Top Box Office Movies - A Cinematic Focus: Cross-Cultural Documentary Films at the MFA Boston

A Cinematic Focus: Cross-Cultural Documentary Films at the MFA Boston

E-MAIL DANIEL BERMAN

The MFA Film Program is proud to present the Documentary Educational Resource’s 35th Anniversary film series April 5-30. These six programs include both new and archival films from the Watertown-based distributor.

Founded by independent filmmakers whose collaborations reflect a lifetime of engagement and respect for their subjects, DER’s mission is to produce and promote quality ethnographic and documentary films from around the world and foster cross-cultural understanding. The series opens with a Tribute to DER’s co-founder, John Marshall who was once regarded as the “best cameraman in America” by Haskell Wexler, director of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. John died of lung cancer a year ago on April 22nd 2005. There will be a screening of the newly remastered version of John’s first film The Hunters, along with Sandeep Ray’s A Tribute to John Marshall. The screening is followed by a reception at the Museum School.

Tapes and images are available. Cynthia Close, Executive Director of DER is available for interviews.

Tickets are $8 for MFA members, seniors, and students; $9 for general admission.
Please call the Box Office at 617 369 3306 for ticket orders. Tribute to John Marshall program: $10/$12. Series tickets good for admission to all six programs: $36, $42

Tribute Program to John Marshall

The Hunters
Wed, Apr 5, 7:45 pm
The Hunters by John Marshall (1957, 72 min.) and A Tribute to John Marshall by Sandeep Ray (2005, 22 min.). This re-release of an early classic in anthropological film follows the hunt of a giraffe by four men over a five-day period. The film was shot in 1952-53 on the third joint Smithsonian-Harvard Peabody sponsored Marshall family expedition to Africa to study Ju/'hoansi, one of the few surviving groups that lived by hunting and gathering. John Marshall (DER co-founder) was a young man when he made this, his first feature length film. He spent the next 50 years of his life filming, most of it in the Kalahari. The value of the footage as an encyclopedia of !Kung life is unequaled by any other body of ethnographic film. In 2003, two years before his death in April 2005 he released his 6-hour magnum opus A Kalahari Family. Reception follows screening. Tickets: $10, $12.

Whose Is This Song?
Sat, Apr 8, 10:30 am
Whose Is This Song? by Adela Peeva (2003, 70 min.). In her search for the true origins of a haunting melody, the filmmaker travels to Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, and Bulgaria. The trip is filled with humor, suspense, tragedy and surprise as each country’s citizens passionately claim the song to be their own and can even furnish elaborate histories for its origins. The tune emerges again and again in different forms: as a love song, a religious hymn, a revolutionary anthem, and even a military march. The powerful nationalism raised by one song is eerily telling and in a region besieged by ethnic hatred, what begins as a light-hearted investigation ends as a sociological and historical exploration of the deep misunderstandings between the people of the Balkans. In Bulgarian, Turkish, Greek, Albanian, Bosnian, Macedonian, and Serbian with English subtitles.

Dead Birds
Fri, Apr 14, 6 p m
Dead Birds by Robert Gardner (1964, 84 min.) and The Ax Fight by Timothy Asch and Napolean Chagnon (1975, 30 min.). Robert Gardner’s fascinating and influential 1964 documentary follows a New Guinea tribesman, a member of the war-like Dani people. Gardner captures the unique way in which the Dani structure their energies and values on a complex system of intertribal warfare and revenge, believing that each death needs to be celebrated, mourned, and avenged to satisfy the ghosts. Added to the National Film Registry in 1998, the film is considered a landmark of ethnographic film. The Ax Fight is a close-up look at violence and conflict resolution in one Yanamamo village in South America.

A Gleam in the Dark
Sat, Apr 15, 2 pm
A Gleam in the Dark by Pablo Milstein and Noberto Ludin (Sol de Noche, La Historia de Olga Y Luis, 2002, 78 min.). This is a human rights story as well as political history, whose drama feels almost like a feature film. In 1976, during the Argentine military dictatorship, an event called the Night of the Blackout occurred in Ledesma. During the blackout, 400 people who were deemed troublesome because of their activism against the government or to improve working conditions at the Ledesma mill were taken to clandestine detention centers. Many of them were never seen again. Ledesma, one of the most important corporate empires in Argentina, led a cover-up of their involvement, but everyone in the town knew the truth. Much of the story is told through the reflection of Olga Aredez who lost her husband, a beloved doctor, during these events.

Sin Embargo: Never the Less
Sun, Apr 16, 10:30 am
Sin Embargo: Never the Less by Judith Grey, Katherine Cheng, and Eva Orner (2003, 49 min.), and Cheerleader by Kimberlee Bassford (2005, 24 min.) and A Time to Reflect: A History of Whalom Park by Aaron Cadieux (2005, 34 min.). After the revolution of 1959 and the U.S. embargo that followed, the people of Cuba were left to fend for themselves. Deprived of even the most basic goods, they scavenge the alleys and scrap heaps, giving new vitality to the discarded. Their recycled products are often remarkably ingenious and creative. For the other subjects of Sin Embargo, even the greatest pressure—whether levied by government or circumstance—cannot quash the desire to forge a better life for themselves and their families. Cheerleader explores the ins and outs of an All-American pastime, and A Time to Reflect is an in-depth look at the disappearance of amusement parks.

Screening Room with Jean Rouch
Sun, Apr 30, 10:30 am
Screening Room with Jean Rouch (1980, 64 min.). Jean Rouch, considered one of the fathers of “Direct Cinema” and one of the most influential documentary makers of the 20th century, appeared on Screening Room with Robert Gardner in July 1980. The Screening Room series features seminal works, works in-progress, and rarely seen footage from legendary animators and documentarians. It was broadcast on commercial TV between 1973 and 1980, and after 30 years it is still thought provoking and artistically relevant for contemporary audiences.

Contact: Stefanie Lubkowski - Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Film Publicity Coordinator
465 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115
617 369 3687
slubkowski@mfa.org

Film Series: Documentary Educational Resource’s 35th Anniversary
Date: April 5-30
Where: Remis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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