Tag Archives: documentary filmmaking

‘Weaving a Curve’ Movie Just Accepted to 100 Mile Film Series–Short Shorts

ChathamArts in Pittsboro, North Carolina, holds a series of documentary film screenings that are produced and directed by people who live within 100 miles of the “epicenter” — Big Culture in a Tiny Town!  That would be:  Pittsboro.  I submitted our short film (just under 6 minutes) to the Short Shorts screening and we were accepted!  The series coordinator is Linda Booker, a distinguished NC documentary filmmaker.

The screening is Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 7:30 p.m. at the Fearrington Barn, Fearrington Village, Pittsboro, NC.  You can find out more on the ChathamArts website www.chathamarts.org This will be the first time the film will be shown on the big screen.

The film tells the story of Federico Chavez Sosa, master weaver of Teotitlan del Valle, how he learned to weave and perfect making the curve using the two-pedal, two harness tapestry loom introduced by the Spaniards in 1521.  Federico talks about what it means to him to be a weaver, combining the aesthetic and spiritual, the past and the present.  In Spanish with English subtitles.

I wrote, produced and directed the film with my friend Eric Chavez Santiago who shares billing with me.  Eric is the director of education at the textile museum in Oaxaca, and took the documentary filmmaking workshop with me in his village of Teotitlan del Valle last February.  We both thought it would be a useful skill to know, and this has proven correct.  Eric has gone on to make short documentaries of aging weavers, dyers, and spinners in remote villages of Oaxaca.  I am now making a documentary at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing about an innovative nursing research project that is looking into hunger and fullness feeding cues that infants and toddlers give to their parents and caregivers.  If the cues are not recognized or are ignored, it is believed that this can result in early childhood obesity which could then lead to childhood type 2 diabetes.

Erica Rothman, our workshop instructor, repeatedly said that the goal of our documentary filmmaking workshop was to provide the skills to enable people to go back to their own communities and tell their unique stories through film.  For me and Eric, I think we achieved this goal.

The next Oaxaca Filmmaking Workshop: Visual Storytelling is scheduled for February 19-26, 2010.  If you are interested in attending, see the blog post for all the details or write me at normahawthorne@mac.com

Learning Documentary Filmmaking in Oaxaca & Bringing It Home

During the week we learned how to make documentary films based in the village of Teotitlan del Valle, our instructors Erica Rothman and Mikel Barton kept reminding us that the experience was more about the learning process than in making a polished finished product.  We reminded ourselves of that over and over (our instructors did, too) as we were challenged by what came our way.  I learned how important it was to shift, flex, adapt, and stay focused.  Others who attended would have their own experiences.

What story would I tell?  Would it be specific enough?  How quickly could I learn, let alone master, the editing software?  Would my Spanish be sufficient to enable me to ask impromptu follow-up questions of the person I was interviewing?  Would I be able to go deep enough to tell a compelling story with the help of a translator?  Can I operate this hand-held video camera without it shaking?  Am I going to get the right b-roll?  Will this story be interesting enough?  Is there enough action?  How do I make subtitles?

The film we made will not win us an Academy Award.  But, that was not the point!  The point was to learn enough to come home and know how to create a documentary film in my own community.

Today, I met with directors of the UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing Biobehavioral Observation & Nutritional Evaluation Laboratory to tour the facility and discuss donor naming opportunities.  What they do is fascinating.  In a home simulated environment, nurse researchers study the interaction between infants and mothers to determine how early cues influence feeding and early onset of obesity.  Other researchers look at the interaction between depressed mothers and children and how psychiatric mental health treatment can bring about behavioral change in the quality of those interactions.  Other faculty are studying the feeding behaviors of frail and/or demented elders.  Nutritional deprivation in hospitals and nursing homes is significant because of the time it takes for elders to eat.  Another nurse researcher is looking at obesity in children, especially Latino children, and is using the laboratory to capture and assess findings.

What is learned in all the studies will be used to train parents, patients, family caregivers, home health and long-term care workers, aids and medical professionals.  Faculty and graduate students can also be trained.

This is an exploding area in health care education.

