Margaret Mead Film Festival

Nestled in the Museum’s iconic halls, the Margaret Mead Film Festival serves as more than a cinematic event. It is a celebration of voices and perspectives from around the world, inviting attendees to come together to explore the rich, vibrant tapestry that is our shared human experience.

This four-day celebration takes place from Thursday, May 9–Sunday, May 12, and will present storytelling, documentary films, and live performances from diverse voices near and far.

Festival Information

Tickets

Welcome performance and opening-night film tickets are $15 ($13 for Members and students).

All other screenings and programs are $12 ($10 for Members and students). Purchase 5 or more films or special events at one time and receive a 20% discount (excludes welcome performance and welcome toast).

Weekend passes are available for $100 ($75 for Members) and include the welcome performance, welcome toast, and all other screenings.

Entrance

Food and Drink at the Museum

Accessibility

Thursday, May 9

All Day - ICE COLD: The Untold Story of Hip Hop Jewelry

Slick Rick wearing an eyepatch over his right eye, a large crown, heavy gold necklaces, and over 7 large rings.

Photograph by Janette Beckman, Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery

All Day | Griffin Exploration Atrium, Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation | Film | Free with Museum Admission
Director: Karam Gill
2021 | USA

This four-part documentary series serves as an exploration of one of rap music’s most elaborate forms of personal expression—jewelry. ICE COLD delves deeply into the cultural significance and craftsmanship behind hip hop jewelry, exploring its evolution from a symbol of status to a form of self-expression. In celebration of the Museum’s opening of Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry in the Melissa and Keith Meister Gallery within the Museum’s new Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals, this documentary will be on view throughout the entirety of the Mead Festival.

Please note: This film contains adult language that may not be suitable for children.

Courtesy of Polygram Entertainment

7 pm - Welcome Performance: Soundtrack ’63

17 people on a stage, playing various instruments, below a screen with an image of two raised fists and text "Black Power Olympic Protest, 1968."

Soundtrack '63

7 pm | LeFrak Theater | Welcome Performance

Soundtrack ’63 is a live music and multimedia retrospective of the Black experience in the United States. It is an artistic survey of the past that gives context to the present and asks important questions about the future. The full sensory experience is a journey from the African continent through milestone events in African-American history. Immersive video of archival footage and animation accompany a sequential soundtrack of spirituals, protest songs, hip-hop, and other popular music performed by a dynamic ensemble and vocal chamber.

8:30 pm - Welcome Toast

Friday, May 10

All Day - ICE COLD: The Untold Story of Hip Hop Jewelry

Photograph by Janette Beckman, Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery

All Day | Griffin Exploration Atrium, Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation | Film | Free with Museum Admission
Director: Karam Gill
2021 | USA

Please note: This film contains adult language that may not be suitable for children.

Courtesy of Polygram Entertainment

7 pm - Opening Night Film: Sugarcane

Close-up on Ed Archie NoiseCat's weathered face.

Image: Sugarcane

Saint Joseph’s Mission in British Columbia was one of over 500 so-called “residential schools” for Indigenous children in North America, designed to isolate children from their languages and cultural practices. Thirty years after its closure, authorities are finally ready to talk about what happened there. While investigators uncover craters of pain and abuse buried just under the surface, this film hints at a deeper journey—toward healing.

Saturday, May 11

All Day - ICE COLD: The Untold Story of Hip Hop Jewelry

Photograph by Janette Beckman, Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery

All Day | Griffin Exploration Atrium, Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation | Film | Free with Museum Admission
Director: Karam Gill
2021 | USA

Please note: This film contains adult language that may not be suitable for children.

Courtesy of Polygram Entertainment

All Day - Earth in Focus

12 pm - Ozogoche

12 people, two adults and ten children, pictured from behind as they sit on grass beside a lake with mountains in the background.

