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The Films
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27:45mns. Color. 2007. DVD
This film is an upbeat look at
the remarkable history of the Swahili
people of the East African coast. Packed with the
music and dance of its indigenous peoples, the film
takes viewers along the coast from the fabled island
of
Lamu to Zanzibar,
Bagamoyo
and Dar
es Salaam, tracing the development of the Swahili
culture through the intermarriage of Arab settlers
arriving from Oman
in the 8th century with local Africans. The emergence
of the Swahili as prosperous merchant brokers in the
Indian
Ocean basin and in the growing slave trade made
them a lucrative target for successive waves of settlers,
invaders and colonizers, including the Persians, Portuguese,
Germans and British. The Swahili have withstood all
these invasions and maintained their culture until
today. Can they survive in the face of globalization,
the Internet and tourism?
BUY THIS FILM: DVD ONLY
Individual: $29.95
University or college:
$125
Library, school, non-profit:
$85
FOR EDUCATORS:
THIS FILM IS ACCOMPANIED BY AN EXCELLENT, BEAUTIFULLY
ILLUSTRATED POWERPOINT PRESENTATION (TEXT AND IMAGES
ONLY) FOR USE IN THE CLASSROOM.
BUY THE POWERPOINT:
$125
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34 mns Color. DVD. 2008.
Shot in Senegal,
this film follows the work of Tostan
(the word means "breakthrough" in the Wolof
language)- a non-profit organization that brings
human rights education to rural and urban people
in Senegal, Guinea and many other African countries.
The film outlines the African methods used, such
as drama, dance, and song, to help illiterate people
in villages come to their own understanding of democracy
and human rights. Tostan has no agenda in its teaching
of human rights. What people do with their new-found
knowledge is up to them. In one village, health
and hygiene have become the focus of attention.
In another, it is education for girls. Thus, it
was with tremendous courage that some Tostan participants
- just a few women from a tiny village - decided
to stop the practice of female genital cutting.
In consultation with their priests, elders and husbands,
these women started a revolutionary movement that
has swept across West Africa like
wildfire.
In 2007, Tostan received the 2007
Conrad
N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, a $1.5 million dollar
award that honors a nongovernmental organization that
has made "extraordinary contributions toward
alleviating human suffering."
IN POST-PRODUCTION.
AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE APRIL, 2008.
ORDER THIS FILM: DVD
ONLY
Individual: $45
Univeristy or college:
$185
Library or non-profit:
$145
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16mm 14:03 mns. Black/white.
2000.
A woman has decided to move
from one "state of being" to another.
She spends the last day of her current "incarnation"
on a beach, observing the people around her. Their
activities become a poetic metaphor for the human
condition and the transience of life.
The film was shot on Sagg
Main Beach in Sagaponack,
Long Island, with Megan Chaskey as the lead. A
trained Buddhist, she adds to the project a profound
spiritual dimension.
BUY THIS FILM: DVD
ONLY
Individual: $19.95
University or college:
$110
Library, school, non-profit:
$65
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16mm, 5:35mns. Black/white.
1973. DVD
This short was made in Hamburg,
Germany, in 1973. It features Dragan Todorovic,
a Czechoslovakian puppeteer who tells a story
of the oppressed and the oppressor simply through
the magical movements of his hands. Music for
this short film was specially composed by Volker
Kunze.
BUY THIS FILM: DVD
ONLY
Individual: $10.95
University or college:
$65
Library, school, non-profit:
$45
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BUY SURRENDER AND AND POWERPLAY TOGETHER ON ONE DVD!
Individual: $29.95
University or college: $125
School or library: $75
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6mns. Color. Live musicians,
filmed drawings. 1997.
This film retells the legend
of Sundiata,
the famous thirteenth century King of Mali. Live
African musicians and a traditional
griot perform the piece as oral history
to accompany the narrative and the magnificent,
colorful paintings. The film is intended for supplementary
use in schools, grades 5-8, but is also entertaining
and informative for any audience. Written by Kenny
Mann; narrated by Afemo
Omilami; produced by Jeanne
Jacoby; directed by Joel Gilmore;griot
and Kora
musician - Morikeba Kouyate; drummer - Oginga
Love; paintings by Vern Edwards. Harcourt/Brace/Jovanovitch.
NOT FOR SALE
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56mns. Color. DVD
In 2004, I traveled around southern India alone
for two months. I never intended to make a film,
but simply took still shots with a tiny old Canon
digital camera, and recorded a travel journal on
mini-casette tapes. Half way through the trip, I
discovered that my camera could make 15-second movies.
Aha! When I got home, I thought I would arrange
a (boring) slide show for my friends. Four months
later, I had put together this film-book-thing on
Windows Movie Maker - a really primitive program
not intended for complex sound mixing or nice dissolves!
But I had fun - so here it is!
BUY THIS FILM: DVD ONLY - $65
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Coming Soon
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13 mns. Color. 2006. DVD
The Samburu
Conservation Research Initiative (CRI) is a
remarkable program for wildlife preservation in
northern Kenya. With four well-established scientific
projects based in northern Kenya's arid Samburu
country, Earthwatch realized that their efforts
to conserve wildlife would be meaningless without
the involvement of the local Samburu people. This
short film illustrates some of the main problems
effecting the Samburu and impacting local wildlife,
and looks at ways in which Earthwatch trains Samburu
people to actively participate in wildlife conservation,
to the benefit of themselves, their lands, the wildlife
nad ultimately the Kenya economy.
I made this film free of charge, as my donation
to Earthwatch and to Kenya. In a rather butchered
edited version, it is used on Earthwatch's site
to attract volunteers to this program. It was also
apparently responsible for raising large sums of
money to keep Earthwatch Kenya funded for the next
few years.
I shot most of the footage, and used footage by
my brother, Oscar Mann, We had one week in which
to make the film from start to finish. We edited
it together - our first joint project! May there
be many more.
NOT FOR SALE
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