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We Are The Warriors

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 15:15:24 GMT

We Are The Warriors
Buy Now: $320.00

For nearly 70 years, students and alumni of Wells High School in Maine have called themselves the “Warriors.” Their yearbook, the Abenaki, was named for the Indigenous people the town’s settlers first encountered in the 1600s. And the school mascot was a stoic Native American head in profile with braids and feathered headband. When, in 2017, public allegations emerged that Warriors fans made “Indian” whooping calls and donned “war paint,” the community began a process to decide whether to keep or drop their long-held mascot. We Are The Warriors follows the proceedings of the school district’s Mascot Advisory Committee and draws on interviews with residents of Wells, Maine to paint a profile of one community’s process as they confront their history and identity, challenging long-held misconceptions about the meanings behind their team’s name.

The film’s Co-Directors, both graduates of Wells High School, gathered interviews and insights from residents of Wells and Wabanaki people from what is now Maine, Québec, and the Canadian Maritimes. Revelations about the town’s brutal colonial history and difficult conversations about the actual impact of the use of the mascot were key to changing hearts and minds of committee members. The film highlights evolving opinions of residents with a secondary focus on the history of the region. After months of informed consideration, the committee votes to recommend that the school board retire the mascot.

We Are the Warriors serves as a case study for how one community contends with the legacy of settler colonialism and speaks to national issues regarding misunderstandings about the role and place of indigenous people in American society.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Maine Public Television, USA, 2024

Vermont Public Television, USA, 2024

Port Jefferson Documentary Series, USA, 2024
Tourmaline Prize for Best Feature made in Maine, 26th Maine Int'l Film Festival, USA 2023

Global Peace Film Festival, USA, 2023
Monadnock Int'l Film Festival, USA, 2023

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Waaki (Sanctuary)

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 16:38:58 GMT

Waaki (Sanctuary)
Buy Now: $320.00

Renowned Hopi filmmaker Victor Masayesva, Jr. explores the centrality of corn for the Hopi, Nahua, and Maya, tracing the role of corn from creation stories to today's struggles against climate change. The film presents complex interrelationships between humans, plants, food systems, animals, birds, ceremonies and the cycles of the earth, sun and moon within the universe from a Hopi, Maya, and Nahua perspective. By tracing the lineage and mysterious origins of corn, we gain a deeper understanding of the ancestry of communities that transcend borders.

Masayesva writes, "The idea of sanctuary in our time is colored by the politics of human immigration. As contemporary media consumers, we are saturated with threats and security measures originating from alerts about immigration into our neighborhood. Today state borders have restricted and closed the numerous routes blazed by migrants and only wild birds and animals move freely without visas but nonetheless restricted to wildlife refuges.

Humankind has been in constant movement since the emergence, intent on leaving an oppressive order, seeking a better life, seeking sanctuary. For our age, sanctuary cannot be only within familiar beliefs and borders but beyond in the hope we carry in our soul. Sanctuary is the best we can be at the moment, and in the future."

"Waaki presents Hopi knowledge with a self-assured visual sovereignty."
– Dorothy Christian, Simon Fraser University

"The film is a fascinating blend of genres - part ethnographic, part documentary and part animation."
– Vicky Westover, Hanson FilmTV Institute Director, U of Arizona

Selected Screenings

Native Crossroads Film Festival, 2020

ImagiNative, 2019

Cornell University

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Wawan's Prayer

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 10:39:30 GMT

Wawan's Prayer
Buy Now: $460.00

Wawan is an autistic boy from Banjarmasin, Indonesia. Struggling to meet his needs at home, his parents make the difficult decision to send him to a brand new school on another island to receive specialized education and therapeutic support. Together Wawan and his teacher, Yasin, learn how to build an inclusive community for youth on the spectrum that accommodates their differences and celebrates their abilities. As the school grows, Wawan matures into a young man respected for his skill in prayer recitation.

This film is sold as a part of a set which also includes All God's Children.

Selected Screenings & Awards

Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, Toronto, 2023

German Int'l Ethnographic Film Festival, Göttingen, Germany, 2022

SEAxSEA: Southeast Asia x Seattle Film & Literature Festival, Seattle, USA 2022

Quarter Finalist, Reel-Abilities Film Festival: New York, New York, USA 2022

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Wax Print

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 13:56:54 GMT

Wax Print
Buy Now: $320.00

Wax Print traces the vast and multi-stranded global history of a fabric that has become an iconic symbol of Africa and her children worldwide. This beautiful, transnational two-year journey has taken director Aiwan Obinyan around the world, in search of African wax prints and the untold story of how wax print fabric came to symbolize a continent, its people, and their struggle for freedom.

The film brings forth issues of fast fashion and mass-produced wax print copies, while detailing an Indonesian, English, and Dutch history of the fabric itself and its significance for pan-African identities. As seen in Batik and Kente techniques, bright bold patterns and colors become a significant part of the culture, as well as the identities of the African diaspora that have kept the heritage alive. With names like “The Ungrateful Husband,” which is worn by women to shame their disloyal husbands, each wax print has a pattern and identity embodied in the cloth, and an origin story that is then accepted and integrated into the culture by consumers.

