Margaret Mead Film Festival
Vikalp Bangalore (Films for Freedom) and the American Museum of Natural History present the 2007 Margaret Mead Traveling Film Festival. The Traveling Festival is comprised of six thematic programmes, each approximately 1.5 hours in length. This year, programme themes include worker rights in China, Mexican-American migration, the evolution debate and more.
The annual Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival is the longest-running, premiere showcase for international non-fiction media in the United States. The Festival features a broad spectrum of cultural documentary, both in form and subject matter.
Aug 10, 6:30 pm
China Blue – Micha X. Peled, 2005, 88 min, U.S.A./China
El Inmigrante – David Eckenrode, John Sheedy & John Eckenrode, 2005, 90 min, U.S.A./Mexico
Aug 11, 6:30 pm
Flock of Dodos – Randy Olson, 2006, 84 min, U.S.A.
Shooting Under Fire – Sacha Mirzoeff, 2005, 72 min, Germany/Israel/Palestine
Aug 12, 6:30 pm
Sisters in Law – Kim Longinotto & Florence Ayisi, 2005, 104 min, Cameroon
A Map With Gaps – Alice Nelson, 2006, 26 min, Scotland
Today’s Man – Lizzie Gottlieb, 2006, 55 min, U.S.A.
China Blue
Micha X. Peled. 2005. 88 min. (U.S./China) NY Premiere
China Blue takes us inside a blue jeans factory in Southern China, where we follow the lives of Jasmine and her friends, young working girls struggling to fulfill the impossible obligations forced upon them by the factory’s owner. The complexities of globalization are brought to a human level through these moving portraits of the young workers who make our clothes.
El Inmigrante
David Eckenrode, John Sheedy & John Eckenrode. 2005. 90 min. (U.S./Mexico)
El Inmigrante is a film about the American and Mexican border crisis, illuminated by the story of Eusebio de Haro, a young Mexican migrant who was shot and killed during one of his journeys north. This event becomes the point of departure for a far more multi-layered border tale, one that’s especially relevant in the face of the U.S.’s current immigration dispute. The cast of this film is diverse, including Eusebio’s family in Mexico, the community of Brackettville, Texas, the horseback border patrol in El Paso, and other migrants en route to the United States. Their perspectives come together to create a moving political commentary on the current state of border issues.
Flock of Dodos
Randy Olson. 2006. 84 min. (U.S.)
Who are the dodos in the current debate over evolution versus intelligent design? With a Super Size Me-style good spirit, marine biologist turned filmmaker Randy Olson travels the country in search of an answer. He starts with his 82 year old mother who is neighbors with the top lawyer for intelligent design in Olson’s home state of Kansas, which is the epicenter of the controversy. This film gets beyond the tedium of the “debate” of who’s right and who’s wrong. Instead, it explores how those who embrace each side are “communicating” their ideas to the public.
Shooting Under Fire
Sacha Mirzoeff. 2005. 72 min. (Germany/Israel/Palestine)
Modern warfare is carried out both on the battlefield and in the media. More and more, we rely on journalists and photographers to provide us with unbiased access to events as they happen. Shooting Under Fire introduces Reinhard Krause, head of the Reuters photo bureau in the West Bank and Gaza, and his team of local Israeli and Palestinian photographers, who cover both sides of the Israeli conflict. This riveting film highlights the individuals who risk their lives to bring us the pictures.
Sisters in Law
Kim Longinotto & Florence Ayisi. 2005. 104 min. (Cameroon)
“Men are going to get the message now.” The lawyers and judges in one small courthouse in Kumba, Cameroon are helping to transform women’s and children’s lives by protecting them from domestic violence. From the maker of Divorce Iranian Style and Gaea Girls comes this latest project celebrating dynamic women in non-traditional roles. A testament to how a few strong women can help to make an impact on individual lives as well as traditional world-views.
A Map With Gaps
Alice Nelson. 2006. 26 min. (Scotland) NY Premiere
Using a combination of archive audio recordings, still photographs, drama reconstruction, and animation, this surreal and comic tale is an account of a journey made by the director’s father through Soviet Russia in the early 1970s in a van he built and named “Supervan.” Truth can indeed be stranger than fiction, and sometimes the gray area between the two is the most interesting place to explore.
Today’s Man
Lizzie Gottlieb. 2006. 55 min. (U.S.) NY Premiere
Nicky Gottlieb is a young man struggling to leave the comfort and safety of his parents’ home and find his place in the world. While he can calculate the square root of any number in the blink of an eye, he has trouble reading the simplest of facial expressions, making social interaction difficult. At the age of 21, he is diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. This loving portrait by his filmmaker sister is both a personal exploration of one family’s journey and a broader effort to understand this mysterious disorder.
