The Margaret Mead Film Festival is an annual film festival held at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It is the longest-running, premiere showcase for international documentaries in the United States, encompassing a broad spectrum of work, from indigenous

community media Community media are any form of media that function in service of or by a community. It is the rise of all kinds of alternative, oppositional, participatory and collaborative media practices that have developed in the journalistic context of ‘comm ...

to experimental nonfiction. The Festival is distinguished by its outstanding selection of titles, which tackle diverse and challenging subjects, representing a range of issues and perspectives, and by the forums for discussion with filmmakers and speakers. The Mead Festival has a distinguished history of “firsts,” including being the first venue to screen the now-classic documentary

Paris Is Burning Paris Is Burning may refer to: * ''Paris Is Burning'' (film), a 1990 documentary film * "Paris Is Burning" (''Gilmore Girls''), the eleventh episode of ''Gilmore Girls first season * "Paris Is Burning", a song from the 1983 album '' Breaking the Ch ...

(1990) about the urban transgender community. Furthermore the Mead Festival has introduced New York audiences to such acclaimed films as the Oscar-winning documentary

The Blood of Yingzhou District ''The Blood of Yingzhou District'' (; translation: ''The Children of Yingzhou'') is a 2006 short film documentary directed by Ruby Yang and produced by Thomas F. Lennon. The film is about the effect of AIDS on orphans in Yingzhou District of Fuyan ...

(2006), Oscar-winning animated short The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation (2005),

The Future of Food :''You may also be looking for Future food technology.'' ''The Future of Food'' is a 2004 American documentary film written and directed by Deborah Koons Garcia to describe an investigation into unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods ...

(2004), Power Trip (2003), and Spellbound (2002).

Background

The festival owes its origins (and its name) to renowned anthropologist

Margaret Mead Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Co ...

, who worked for 52 years at the

. She acted as curator in the Museum's Department of Anthropology, where she helped create the Hall of Pacific Peoples, which bears her name. In her lifetime, Margaret Mead greatly advanced the academic standing and popular appeal of cultural anthropology, and was also one of the earliest anthropologists to integrate visual methods into her research, focus on the study of visual communication, and teach courses on culture and communication. "Pictures are held together," Dr. Mead wrote, "by a way of looking that has grown out of anthropology, a science in which all peoples, however contrasted in physique and culture, are seen as members of the same species, engaged in solving problems common to humanity." In 1976, in commemoration of her 75th birthday, the museum decided to pay tribute to her work with a film festival of top ethnographic and other documentary films. In its early years, the festival focused on ethnographic films and was hosted by the

USC Center for Visual Anthropology The USC Center for Visual Anthropology (CVA) is a center located at the University of Southern California. It is dedicated to the field of visual anthropology, incorporating visual modes of expression in the academic discipline of anthropology. It ...

(directed by Mead's student, the late filmmaker Tim Asch). Today, the Festival continues to exemplify Mead's teachings: that film is a tool for cross-cultural understanding and that it is possible, and important, for societies to learn from each other.

Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award

Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award recognizes documentary filmmakers who embody the spirit, energy, and innovation demonstrated by anthropologist Margaret Mead in her research, fieldwork, films, and writings. Each year the award is given to a filmmaker whose feature documentary offers a new perspective on a culture or community remote from the majority of our audiences' experience as well as displays artistic excellence and originality in storytelling technique. U.S., North American, or World Premiere documentaries (60 minutes or longer) are eligible for the Award. This award has a cash prize. * 2010 Winner: Marc Francis/Nick Francis for ''When China Met Africa'' * 2011 Winner: Yuanchen Liu for ''To the Light'' * 2012 Winner: Adam Isenberg for ''A Life Without Words''

Traveling Festival

The Margaret Mead Traveling Film & Video Festival presents highlights of the Festival that takes place in November. Each year titles are selected from the annual Mead Festival to participate in this year-long program which brings innovative non-fiction work to communities throughout the United States and abroad.

2012 Mead Festival

* 18 Days in Egypt by Jigar Mehta and Yasmin Elayat * Bad Weather by Giovanni Giommi - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee * Bay of All Saints * Bury the Hatchet by Aaron Walker * Buzkashi! * Children of Srikandi * A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet * George Stoney Tribute: How the Myth Was Made * Grab * Himself He Cooks by Valérie Berteau and Philippe Witjes - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee * The Human Tower by Ram Devineni and Cano Rojas - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee * Jai Bhim Comrade * Keep Me Upright (Tiens moi droite) by Zoé Chantre - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee * A Life Without Words (Una Vida Sin Palabras) by Adam Isenberg - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee * The Light in Her Eyes * Manapanmirr, in Christmas Spirit by Miyarrka Media - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee * Maori Boy Genius by Pietra Brettkelly - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee * Mead Arcade * Meanwhile in Mamelodi by Benjamin Kahlmeyer * Nagaland: The Last of the Headhunters by Patrick Morell - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee * Re-Seeing the Century: The Expedition on Film * Sun Kissed * Sweet Dreams * The Other Half of Tomorrow by Sadia Shepard and Samina Quraeshi - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee * Through Navajo Eyes * Tropicália * Tundra Book. A Tale of Vukvukla, the Little Rock (Kniga Tundry. Povest' o Vukvukaye - malen'kom kamne) * Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos (Atuaqsiniq Inuit Tunninginnik) * Wheat and Tares (Het Kaf en Het Koren) by Stefan Wittekamp and Suzanne Arts - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee * Whose Story Is It? Story Lounge

