Johnson experienced Redfern and its vibrant theatre scene as a child growing up in the community in the early 1970s. The Redfern Story is her tribute to this significant and rich part of modern Aboriginal history which until now has been virtually undocumented.

“A fascinating collection of stories told with passion and humour about a politically explosive and culturally important chapter of Australian history.”
— Sydney Morning Herald

“This is an extraordinary film that shines a light on otherwise unknown aspects of Australian history. As such it should be an important inclusion in the education curriculum in all schools and universities throughout Australia.”
— Dr. Gary Foley

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Best Documentary - Social & Political Issues, ATOM Awards, 2015

Durban International Film Festival, Durban, South Africa, 2016

Skabmagovat Film Festival, Finland, 2016

The People's Film Festival, Harlem, NY, 2016

Hawaiian International Film Festival, 2015

Margaret Mead Documentary Film Festival, New York, 2015

Sydney International Film Festival, 2014

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