It's time for the third annual Margaret Mead Traveling Film
Festival. If you love to learn about other people in other places
in the world - your event is coming - April 10, 11 and 12,
2009.
Each year, the American Museum of Natural History in New York
screens dozens of the best innovative, non-fiction films and
selects favorites for its traveling show. Once again, UVI is
hosting this traveling festival of excellent films from around the
world.
This year's program features six films -- all new, all striking and
all revealing about the world far from our islands. All films will
be screened free of charge from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. in Chase
Auditorium, Room 110 of the Business Building on the St. Thomas
campus and on St. Croix in the Theater - Evans Center Room
401.
On Friday, April 10, the films are about the relationship between
humans and animals, with a story about a seal that escapes the
Prague zoo and a second about the first primate research lab caught
in a war zone near Russia.
On Saturday, April 11, the first film features African women in
Swaziland coping with AIDS, and the second film is about an
aboriginal Australian woman who is thrust into the world of modern
cinema.
On Sunday, April 12, audiences will visit with a family in the high
plateaus of the Himalayas. The family ekes out a living raising
goats to produce world famous pashmina wool. The filmmakers travel
to Cambodia, where they follow the trail of bomb disposal experts
trying to defuse Vietnam War-era bombs before children explode
them.
FRIDAY, APRIL 10:
The Lost Colony (De Verloren Kolonie) Duration: 72 minutes -
2008
The Sukhum Primate Center in Abkhazia, the oldest primate research
laboratory in the world, is crumbling. This once prominent facility
has been hailed for its strides in medical research and space
exploration. Founded in the 1920s, the institute now strives for
relevance amid Abkhazia's struggle for independence from Georgia,
dwindling funds, and the loss of a large portion of its animals to
a modern lab in neighboring Russia. On the cusp of its 80th
anniversary, filmmaker Astrid Bussink visits the lab as it prepares
for a conference designed to drum up support in the scientific
community. Meanwhile, one guard searches the surrounding forests
for any sign of members of the monkey colony thought to have
escaped from the lab during the 1992 military conflict. Archival
footage of the center's glory days and present-day activities
captured at a detached remove are combined with stunning images of
the decaying buildings and grounds. Now, with recently renewed
fighting between Georgia and Russia over Abkhazian and South
Ossetian independence, Bussink's ironic take on this seemingly
hopeless situation becomes prescient.
Peace With Seals - Director: Miloslav Novák - 86 min -
2008
The relationship between humans and animals is undergoing a
profound change. In 2002, 'Gaston', a seal, escaped from the Prague
Zoo during the floods and managed to swim to Germany before being
re-captured. Gaston became a hero, "the most famous animal on
earth", even having a statue erected in his honour at the zoo. But
why elevate this particular animal to such cult status when at the
same time seals, once widespread throughout Europe, are now
an
endangered species? The second story took place 50 years earlier
and tells the life story of a seal named Ulysses, caught in
Sardinia by a Milan photojournalist who, in front of the cameras,
tossed the animal into the famous Di Trevi fountain. Patellani - a
friend of Federico Fellini's and a specialist on film stars - was
fined for his action. The reason, however, was not the killing of a
baby seal but the pollution of water in the fountain. We may be
approaching a time when it will be impossible to see animals in
their natural habitat. Is it acceptable that instead of seals on
the beaches of the Mediterranean there are now sun-tanning
tourists? Or that you can book a seal-hunting trip through a travel
agent? How does this profound change affect our view both of
animals and of ourselves? Will every animal one day be
domesticated? And what is the domestication of people?
SATURDAY APRIL 11 :
River of No Return - Australia - Darlene Johnson- 52
minutes
Frances Daingangan is a 45-year old mother of three who comes from
the remote community of Ramingining in North East Arnhem land. Like
many young girls, Frances dreamed of being a movie star - a dream
that came true when Rolf de Heer cast her in the lead female role
of Nowalingu in Ten
Canoes. Her journey from traditional tribal life to red carpets and
award ceremonies is unlike any other. It's a fascinating and unique
story as Frances learns to overcome huge personal and cultural
challenges. River of NoReturn is a story of change and
transformation as Frances learns to move between the ancient life
of the Yolgnu and modern world of the white culture.
