somos villa victoria: portraits from parcel 19
photographs by lewis hine documentary fellow anne weber
la galeria at villa victoria center for the arts, boston
On view April 29–May 7
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 29, 6–9 p.m.
Special Viewing Hours: 11 a.m.–7 p.m., May 3–7
This exhibition celebrates the residents of Villa Victoria through a series of large-format portraits by Anne Weber. As a Lewis Hine Documentary Fellow, Anne has been working with IBA and the residents of Villa Victoria to depict the diverse stories of those who call this neighborhood home. This gallery exhibit serves as a preview of a larger work-in-progress.
La Galeria at Villa Victoria Center for the Arts
85 W. Newton Street, Boston, MA 02118
#617-917-1742
www.villavictoriaarts.org
brother towns screening and panel discussion lead by naacp chairman emeritus julian bond
Tuesday, April 27, 7:30 p.m.
Earl Dickinson Theater
Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville, Virginia
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aria del africa
April 28, 7 p.m.
Center for Documentary Studies Auditorium
An inspiring story of talent and determination, this film follows the journey of two young singers as they make their way from the townships of South Africa to the opera stage.
roger lucey is a South African musician, songwriter, and filmmaker. His early music career was curtailed by the apartheid government, precipitating his move to the film industry. He worked as news cameraman/producer during the 1980s and 1990s throughout Southern Africa and later covered events in the rest of Africa and Eastern Europe. More recently he worked as arts editor for South Africa’s largest independent national broadcaster, where he was director of documentaries. He continues to make music and documentaries on a variety of subjects. He is completing the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at Duke.
brother towns/pueblos hermanos
April 21, 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Griffith Film Theater, West Campus, Duke University
Directed by Charles D. Thompson, Jr. and Michael Davey
Associate Director: Margaret Morales
A Project of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
www.brothertowns.com
The documentary film Brother Towns / Pueblos Hermanos is a story of two towns linked by immigration, family, and work: Jacaltenango, a highland Maya town in Guatemala; and Jupiter, a coastal resort town where many Jacaltecos have settled in Florida.
Brother Towns chronicles a story of how and why people migrate across borders, how people make and remake their communities when they travel thousands of miles from home, and how people maintain families despite their travel. Because we are all immigrants, this is a universal human story, and a quintessential American one.
Brother Towns is also a story of local and international controversy. News of undocumented immigrants is familiar in nearly every community across the U.S., and citizens must choose how they respond. The film includes voices of those opposed to undocumented immigrants as well as advocates helping migrants who seek work and hope, whether documented or not.
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between floors with director jen white
southern circuit film screening
April 16, 7 p.m. (reception at 6 p.m.)
Between Floors examines the human condition through a uniquely claustrophobic lens: five stuck elevators and the people trapped inside them. Each elevator becomes an existential purgatory, forcing its occupants to not only confront their isolation, but themselves and each other in varied and unexpected ways. The film is as unusual as it is arresting, blurring lines of genre, tone, and form while its characters are stripped bare—trapped, alone, waiting—and we get to watch what happens. Awkwardly funny, numbingly tragic, anxiously crushing, and ultimately liberating, the film features a colorful variety of characters stripped of control, slowed to a halt, and forced to reflect…until the doors open.
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doxita iii screenings
April 30, 7–9 p.m.
Center for Documentary Studies Auditorium
doxita is a traveling festival of documentary films that are under 40 minutes in length. The program represents a wide variety of documentary – domestic and foreign, super-short and longer format, serious and funny. It is designed to profile the great content and artistic vision that non-fiction short films provide, but that people don’t often get a chance to see.
“Life is a progress, and not a station,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. Life ebbs and flows with change. There are hurdles that must be scaled and personal character is built through adversity. People adapt their behavior to get through everything from war to displacement to growing up. These four films capture stories of people’s survival and their ways to cope with self-preservation.
These are the films in the 3rd annual doxita:
steel homes (UK, Eva Weber, 10 min.) - Storage lockers provide a holding ground for memories of long-gone loved ones and dreams that still live. Striking cinematography and sound evoke the minds and personal spaces of average people.
slaves (Sweden, Hannah Heilborn and David Aronowitsch, 15 min.) – Colorful animation brings alive the tale of two Sudanese youth who were captured for slavery. The animation and documentary interview technique mask the children’s identity while also creating an engrossing story of survival.
the first kid to learn english from mexico (USA, Peter Jordan, 20 min.) - 9-year-old Pedro Lopez wishes he never left Mexico. Lush camera and music create this almost-surreal, yet honest and charming portrait of this struggling boy.
12 notes down (Denmark, Andreas Koefed, 30 min.) – Jorgis is the star of his boys choir, until the onset of puberty affects what he loves most: his ability to sing. This beautifully tender portrait follows the journey of a young man facing the need to leave his old identity behind.
More information at: http://www.doxita.org/
“truth out of artifice: a talk with wells tower”
Friday, April 23, 7 p.m.
Center for Documentary Studies Auditorium
Wells Tower, author of the much-acclaimed book of short stories Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned and many other stories and articles, will discuss his development as a writer and especially the affinities between fiction and nonfiction. The conversation will be moderated by Alexa Dilworth, publishing director at the Center for Documentary Studies.
Writing in The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani proclaimed: “This arresting debut collection of stories decisively establishes Mr. Tower — a magazine journalist who has also won two Pushcart Prizes — as a writer of uncommon talent, a writer with Sam Shepard’s radar for the violent, surreal convolutions of American society; Frederick Barthelme’s keen ear for contemporary slang; and David Foster Wallace’s eye for the often hilarious absurdities of contemporary life.
Wells Tower’s short stories and journalism have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, The Washington Post Magazine, and elsewhere. He received two Pushcart Prizes and the Plimpton Prize from The Paris Review. He divides his time between Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York.
Read More: http://us.macmillan.com/everythingravagedeverythingburned
“Truth Out of Artifice: A Talk with Wells Tower” is part of the the Documentary Narrative Speaker Series. The series is presented in conjunction with the CDS course Documentary Writing, taught this spring by Duncan Murrell. The course, along with this speaker series, explores reporting and writing in the long-form documentary tradition.
Photograph by Ed Pincus
a brown bag presentation of photographs by ed pincus
From his project MUD SEASON
Monday, April 12, Noon
Center for Documentary Studies Auditorium
Ed Pincus, a filmmaker for more then 45 years, will show prints of his photographs from a project he is interested in resurrecting after nearly 20 years. He says of this photographic work, “In the late 1980s, I set out, with the assistance of my son, Benjamin, to photograph all the people who lived in my town, Roxbury, Vermont (population 575). We photographed over two winters and springs, when we suddenly stopped when my romantic vision of the townsfolk came up against the reality of their lives.
“The project assumed that most of the photographs would be accompanied by text based on interviews with the subjects and what they said about each other.”
Pincus is interested in having a discussion about how he might present the work in the future.
ed pincus began filmmaking in 1964, developing a direct cinema approach to social and political problems and events. He has been producer, director, and DP on eight of his films and has been cinematographer on more than twelve additional films.
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