“Obinyan’s enthusiasm for wax print and her excitement at being witness to the process of its making are infectious. [The film] makes poignant observations about counterfeiting and cultural identity… [and] ultimately ties the fabric’s identity to the black experience itself.”

– Debbie Onuoha, Humboldt University, Berlin

Selected Screenings & Awards

Bradford Literature Festival, UK, 2018

Pan African Film Festival, USA, 2019

Africa in Motion, UK, 2019

12°N 61°W Grenadian Film Festival, 2019

Women of the Lens, UK, 2019

African Film Festival New Zealand, 2019

AFRIFF, Nigeria, 2019

Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), Nigeria, 2019

San Francisco Black Film Festival, 2019

Wax Print Festival, Ghana, 2019

Berkshire Museum, USA, 2019

Tubman African American Film Festival, USA, 2019

BlackStar Film Festival, USA, 2019

Black History Studies Film Festival, UK, 2019

CinemAfrica Film Festival, Sweden, 2020

Utrecht Centraal Museum: Voices of Fashion Exhibition, Netherlands, 2021

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Wood Crafts series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Wood Crafts series
Buy Now: $2,295.00

A series of ten short films about traditional wood tradesmen of Switzerland. These films take a close look into the life and craft of a group of men who make their living from working with wood, including a cooper, a luthier, a toy-maker, a carpenter and sculptor, a pair of shingle-makers, a turner, and others.

"Hats off to Jacqueline Veuve for making a major contribution to Swiss cinema at the end of the eighties. In this fresco comprising seven portraits, the images are profound. What common ground is there between the gestures, the words and the hearts of these men? The answer is: a metaphysical relationship between wood and a way of life." -- Bertil Galland, 24 heures

Films in the Wood Crafts series

Armand Rouiller, Sledge-maker
Arnold Golay, Toy-maker

The Bapst Brothers, Carriers

Claude Lebet, Luthier

François Pernet, Carpenter and Sculptor
Joseph Doutaz & Olivier Veuve, Shingle-makers

A Little Corner of Paradise

Marcellin Babey, Turner
Michel Marlétaz, Cooper

Pink Mountain Sand

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Wai'á Rini, The Power of the Dream

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 12:26:00 GMT

Wai'á Rini, The Power of the Dream
Buy Now: $320.00

In the Wai'á ceremony, young Xavante men undergo suffering as an initiation into spiritual life and a way to make contact with supernatural forces. The boys are divided into groups, and under the supervision of past initiates they perform weeks of physical trials in the hot sun.

Their guardians induce ritual fainting in the boys, in order to give them dreams that will in turn have the power to make reality. The Wai'á ceremony takes place only about every 15 years, and its leaders want to create a visual record with the help of Xavante filmmaker Divino TserewahWai'á. Some aspects of the men's ceremony, however, are hidden from women and therefore cannot be recorded on video.

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

SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Prize KICHWA Nationality, IV First Nations Film and Video Festival of ABYA YALA, Equador, 2001
Anaconda Award, II Anaconda 2002, Bolivia

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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Waiting for Cambodia

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 12:26:00 GMT

Waiting for Cambodia
Buy Now: $320.00

Since the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, Cambodia has struggled to find its uniqueness and rebuild its society. Waiting For Cambodia features interviews and discussions with a variety of citizens, many of who represent a face of change and hope, and many who remain dedicated to the Khmer Rouge ideology. Images of cultural beauty are displayed through ritualistic dance and song, serving as a powerful accompaniment to the rough images of conflict. The attempts to regain culture, individual rights, and freedom are prevalent themes within the film, and footage of Cambodian relief camps and liberation organizations are displayed as efforts of change.

Regardless, the plight to re-create a sense of identity has been rough, as global support has been minimal. Ninety percent of Cambodians are considered to be displaced persons, and many camps are limited in resources and overcrowded. Many questions continue to plague Cambodia, and the lack of a positive leader may prove to be the heart of the issue. In a time where a country's individuality is on the line, Waiting For Cambodia explores the highs and lows of the Cambodian dilemma, and the various paths to travel in order to regain its identity.

Suitable for students in middle school and up, and those with an interest in Asian Studies, Conflict and/or War, Politics, Rural, Village & Urban Life, Gender Roles, and History.

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Walking Pilgrims

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 12:26:00 GMT

Walking Pilgrims
Buy Now: $320.00

For a great number of people, the main motive for undertaking a pilgrimage consists of the journey itself - wandering along a path leading away from the familiar place and at the same time leading towards oneself. The road movie and documentary Walking Pilgrims (Arukihenro) focuses on today's Japanese wandering pilgrims, as they undertake the 88 Temples' Pilgrimage that circles the Japanese island of Shikoku.