Image: Ozogoche

Many in the Ozogoche Lake Region of Ecuador feel pulled to migrate north in spite of the enormous risks associated with the journey. In Ozogoche, filmmaker Joe Houlberg Silva draws a parallel between human and avian voyages and shows the annual migration of the mysterious “Cuvivi” sandpiper bird to the remote Andean lakes. Don’t miss this poignant story of cultural identity, trust, and the profound beauty of the Ecuadorian highlands.

12 pm - Pure Unknown

A person's gloved hands wipe the hand of a cadaver.

Image: Pure Unknown

Every night, anonymous bodies land in Dr. Cristina Cattaneo’s Sicilian autopsy room. She calls these bodies, their identities lost, “The Pure Unknown.” As thousands of migrants wash ashore every year in Italy, denied dignity in death, Cattaneo fights to restore their identities. Her quest to help the families of forgotten people find closure brings her to the highest halls of power in Europe. Pure Unknown pulses with urgency to confront the stories of marginalized people.

1 pm - Revolutionizing Representation: The Significance of Native-Led Stories in Today's Media Landscape

From left to right: Erica Tremblay, Sterlin Harjo, Steven Paul Judd

1 pm | Wallach Orientation Center | Special Event

With the critical and commercial success of series like FX’s Reservation Dogs, AMC’s Dark Winds, and Disney+’s Echo, Native-led series with Native-centered stories are hitting a stride in popular culture. What is the significance of this moment in Native storytelling? What kinds of narrative change does the streaming era make possible? What work lies ahead? This discussion will include Erica Tremblay, Sterlin Harjo, and Steven Paul Judd.” Billy Luther is no longer able to join us.

Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muscogee) is an award-winning filmmaker from Holdenville, Oklahoma. Now based in Tulsa, Harjo is the co-creator and showrunner of FX’s Reservation Dogs, a comedy series following four Indigenous teenage friends living on a reservation in Oklahoma. After its first season, Reservation Dogs won a 2022 Peabody award, 2022 Television Academy Honors award, 2022 Independent Spirit Award for Best Comedy Series, was an American Film Institute Awards Honoree, and won Best Breakthrough Series under 40 minutes at the 2021 Gotham Awards. The series completed its third and final season. Currently, Harjo’s series The Sensitive Kind and Poster Girls is in development with FX Productions. Paramount+ recently acquired his series Yellowbird, which he co-created with Erica Tremblay.

Erica Tremblay is a filmmaker from the Seneca-Cayuga Nation. Her feature film Fancy Dance, starring Academy Award nominee Lily Gladstone, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Apple Original Films. The film is set to be released in theaters and on Apple TV+ in 2024. Tremblay is currently writing for Season 3 of Dark Winds at AMC and has previously written for FX’s Reservation Dogs, where she also directed two episodes. In 2021, she was accepted into the Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Lab, and was awarded the Walter Bernstein Screenwriting Fellowship, the Maja Kristin Directing Fellowship, the SFFILM Rainin Grant, and the Lynn Shelton "Of a Certain Age" Grant. Her short film Little Chief, premiered at Sundance in 2020. Tremblay lives on Cayuga Lake in upstate New York, where she studies her Indigenous language.

Steven Paul Judd is a prominent Kiowa-Choctaw visual artist, filmmaker, and writer known for his innovative and thought-provoking work that blends pop-culture and traditional Native American motifs into a unique perspective on contemporary Indigenous identity. Known for his work on Search for the World's Best Indian Taco (2010), Dark Winds (2022) and Echo (2023), Judd is also the subject of the 2016 documentary Dig It If You Can.

2 pm - Nocturnes

Many pinned butterfly and insect specimens on a gridded surface.

Image: Nocturnes

High in the Eastern Himalayas, a team of biologists observes the mysterious world of moths. Through mesmerizing visuals and soundscapes, Nocturnes unveils the ecological importance and unexpected beauty of these creatures. The enchanting moths grace the screen like strokes from an impressionist painter’s brush, igniting curiosity about the limits of human understanding. Discover the resilience of a creature whose existence spans hundreds of thousands of years in this spellbinding film.

