Program 1: Women and Healing

Afghanistan Unveiled
Brigitte Brault & Aina Women Filming Group. 2003. 52 min. Video. (Afghanistan)

Filmed by the first team of women video journalists trained in Afghanistan, this rare film explores the effects of the Taliban's repressive rule and recent U.S. military campaign on Afghani women. Shot in rural regions of the country, the filmmakers present footage of Hazara women whose lives have been decimated by recent events, and yet manage to also find moving examples of hope for the future. The film demonstrates the power of independent film to bear witness and reveal truth.

Program 2: Radical Politics

A Panther in Africa
Aaron Matthews. 2004. 71 min. (Tanzania)
N.Y. Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival

In 1969, Black Panther Pete O'Neal was arrested on a gun charge in Kansas City, Missouri. To avoid conviction, he fled to Africa, where he has spent the last 34 years living in exile in Tanzania. During the past three decades, he and his wife have devoted themselves to intense community work dealing with health, literacy, and anti-racism. Now, faced with the possibility of returning to America, O'Neal reflects on his life and confronts his radical past.

a/k/a Mrs. George Gilbert
Coco Fusco. 2004. 31 min. (U.S.)
World (film festival) Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival

This hybrid video blends fictional and documentary source material in an imaginative re-creation of a crucial political moment in U.S. history. Co-scripted by Rick Moody (The Ice Storm), it tells the story of an FBI agent who confesses to his involvement in the nationwide search for Angela Davis, the famous radical philosopher and black activist who was on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list in 1970 and an underground fugitive for two months.

Program 3: Honoring Rouch
In celebration and memory of renowned French anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch (1917-2004).

Margaret Mead: A Portrait by a Friend
Jean Rouch. 1978. 30 min. (U.S.)

Jean Rouch filmed this loving and humorous portrait of anthropologist and filmmaker Margaret Mead in September 1977 while he was a guest of the first Margaret Mead Film Festival. As both a friend and colleague, Rouch reveals a glimpse of the legendary Mead in her later years.

Program 4: Transnational Love

Marry Me
Uli Gaulke & Jeannette Eggert. 2003. 105 min. (Germany/Cuba)
U.S. Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival

This intense portrayal of a transcultural marriage defies the stereotypical representation of Cuban women marrying foreign men for money and a visa. The filmmakers take us through the couple's first two years as they struggle with unexpected obstacles. Marry Me presents a highly original observation of cross-cultural identity and alienation.

Program 5: The Future of Food

The Future of Food
Deborah Koons Garcia. 2003. 88 min. Video. (U.S./Canada/Mexico)
N.Y. Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival

What will food look like for future generations? Will all plant species become private property? The Future of Food raises important questions about genetically modified food. It highlights the role of corporations and government in agriculture, and the role consumers have yet to play in determining what we will eat in the decades to come. Viewing this film, you'll never look at food the same way again!

Program 6: Alternative Ideologies

How to Fix the World
Jacqueline Goss. 2004. 28 min. (U.S./Uzbekistan)

This highly inventive digitally animated film brings to life the celebrated work of A.R. Luria's research with the Uzbek Soviet farm collectives in the 1930's. Photographs of the collectives taken during this same period serve as the basis for the animated images. The restaged conversations between the famed cognitive psychologist and the "subjects" reveal the impact of Soviet socialism on these Muslim oral-based agricultural communities.

Oscar
Sergio Morkin. 2004. 61 min. Video. (Argentina)
U.S. Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival

Oscar is a taxi driver, family man, and intrepid guerilla artist who rebels against the bombardment of advertisements in Buenos Aires. In doing so, he attracts attention from both the media and academia as an artist/activist whose story resonates strongly. But can he pay his bills without selling out?

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