Over 1000 years old, the Shikoku Henro connects 88 predetermined sacred places along a 1400 km route that circles Japan's fourth largest island, Shikoku. The pilgrimage follows the path of the holy monk Kobo Daishi (774-835), founder of Japanese Shingon Buddhism, who is said to have attained enlightenment on his ascetic wanderings through the prefectures of Tokushima, Kochi, Ehime, and Kagawa.

Despite the increasing secularization of Japanese society, the 88 Temples' Pilgrimage retains its popularity. Besides the huge crowds of bus and taxi tours that make up about 99% of the pilgrims, there are still a few walkers who undertake the entire pilgrimage in 40 to 60 days on foot. From youth at loose ends in Japan's changing economy to elderly people for whom walking the pilgrimage has been a lifelong dream, these pilgrims walk for a variety of reasons, but all find a common ground in the soothing rituals of the pilgrimage.

Walking Pilgrims (Arukihenro) was shot over a period of nine months, while the filmmakers themselves hiked along the entire route. Using ethnographic methods, the film investigates the motivations of today's pilgrims, with input from priests, academic experts, and Shikoku residents. Using the pilgrimage as its starting point, Walking Pilgrims (Arukihenro) gives insight into the religious and socio-cultural roots of contemporary Japanese society.

"...Walking Pilgrims (Arukihenro) is an absorbing and intriguing journey into the inner lives of Japanese people today, and is an excellent representation of the complex and contradictory soul of modern Japan." -- Peter Matanle, Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Paris, France, 2007
Worldfilm Festival of Visual Culture, Tartu, Estonia, 2007
NAFA Nordic Anthropological Film Association Festival, Trondheim, Norway, 2007
RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, Manchester, UK, 2007
Parnu International Documentary Film Festival, Parnu, Estonia, 2007
Scientific Film Festival, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan, 2008
Days of Ethnographic Film, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2008
ETNOFILM Cadca 2008, Cadca, Slovakia
Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, 2009
T.H.I.S. Buddhist Film Festival, Singapore, 2009

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Wandering Warrior

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 12:26:00 GMT

Wandering Warrior
Buy Now: $320.00

In 1983, at the age of 19, Maasai warrior Mpeti Ole Surum left his homeland in Southern Kenya. He left his cattle, sheep, and goats. He moved from the community where he lived among other warriors to attend school and learn the English language; an opportunity unknown to others in his village.

Mpeti had met American tourists who were on a safari in Kenya. Their talk of the "outside world" interested him; they encouraged Mpeti to think about education. But his father beat and put a curse on him at the mention of school. Only after Mpeti persuaded the chief of his village to speak on his behalf, did his father concede. Mpeti entered the first grade at 19, changed his name to "Tom" and graduated three years later with an eighth-grade education, able to read and write in English.

The Maasai people possess great pride and self-respect. Their life within a rigid social structure maintains the harmony that has sustained them for thousands of years in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya. According to Maasai tradition, the warrior earns privileges by performing special duties. Tom underwent a series of rituals during his development as a warrior, including circumcision at age 15. The most honorable achievement for a warrior is the slaying of a lion. Tom killed two.

Tom took a job at Keekorok Lodge, a resort owned by the United Touring Company (UTC), Kenya's largest tourist agency located in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. He worked as a groundskeeper, room steward, a salesman, and a manager in the gift shop. But he made an impression on the guests when he began speaking about Maasai culture. In hopes of attracting others to Kenya, UTC sent Tom to entertain in London, England. Within months the nomadic warrior had become a sought-after lecturer, entertainer, and talk show guest.

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Wapté Mnhõnõ, The Xavante's Initiation

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 12:26:00 GMT

Wapté Mnhõnõ, The Xavante's Initiation
Buy Now: $320.00

A team of Xavante filmmakers has collaborated to realize this visual archive of the complex Wapté Mnhõnõ ceremony. Taking place over several months with much elaborate rehearsal and preparation, the ceremony involves the participation of several different groups of boys and men in the roles of initiates, godparents, and rivals.

A new age group is initiated every seven years and this initiate group competes against its rival in physical trials and undergoes ear piercing, while godparents drill and supervise their godsons. The ceremony marks the important transition away from childhood, and everyone in the village participates in a variety of roles. After being initiated, boys are adults and may be presented to their future wives. The filmmakers face the challenge of balancing their ceremonial duties with their desire to get the best shots possible. They want to document and preserve their Xavante culture.

Other films from the Indigenous Video Makers series:

One Must Be Curious
Moyngo, The Dream of Maragareum
The Rainy Season
Wai'á Rini, The Power of the Dream
Shomõtsi
Dancing with a Dog
Kinja Iakaha, A Day in the Village
Nguné Elü, The Day the Moon Menstruated
A Path to Live
Trainees for the Future
The Living Forest

From the Ikpeng Children to the World

SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Jangada Trophy, OCIC Award (International Catholic Film organization), 1999
Manuel Diégues Junior Award, 6th International Ethnographic Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro, 1999
Best Documentary Award, Xth International Festival of Ethnographic Films, Nuoro, Italy, 2000
Anaconda Award, Bolivia, 200

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