Presented in partnership with Prismatic Ground

2:30 pm - ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak)

An adult points to a spot on a colorful map on a classroom wall for a child who is wearing a cloth mask around their chin.

Image: ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak)

With fewer than 1,500 fluent speakers remaining, Cherokee activists rally against time to safeguard their endangered language. Shot over three years following the 2019 declaration of a Cherokee language state of emergency, this gripping film captures the passion of those fighting to preserve the early written language of an Indigenous culture in North America. Through interviews and community scenes, we witness the resilience of a people determined to defy extinction and reclaim their heritage.

2:30 pm - Mother Suriname - Mama Sranan

Over twenty young children sit in rows, all wearing brimmed hats and dresses.

Image: Mother Suriname - Mama Sranan

Abandoned at birth in 1905, Fancelyne Cummings lived out her life as a mixed-race washerwoman in Dutch-controlled Surinam. Her granddaughter, filmmaker Tessa Leuwsha, celebrates her and some of the other women who forged a national identity in the shadow of European colonialism. The film interweaves Fancelyne's stories and songs with colorized archival footage of a twentieth century fight for racial equity and Surinamese independence.

5 pm - The Buriti Flower

Image: The Buriti Flower

5 pm | Kaufmann Theater | Film
Director: Renée Nader Messora, João Salaviza
2023 | 124 min | Brazil/Portugal
US Premiere

Shot across four villages in Brazil, The Buriti Flower depicts some of the pivotal moments in the history of the Krahô people of Krahôlandia. The film weaves land disputes in 1940 to the scars of dictatorship in 1960, and the contemporary movement for Indigenous rights. A dreamlike narrative which echoes the oral traditions of Indigenous storytelling introduces us to the young protagonists carrying the stories and rituals of resilience and faith to a new generation.

5 pm - This Is Going to Be Big

7 teenagers on stage, singing or playing instruments, while two more teenagers stand on the side on stage right.

Image: This Is Going To Be Big

Step into a world of friendship, courage, and creativity at a school outside Melbourne, Australia, for kids diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. Thomas Charles Hyland’s heartfelt documentary takes us behind the scenes of the rural school’s production of “The Time-Travelling Trio,” a musical retrospective on the life of Australian pop icon John Farnham. Experience the magic of art and community as the students put their humor, grief, wisdom, and hope center stage.

6 pm - Meanwhile

A person in a tree-filled yard walks on a slackline tied to a tree with their arms stretched out for balance.

Image: Meanwhile

“This is not a love letter to this country. But to us inside this country.” Author Jacqueline Woodson narrates Meanwhile, a docu-poem about white supremacy and a community of artists who share visions of resistance. Meanwhile, an immersive, nonlinear cinematic journey—where artists’ expressions blend with historical and observational footage—unveils the profound impact of white supremacy on our human connections.

The event will feature in-process works by artists from the film, including dance by Shamel Pitts and Tushrik Fredericks, wisdom and cookies by Juli Vanderhoop, and music by Mel Chin and Josh Quat, and more.

This film is supported in part by Ford Foundation/JustFilms, National Endowment for the Arts, and Brown University/CSREA. Aubin Picture's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

8 pm - Porcelain War

A chipped porcelain figurine of an owl perched in an uneven hole in a wall partially destroyed by bombardment.

Image: Porcelain War

Meet Slava and Anya, porcelain artists whose ordinary lives are made extraordinary by the terrors of the war in Ukraine. In Porcelain War, their art serves as a poignant metaphor for the nation's resilience amid chaos. Filmed entirely by Ukrainians resisting Russian occupation, this visually stunning documentary earned the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Discover how, even in the bleakest moments, the flames of life and art burn bright.

