Tag Archives: Mexico social commentary

Norma Hawthorne announces that she has confirmed the interview subjects for the Feb. 19-26, 2010 documentary film making workshop to be held in Teotitlan del Valle.  There is still one space open and it is not too late to register and attend.

Interview subjects are:

1)  Magdalena (Magda) is an elder of the Zapotec village of Teotitlan del Valle. She is the mother-in-law of Josefina, the proprietor of Las Granadas Bed and Breakfast. Part of Magda’s daily life is preparing organically grown corn (maize) to make masa and tortillas.  This is a rich, cultural tradition.  Embedded into this practice are issues about traditional, locally grown corn vs. bio-engineered corn imported at a lower price; the traditional role of food and women preparing it; and family relationships in a multi-generational living compound.
2) Pantaleon Ruiz Martinez is a 34-year old Zapotec artist who is a renown weaver, painter and jewelry designer.  He translates indigenous life, dreams, images and ancient symbols into his art.  His images incorporate mythical animal and human figures, and he uses sweeping strokes of paint applied by hands and fingers to his canvas.  Paint pigments incorporate the natural dyes derived from local plant materials.  He has exhibited widely in the U.S. and throughout Mexico.

3) Arte y Seda is a family-owned weaving cooperative that focuses on cultivating silk worms, feeding them the mulberry leaves from the trees grown in their courtyard, spinning the cocoons, dyeing the silk yarn with natural colors, and then weaving the fine silk threads into magnificent garments, scarves and shawls.  Silk cultivation and weaving was introduced by the Spanish centuries ago.  The family of Aurora Contreras has been working with silk for several generations.  Today, she and her husband Reynaldo Sosa continue the tradition in the original style, preparing their own natural vegetable dye materials.  The silk worms are dormant now and the mulberry trees on the property will be leafing out during our visit, however, there are lots of photos of the worms that can be used to augment the interviews, spinning and weaving.

Workshop participants will work in pairs to produce a 5-6 minute documentary video, learning all the storytelling, interviewing,  b-roll skills and editing techniques necessary to produce a short film.   This program is perfect for social cause advocates, artists, budding film makers, and anyone who wants to tell a visual story using video.