2011 Mead Festival

2011 Films

* ''At Night, They Dance (La nuit, elles dansent)'' by Isabelle Lavigne and Stéphane Thibault * ''The Bengali Detective'' by Phil Cox * ''Blue Meridian'' by Sofie Benoot * ''Broad Channel'' by Sarah J. Christman * ''Cinema and the Future of Space'' by Michael Shara * ''Convento'' by Jarred Alterman * '' The Creators'' by Laura Gamse * ''Deus Ex Boltanski'' by Robert Gardner * ''Empty Quarter'' by Alain LeTourneau and Pam Minty * ''The End of the World (Kres Šwiata)'' by Mateusz Skalski * ''Extraction'' by Myron Lameman * ''Flames of God'' by Meshakai Wolf * ''Grande Hotel'' by Lotte Stoops * ''Guañape Sur'' by János Richter * ''Hula and Natan'' by Robby Elmaliah * ''Moroloja'' by Alexander Ingham Brooke * ''The Observers'' by Jacqueline Goss * ''Planet Kirsan (Planeta Kirsan)'' by Magdalena Pita * ''Skydancer'' by Katja Esson * ''Space Tourists'' by Christian Frei * ''Voice Unknown'' by Jinhee Park * ''White Elephant (Nzoku ya Pembe)'' by Kristof Bilsen

2011 Mead Filmmaker Award Nominees

* ''All for the Good of the World and Nošovice'' (Vše Pro Dobro Svêta a Nošovic)by Vit Klusák * ''Kinder (Kids)'' by Bettina Büttner * ''Memoirs of a Plague'' by Robert Nugent * ''Rainmakers'' by Floris-Jan van Luyn * ''Small Kingdom of Lo'' by Caroline Leitner, Daniel Mazza, and Giuseppe Tedesch * ''Space Sailors (Fliegerkosmonauten)'' by Marian Kiss * ''To the Light'' by Yuanchen Liu

2011 Retrospective Series

* ''Jaguar'' by Jean Rouch * ''Jero on Jero: A Balinese Trance Séance Observed'' by Patsy Asch,

Timothy Asch Timothy is a masculine name. It comes from the Greek name ( Timόtheos) meaning "honouring God", "in God's honour", or "honoured by God". Timothy (and its variations) is a common name in several countries. People Given name * Timothy (given name) ...

, and

Linda Connor Linda Connor (born in New York, November 18, 1944) is an American photographer living in San Francisco, California. She is known for her landscape photography. She has photographed in a multitude of countries throughout her career including, bu ...

* '' Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance'' by Alanis Obomsawin * ''

Les maîtres fous ''Les maîtres fous'' (; "The Mad Masters") is a 1955 short film directed by Jean Rouch, a well-known French film director and ethnologist. It is a docufiction, his first ethnofiction, a genre he is considered to have created. Historical backg ...

(The Mad Masters)'' by Jean Rouch * ''N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman'' by

John Marshall John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longes ...

and Adrienne Miesmer * ''

Trance and Dance in Bali ''Trance and Dance in Bali'' is a short documentary film shot by the anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson during their research on Bali in the 1930s. It shows female dancers with sharp ''kris'' daggers dancing in trance, eventually ...

'' by

Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to an ...

and

* ''

A Wife Among Wives ''A Wife Among Wives'' is a 1981 ethnographic documentary produced by filmmakers Judith and David MacDougall. It is about the dynamics of polyamorous marriage in a small Turkana village in Kenya. The film premiered at the 1981 Margaret Mead Film ...

'' by David MacDougall and Judith MacDougall * ''We Still Live Here (Âs Natayuneân)'' by Anne Makepeace

2011 Jury

The Mead Award jury is led by the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-nominated director of

Black Swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon c ...

and

The Wrestler The Wrestler may refer to: * ''The Wrestler'' (1974 film), an American film directed by James A. Westman * ''The Wrestler'' (2008 film), an American film directed by Darren Aronofsky * "The Wrestler" (song), a song from the 2008 film written and ...

, Darren Aronofsky, Karen Cooper, director of New York City's Film Forum; Liz Garbus,

-nominated director of

Bobby Fischer Against the World ''Bobby Fischer Against the World'' is a documentary feature film that explores the life of chess Grandmaster and 11th World Champion Bobby Fischer. It incorporates interviews with chess players Anthony Saidy, Larry Evans, Sam Sloan, Susan Pol ...

, The Farm and 2002 MacArthur Fellow Stanley Nelson, director of the

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-winning documentary The Murder of Emmett Till.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official Website