Sunday, May 12

All Day - ICE COLD: The Untold Story of Hip Hop Jewelry

Photograph by Janette Beckman, Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery

All Day | Griffin Exploration Atrium, Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation | Film | Free with Museum Admission
Director: Karam Gill
2021 | USA

Please note: This film contains adult language that may not be suitable for children.

Courtesy of Polygram Entertainment

All Day - Earth in Focus

11 am - Emerging Visual Anthropologist Showcase

A seated crowd of people watching the screen in the LeFrak Theater.

11 am | Kaufmann Theater | Special Event

In this special showcase, we present exciting new ethnographic documentaries from emerging visual anthropology students. This screening is co-hosted by Faye Ginsburg, Director of NYU Center for Media, Culture, and History, and Kriser Professor of Anthropology, and Pegi Vail, Center for Media, Culture and History and documentary professor, Program in Culture & Media. It will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

Co-presented by the New York University Center for Media, Culture, and History

2:30 pm - Above and Below the Ground

A protester wearing a "No Dam | Rights of Rivers" t-shirt and baseball cap holds a sign with twenty plus additional protesters in the background.

Image: Above and Below the Ground

2:30 pm | Linder Theater | Film
Director: Emily Hong
2024 | 86 min | Myanmar

Indigenous women and Christian punk rockers form a surprising alliance as they join to thwart a multibillion-dollar megadam project imperiling the landscape of northern Myanmar. Despite backing by the Burmese military and the Chinese Communist party, the dam project was halted in 2011, largely by a karaoke album that catalyzed a country-wide environmental movement. Immerse yourself in the fight to save the Irrawaddy River in this tale of punk rock defiance and grassroots activism.

4 pm - 23 Mile

About ten people stand on the side of a road, some holding Trump 2020 campaign flags and one holding the "Thin Blue Line" American flag.

Image: 23 Mile

Prepare for an eye-opening journey into the heart of the American Midwest. Filmmaker Mitch McCabe returns home to Detroit to capture the essence of a nation divided during and after the 2020 presidential election. From anti-lockdown protests to post-election chaos, 23 Mile shows the unraveling of societal norms through the lives of everyday Americans. With captivating scenes and unfiltered voices, the film challenges our preconceptions and urges us to confront our biases.

5 pm - Rising Up at Night

Two children sit in the dark holding objects with light that illuminate them.

Image: Rising Up at Night

In Kinshasa, a community fights to restore electrical power following the flooding of the Congo River. Shot during the week between Christmas and New Year's, Rising Up at Night feels like an Old Testament tale in which people shrouded in darkness and soaked in floodwaters unite around their faith and community. As residents raise funds to buy back stolen electrical cables, director Nelson Makengo captures their struggle for electricity as a symbol of hope.

7 pm - Agent of Happiness

Discover Bhutan, the “happiest country on Earth,” through the eyes of Amber, a bureaucrat who measures the nation's “Gross National Happiness.” As Amber treks the lush Himalayas, he assigns a happiness score to everyone he meets, from dairy farmers to urban dancers. Does his own search for fulfillment complicate his job? Explore the meaning of belonging and purpose in this touching portrait of a nation constitutionally mandated to promote the happiness of its citizens.

Awards

The Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award

The 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.

The award is given to a filmmaker whose feature-length documentary displays artistic excellence and originality in storytelling technique while offering a new perspective on cultures and communities. Filmmakers with works making their New York premieres at the festival are eligible.

Audience Award

Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award Contenders

Buy Tickets

Festival Thursday, May 9, 2024 Mead Film Festival: Thursday Festival Friday, May 10, 2024 Mead Film Festival: Friday Festival Saturday, May 11, 2024 Mead Film Festival: Saturday Festival Sunday, May 12, 2024 Mead Film Festival: Sunday

Generous support for the Margaret Mead Film Festival has been provided by The Mead Trust.

A portion of the Margaret Mead Film Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.