11/18 Kyoto - Margaret Mead Traveling Film Festival

Posted on behalf of Itsushi Kawase...

Margaret Mead Traveling Film Festival in Kyoto

The American Museum of Natural History's Margaret Mead Traveling Film & Video Festival presents highlights of the premiere showcase for independent cultural documentaries. Each year titles are selected from the annual Mead Festival to bring innovative non-fiction work to communities throughout the United States and abroad.

Nov.18 (Sat.)13:00～
@ Kyoto University Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, B23
(1st floor in the basement) 　

Presented by American Museum of Natural History

Program

13:00-   Introduction by Itsushi Kawase (Kyoto University, Asafas)
13:15-　 Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan
14:15-   Al Otro Lado
15:40-   Children of the Decree
16:40-   Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night
       Phantom Limb
17:40-   Closing Remarks　 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan
Petr Lom. 2004. 51 min.
(Kyrgyzstan)
Arranged marriages are a traditional custom in many societies. In rural Kyrgyzstan, bride kidnapping is a common practice that continues despite its illegal status. This film offers unprecedented access to four women's stories,　documenting their abductions in harrowing detail-from their tearful protests to their physical restraint, to the tense negotiations between the respective families. While some of the marriages conclude happily or peacefully, others do not, and this sensitively crafted film portrays
complicated notions about the nature of love and marriage.


Al Otro Lado
Natalia Almada. 2005. 70 min.
(Mexico/U.S)
An aspiring corrido composer from the drug capital of Mexico faces two choices to better his life: to traffic drugs or to cross the border illegally into the United States. From Sinaloa, Mexico, to the streets of South Central and East L.A., Al Otro Lado explores the complex world of drug smuggling, illegal immigration, and the corrido music that chronicles it all.


Children of the Decree
Florin Iepan. 2004. 52 min.
(Romania)
By the mid-60s, the feminist movement in the West was advancing women's reproductive rights, but in Romania under the Ceausescu regime, women's reproductive rights were being managed by the state. Decree 770 criminalized contraception and abortion for women under the age of 40 unless they were already raising at least four children. This film interweaves state propaganda, documentary, and feature films with the candid testimony of public figures, gynecologists, and back-street abortionists to highlight the
devastating consequences for women and their families.


Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night
Sonali Gulati. 2005. 26 min.
(India/U.S.)
This experimental documentary looks at the outsourcing of American jobs to India. Told from the perspective of an Indian immigrant living in the U.S., the film journeys into India's call centers, where telemarketers acquire American names and accents to service the telephone-support industry of the U.S. The film incorporates animation, live action, and archival footage to explore the complexities of globalization, capitalism, and identity.


Phantom Limb
Jay Rosenblatt. 2005. 28 min.
(U.S.)
Experimental filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt uses the phenomenon of "phantom limb syndrome" as a metaphor to explore his feelings about the death of his younger brother forty years ago. The film transposes reflections on grief and loss into chapters that refer to various stages of mourning. Blending family photos with archival footage and interviews, the film merges the personal with the universal, and the emotional with the psychological, underscoring the impermanence that we all face.


Contact: kawase@asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp