In recognition of her many valuable contributions to documentary filmmaking in Switzerland, Jacqueline Veuve has been chosen as the recipient of the 2013 Swiss Film Honorary Award, a lifetime achievement award. She will be honored at a ceremony in Geneva on March 23rd. Read more

Paths of Hope color, 39 minutes
This latest installment from the Development Communications Workshop provides insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by families in three contrasting communities in Costa Rica. Developed for an innovative teaching collaboration between Southern New Hampshire University and EARTH University, the film looks at key community economic development issues as seen by the region’s residents, university students, and faculty. Read more

The One and the Many color, 56 minutes
This anthropological documentary film offers an in-depth look at the Tantrik, Aghori, holy seekers of Northern India who are the disciples of the great Guru Gorakh Nath. Following his journey of discovery in The Lover and the Beloved, Rajive McMullen goes deeper into Tantra presenting his own guru’s story.
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A Media Archaeology of Boston b&w and color, 120 minutes
Using the Boston region as a laboratory for exploring different modes of urban representation across both history and media, Media Archaeology exhibits a carefully-selected excavation of the city’s spaces through a montage of short films, photographs, postcards, and soundscapes of the larger metropolitan area.
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Read DER board member Karma Foley’s great article on the Smithsonian Collections Blog about the John Marshall retrospective at DocsDF in Mexico City this past November.

Photos courtesy of Francisco Palma. See more photos from the retrospective on flickr.

In October, DER co-sponsored a panel at The Vermont International Film Festival examining the work and legacy of pioneering documentary filmmaker George C. Stoney. The panel, consisting of Stoney’s collaborators and others who consider their current work to be a continuation of his legacy, discussed his influence on documentary filmmaking practices and ethics, and in the development of early public access media.

Excerpts from Stoney’s groundbreaking films, such as All My Babies, are included. Read more and watch a video at the VIFF website.

Framing the Other color, 25 minutes
Framing the Other portrays the complex relationship between tourism and indigenous communities by revealing the intimate and intriguing thoughts of a Mursi woman from Southern Ethiopia and a Dutch tourist as they prepare to meet each other. Recently, the Mursi have undergone “touristification,” which has affected their authentic culture. While tourists treat the Mursi as curiosities to be photographed, the Mursi deal with the influx of the “other” in their own way. Read more

Mallamall color, 74 minutes
Globalization is causing India’s traditional marketplace culture to undergo rapid changes. The growing middle-class desires a western life style, in which mega malls take precedence over street vendors. But how will this affect the traditional economy so many people count on? Lalita Krishna’s Mallamall is a sensory portrayal of India’s burgeoning retail industry through stories of the people whose lives depend upon it. Read more

The Newcomers color, 30 minutes
Fresh as the day it was made in 1963, this George Stoney film explores the challenges faced by people migrating from the Appalachian region to the city. The necessity to move to find work is set against the backdrop of the challenges of urban living and the struggle to rebuild a sense of community. Read more

In March 2012, the NEA received 1,509 eligible applications for Art Works requesting more than $74 million in funding. The 832 recommended NEA grants total $22.3 million, span 13 artistic disciplines and fields, and focus primarily on the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing works for the benefit of American audiences. Applications were reviewed by panels of outside experts convened by NEA staff and each project was judged on its artistic excellence and artistic merit.

Documentary Educational Resources is one of 832 non-profit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. DER is recommended for a $30,000 grant to support Hossein Omoumi: Classical Persian Music from Isfahan to Irvine.

Congratulations to ALL the Art Works awardees!