Today the Hawk Takes One Chick - Swaziland - Africa - 72
minutes
Witnessing the highest prevalence of HIV in the world and the
lowest life expectancy, three grandmothers in Swaziland cope in
this critical moment in time. Today The Hawk Takes One Chick moves
delicately between the lives of three unique grandmothers whose
experiences highlight a rural community at the threshold of
simultaneous collapse and reinvention. Through the poignant
perspective of the three women, the film creates a portrait of a
community by layering discrete moments in time. Presented without
overt narrative structure or narration, the film's drama emerges
from the patient accumulation of steady details that, in sum, tell
a greater story of family, struggle, and the weight of an uncertain
future in a world dictated by AIDS. The events in the film occur in
a rural area with-in a 15-mile radius of St Phillips Health Center
where one of the women, Thandiwe Mathujwa, works as a nurse. The
facts that precede the film are that in the southern African
kingdom of Swaziland, nearly 40% of its people are HIV positive and
life expectancy has dropped to 32-years. The lives of the three
grandmothers featured in the film have been consumed by addressing
the needs of their community while at the same time remaining the
threads of the fraying traditional life.
SUNDAY APRIL 12 :
Stone Pastures - Himalayas and Finland- 75 minutes - 2008
Stone Pastures tells the story of a nomadic family living on the
Himalayan plateau of Chantang, Ladakh. In this high altitude cold
desert, the most inhospitable of environments, father Sonam, mother
Phuntsok, old uncle Tsewang, and the boys, Padma and Kunsang,
struggle rearing pashmina goats. This struggle contains a paradox:
Ladakh's gritty, rocky conditions give rise to the finest of
materials, pashmina wool. Produced by the nomads' goats as a warm
undercoat, this is the raw material for luxurious Kashmiri shawls,
and the family's only source of income. The film follows the family
through the seasons in the context of their livelihood. Aspiring
towards a more comfortable, settled life, we find Ladakh's nomads
in a state of transition, between traditional life and modern ways.
In Stone Pastures, this transition is seen mainly through the eyes
of the family's youngest son, Kunsang, as he moves away from the
life of his ancestors, travelling between the high plateau and
boarding school in Leh, Ladakh's Capital.
Bomb Harvest Laos and Australia - 88 minutes - 2007
Over 35 years ago, during the Vietnam War, American bombs rained
down on Laos in the 'Secret War', leaving it the most bombed
country, per capita, in history. The deadly legacy of this
destruction continues, with the country still scattered with
unexploded ordnance. A huge live bomb is found behind a village
school and straight-talking, laconic Australian bomb disposal
specialist Laith Stevens arrives to check it out. He's in the
process of training a new 'big bomb' team, so reluctantly leaves
the bomb's disposal until the team is up to the task. Reluctant,
because rural poverty has triggered a brisk illegal trade in bomb
scrap metal and the local children are out hunting for bombs. In
order to find the right person to deal with the very dangerous bomb
behind the school, Laith will take his team of fledgling bomb
disposal specialists down to a remote area of the Ho Chi Minh Trail
where they will test their new skills on live bombs for the first
time. With the Lao ability to find the humour in horrific
circumstances, Laith uses his larrikin jokes and can-do attitude to
bond with the team and local villagers in order to get them through
this harrowing task alive. But will they get back to the bomb
behind the school in time?
These films are world class and these evenings promise to be
enlightening and very stimulating. UVI Professor of Communication
Dr. Alex Randall says, "These films are real eye-openers, featuring
world class cinematography and subjects that stretch the
imagination and bring a slice of the outside world to our
community." Everyone is invited. Seating is limited and will be
provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
For information about the Margaret Mead Film Festival please
contact Prof. Alex Randall at 693-1377 or by e-mail at arandal@uvi.edu