From the Inside Out

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 09:18:00 GMT

From the Inside Out
Buy Now: $295.00

In the Navajo language there is neither a word for religion nor art. The only word that could be used to describe both is "hozho" – beauty, balance, order and harmony.

Navajo history is turbulent, and in order to survive the Navajo had to adapt. Baskets are a part of this history, changing throughout time and adapting with the people. They contribute to the balance, harmony, and beauty of Navajo life. Inititally purely functional pieces, baskets gradually became integrated into various ceremonies, elevating them to sacred and symbolic levels.

Oppression, trade, and technology eventually led to dwindling numbers of basket weavers, but beginning in the 1970s Navajo basketry experienced a renaissance led by a group of families in the Douglas Mesa region of the Utah reservation.Secularized basketry is now a thriving part of Navajo trade and traditional baskets continue to be an important part of Navajo ceremonial life.

In intimate detail, From the Inside Out depicts both the new and old roles baskets play in the lives of contemporary basket-weavers.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Durango Film Festival, Colorado, 2005

First Place - Educational Films, Broadcast Education Association Faculty Contest, 2005

Contemporary Native America Screening, Lesley University, MA, 2005

Northeastern Anthropological Association Ethnographic Film & Video Festival, NY, 2005

Heard Museum Film Festival, Arizona, 2005

19th Pärnu International Film Festival, Estonia, 2005

SVA/AAA Conference, Washington DC, 2005

Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, TX, 2006

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Please be aware that this documentary may include outdated or potentially offensive language.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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Liahona

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

Liahona
Buy Now: $320.00

Liahona is an experimental documentary examining the culture, history, and lived experience of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, often referred to as the Mormon faith.

The film creates a portrait of Mormonism through documentation of LDS cultural dominance in Utah, the suppressed history of folk magic in the early church, landmark Mormon life experiences, and Sanders' personal history and connection to the church. Found media with the voices of outsiders and insiders illuminate a religion that intrigues many, but is seen as mysterious or inaccessible. Liahona shifts through perspectives on the faith -- from reverence to questioning, presenting the complexities of the vast institution of Mormonism contrasted with the tenuity of individual faith.

Liahona is an examination of how mysticism becomes mundane, the balance and the tension in Mormon life experience between the illogical and the pedestrian, the public face of Mormonism and gaps in accessibility. What is it about the Mormons that make them so distinctively different? Recorded on 16mm film, Liahonatraverses Utah, Nauvoo and Carthage, Illinois and Independence, Missouri to piece together this portrait of a faith.

“An arresting, deceptively low-key indictment of Mormonism composed almost entirely of found footage.”
— Tony Pipolo, ArtForum

“Sanders interpolates her found sounds and sights with original 16mm Bolex footage of landscapes and town streets, sometimes containing people posed as though waiting for something left up to us to fill in. Liahona encourages us to look not at costumes, but at faces, and bring ourselves to people whose lives could easily be ours. It does so even while shifting gradually from a study of Mormon life in general to one particular life, as Sanders' own voice enters the film's soundtrack to recite texts, sing songs, and ask her Mormon parents questions about their Church experiences.”
— Aaron Cutler, Filmmaker Magazine

“An accomplished experimental feature... The wide-ranging Liahona is neither a straightforward indictment nor a reconciled embrace, but a story inextricable from its artist's own.”
— Genevieve Yue, Reverse Shot

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Winner, CAMIRA Jury Prize, International Competition, Play-Doc, Tui, Spain, 2015

Experimental Film Club, Irish Film Institute, Dublin, 2015

Montreal International Documentary Film Festival (RIDM), 2014

Indie Festival (Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo, Brazil), 2014

Marseille International Documentary Film Festival (FID Marseille), 2014

New York Film Festival Views From the Avant-Garde, 2013

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

From the Inside Out

Liahona