Standing on the Edge of a Thorn color, 33 minutes
An intimate portrait of a family in rural Indonesia. Shot over the course of 12 years, the film centers on Iman Rohani, a former civil servant struggling with a mental disorder, who takes in Tri, an unwed pregnant teenager 30 years his junior. The couple is scorned by the other villagers and eventually Tri is brought to a life a prostitution and violence. Narrated by their daughter, Lisa. the film documents her sense of self against the backdrop of an unstable family. Read more

Ngaben: Emotion and Restraint in a Balinese Heart color, 16 minutes
This film takes an impressionistic look at the ngaben from the perspective of a mourning son, Nyoman Asub, and reveals the intimacy, sadness, and tenderness at the core of this funerary ritual. Amidst cultural and interpretive understandings of the cremation ceremony, the film purposefully provides a personalistic, impressionistic, and poetic glimpse of the process and the complex emotions involved. Read more

El Field color, 84 minutes
In a time when immigration has taken the political center stage across the globe, El Field contributes to the discussion by providing a compelling portrait of the life, work and industry of a forgotten section of the largest, busiest land transit border in the world. El Field presents visual historic information that induces the audience to form their own impressions on migrant labor and the industry that employs them. Read more

Smokin’ Fish color, 80 minutes
Cory Mann, a quirky Tlingit businessman, gets hungry for smoked salmon, nostalgic for his childhood, and decides to spend a summer smoking salmon at his family’s traditional fish camp in Juneau, Alaska. By turns tragic, bizarre, or just plain ridiculous, Smokin’ Fish tells the story of one man’s attempts to navigate the messy collision between the modern world and an ancient culture. Read more

Funeral Season color, 87 & 60 minutes
Funeral Season takes the viewer through the red dust of Cameroon and into the heart of the Bamileke country, where one funeral flows into the next. Along the way, the director befriends his guides and becomes increasingly haunted by memories of his own ancestors. Like the dead and the living, they belong to two different worlds often mirroring each other. Read more

If It Doesn’t Rain & If It Doesn’t Rain: First Return color, 107 minutes
The latest installment in the Development Communications Workshop Collection, this 2-disk set takes a serious look at the issue of poverty in Southern Mexico. Great for classroom discussion and filled with in-depth extras, this set examines the strategies associated with development. In the second disk, the filmmakers return and provide an update on the role of government programs, migration and grass-roots organizing. Read more

Unity Through Culture color, 59 minutes
A struggle to define the past, present and future of Baluan culture erupts to the sound of thundering log drum rhythms. Soanin Kilangit organizes the largest cultural festival ever held on the island belonging to Papua New Guinea, but some traditional leaders argue that Baluan never had culture and that culture comes from the white man and is now destroying their old tradition. Others, however, take the festival as a welcome opportunity to revolt against 70 years of cultural oppression by Christianity. Read more

Maasai Migrants Series color, 111 minutes
This collection of 7 films have been produced through a continuing collaboration with Maasai-led and other NGOs and are being screened and discussed in Maasai regions throughout Tanzania, prompting conversations about poverty, migration, and sexual practices. The series also constitutes a self-critical history of a project in applied anthropology and gives an example for applied practitioners who may wish to use video in their work. Read more

Stori Tumbuna color, 89 minutes
In 2001 Paul Wolffram, a cultural researcher, spent over two years living and working among the Lak people in the rainforest of Papua New Guinea. As his relationships with the people grew he began to glimpse a hidden reality, a dark and menacing history that loomed over his host community. Over time the sense that something is amiss grows. As his curiosity deepens Paul brings to light dark secrets that set in motion a compelling and deadly set of events. Read more

DER is pleased to join DocsDF in honoring the work & legacy of John K. Marshall – filmmaker, activist, and co-founder of our organization – at an upcoming retrospective in Mexico City. This November, DocsDF’s seventh annual film festival will feature a wide variety of documentaries by and about Marshall, including:

The Hunters (1957)
A Joking Relationship (1962)
An Argument About a Marriage (1969)
N/um Tchai: The Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen (1969)
N!owa T’ama: The Melon Tossing Game (1970)
Bitter Melons (1971)
A Kalahari Family (1951-2001)
A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding (1973)
After the Game (1973)
Vermont Kids (1975)
Titicut Follies (1967), directed by Frederick Wiseman with cinematography by John Marshall
N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Woman (1980)
Remembering John Marshall (2006), directed by Alice Apley and David Tamés

We are proud to contribute to this series, and we are excited by the opportunity to present Marshall’s work to new audiences. All the films have been translated and subtitled in Spanish specifically for this event.

For more information, including a schedule of the screenings, please visit http://www.docsdf.org/en/categoria/proyecciones/cine-entre-culturas/.