Behavior is videotaped in the Observation & Nutritional Evaluation Laboratory, then scored according to a recognition system to validate what behavioral characteristics promote or detract from good health.  Researchers modify packaged systems for specific health behaviors. Video is really important, one director says.  It is minimally invasive and helps to see and examine behavior and environmental interaction.  They also know that there are behavioral and biological interactions.  Body chemistry changes depending upon the environment. They have learned through these studies that both behavior and biology can change.

My wheels are clicking!  They have videotaped footage (b-roll).  They have a professional videocamera and film editing software.  They have people power who know how to do this!  We need to conduct interviews with faculty and subjects, and voila, we’ll have a documentary!  I propose this to them and they’re excited.  This is what it means for me to bring it home!

Dance of the Feather–A Promise & Commitment: Documentary Film

Dance of the Feather: A Promise & Commitment is a short film written, filmed and directed by Betty Hutchins and Scott Switzer during the Oaxaca Documentary Filmmaking Workshop: Visual Storytelling, held in Teotitlan del Valle from January 31 to February 6, 2009.  The film makers explore the meaning of the dance with Uriel Santiago, who expresses what it means to him to be part of this ancient Zapotec and Spanish tradition.  It is ripe with tradition, religious ritual and meaning.  Uriel emphasizes that this is not a folkloric dance but a commitment to God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpr4dBi-6h4

Instructors were Erica Rothman, Nighlight Productions, Chapel Hill, NC, and Mikel Barton, Durham, NC.  The workshop was produced by Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC.  We plan to offer a 2010 film making workshop in Oaxaca.  Let us know if you want to join the wait list.

Woven Together: Entretejidos — Oaxaca Documentary Film

This short film was written, filmed and directed by the team of Eunice Hogeveen and Sarah Kennedy Davis and created as part of the Oaxaca Documentary Filmmaking Workshop: Visual Storytelling, which was held in the village of Teotitlan del Valle from January 31 to February 6, 2009.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwxuUb6fPL4

The film tells the story of an expatriate American woman, Annie Burns, who has moved to a small village in southern Mexico and her relationship with her host Zapotec family.

Instructors were Erica Rothman, Nighlight Productions, Chapel Hill, NC, and Mikel Barton, Durham, NC.  The workshop was produced by Norma Hawthorne and Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC.  We hope to hold the next documentary filmmaking workshop in winter 2010.

Weaving a Curve: A Documentary Short Film

Eric Chavez Sosa and I made this six minute short documentary film during the January 31-February 6 workshop held by Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC in Teotitlan del Valle.  It was our first film making collaboration and we were definitely novices!   Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UHCPpaap3E

“Weaving a Curve” featuring master weaver Federico Chavez Sosa.  He talks about the techniques he learned from his father and another village master who taught him to weave in the style of Francisco Toledo.  At the age of 17, Federico was an expert weaver.  To weave a curve and perfect the technique requires discipline and practice.  He remembers taking the yarn out and trying again, and again, and again.  Federico loves to weave, and the process for him is both relaxing and fun.  He also explains how he uses natural dyes to prepare the wool, another sign of a master weaver.  As the camera pans the village and the sacred Zapotec site of mount Picacho, Federico talks about the meaning of weaving for him personally and how satisfying it is when his work is appreciated by collectors.   For Federico, mastery means the blending of traditional and contemporary designs, the true mark of an artist, and the timeless quality of linking past with future.

Eric and I didn’t have time to finish this piece — it is in Spanish without subtitles.  So, please forgive us and enjoy the visuals if you don’t completely understand the language.  Maybe someday soon, we’ll add the subtitles!

I also want to acknowledge the mastery of our workshop instructors, Erica Rothman of Nighlight Productions, Durham, NC, and Mikel Barton, also of Durham.  They were fabuloso!

The process:  for five days were were immersed in a learning laboratory experience in the village of Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca.  We after two days of classroom instruction and watching examples of documentary footage, we took to the cameras to practice interview techniques and shooting b-roll.  We had 60 minutes of tape to use with the goal of producing a 3-5 minute finished video.  Unfortunately for us, we used about 20 minutes to practice shooting b-roll which turned out mostly to be sunrise and clouds.  You can see a snippet in our opening scene.