‘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

Patchwork Quilt Workshop Photos: Museo Textil de Oaxaca

Museo Textil de Oaxaca June 2009 Events Calendar

Patchwork Quilt Workshop, June 17-20, 2009 at Museo Textil de Oaxaca

Sam Robbins is the featured visiting artist at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca this June when she will be teaching a patchwork quiltmaking workshop from June 17-20, from 4-7:30 p.m. each day.  The cost is $350 pesos or approximately $32 USD per person.  The cost includes all materials.  Sam teaches art and photography at New Albany (Ohio, USA) High School and is a noted black and white art photographer with her husband Tom.  See their website:  www.robbinsx2.com A master quilter, Sam owned a quilters workshop in Columbus, Ohio and continues to maintain a private studio in her home.

Painting Workshop in Oaxaca with Pantaleon Ruiz

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27704126@N02/ See examples of painter Pantaleon Ruiz’ work!

Pantaleon is an accomplished and widely exhibited painter who has shown his work in Oaxaca, Cancun, Mexico City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon.  He taught workshops in both the U.S. and Mexico.  Pantaleon, who is bilingual, works in oil paint tinted with the same natural dyes he and his family uses to color the wool they weave with — cochineal, indigo, moss, wild marigolds.  His painting techniques — the use of brushes, fingers, and sweeping strokes of the hand dipped in paint and beeswax — lend themselves very well to working with children and adults to learn to use paint as an expressive, artistic medium.

Newsflash:Pantaleon will be one of the people we will interview and film during the Documentary Filmmaking Workshop: Visual Storytelling, February 19-26, 2010.  See the course description posted on this blog.

We have added a new class to our offerings of arts programs in the village of Teotitlan del Valle.  Come for a studio painting class with Pantaleon or a weaving workshop with Federico Chavez Sosa.  We can arrange customized programs for any time during the year that you can travel (with confirmation of availability of the instructors).  These can be full days, half-days, and multiple days.  We can offer you weaving, dyeing and painting workshops — half and half!  Half day of weaving and half day of painting.  I will work with you to price out the program that fits best within your schedule and budget.

Note:  shorter workshops will be experiences and will not produce a completed piece, but only a ’sampler’ for you to take away with you.  Nevertheless, this will give you a hands-on opportunity to work with weaving and painting masters in an indigenous Zapotec village renown for its craftsmanship.

You can contact me at normahawthorne@mac.com with your requests and I will send you a proposal.

Biography: Pantaleon Ruiz Martinez ws born in 1974 to a family of weavers.  His relatives taught him the art of weaving and he later developed his own designs.  Later, he lived and worked for a time in the U.S. and discovered his calling as a painter.  When he returned to Oaxaca, he had developed considerable artistic skill both as a painter and ceramic artist.  His canvasas project the peacefulness of his sacred village of Teotitlan del Valle, but also a restless need to explore new territory.  Pantaleon paints with a dual consciousness and expands his horizons of self-expression.  Aware of his ancestral Zapotec origins, he places himself within a more vast and ancient tradition — that of human civilizations.  His paintings and sculptures speak of that personal story constructed of two difference societies, two different environments that are part of a larger weaving culture.  He is both pre-Hispanic and twentieth century in his approaches to painting.  He moves from the abstract to figure painting with ease, and experiments so that he is not defined by a rigid style.  He pulls from his historical influences of textile weaving and incorporates graphic designs to come out the other side with a new form of expression.  he mixes conventional pigments with cochineal and othr dyes usually used by weavers, paints on exotic Nepalese paper or more popular bark paper, combines oil with ink and encaustic or synthetic resins or beeswax to produce texture.  He has been featured  in Architectural Digest magazine, Great Design Around The World, the Smithsonian Magazine, Old House magazine, and has received numerous awards.

Painting Workshop Costs Include All Materials:

1 to 3 days, 3-4 hours in a workshop day, Cost is $67 per day.
4-6 days, 3-4 hours in a workshop day, Cost is $57 per day.
7 days or more, 3-4 hours in a workshop day, $47 per day.

These costs do not included food and lodging.  I would be happy to put a package together for you that includes lodging and meals, too.

The Observer, Ethnography and Cultural Commentary

Ruth Behar, the noted anthropologist, wrote “Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart,” in 1996.  It is one of the readings for our documentary filmmaking workshop that starts tonight in Teotitlan del Valle.  I read it on the plane ride between Houston and Oaxaca last night and it raised my consciousness about going through life interpreting what we believe to be happening or the reasons behind other people’s behavior and decisions.  This is especially true when one is living and working in another culture.  It is so easy to observe traditions, differences, ritual celebrations, and bring your own meaning to it.  But, it is just that, my own interpretation of what someone is is thinking or feeling based upon my own cultural history and bias.  So, as we enter this week of documentary filmmaking in the Zapotec village of Teotitlan del Valle, we will raise and discuss these questions as a group.  What we see from our own lens is just that.  We interview others and they will tell us their story.  It may not reveal all that 7,000 years of cultural history has imbedded in their answers.  I will be careful, as an interested observer, to recount, retell, describe.  I will ask those who live here to explain, interpret, give meaning to the visual story and I will do my best to accurately record in writing and on film their voices.  My role is not to evaluate or judge, but to discover.

Tenidos de Reserva Taller — Bound Resist Natural Dye Workshop

Carolyn Kallenborn worked with Eric Chavez Santiago, director of education at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca to offer a natural dye workshop in the technique of bound resist or “tenido de reserva.”  Attendees included indigenous weavers, artists and expatriates from the U.S. and Canada who live in Oaxaca.   Carolyn is assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Her contact information is at the end of this post.  We have been working together to organize weaving and natural dyeing workshops for university students in the home of Eric’s parents in Teotitlan del Valle.  I asked her if I could publish this workshop experiences (which she just shared with friends and colleagues) and photos.  She happily agreed.

***

I just got back Tuesday night from a couple of weeks in Oaxaca just in time for some of the coldest temperatures here in WI on record. They say it is supposed to get down to  *minus 27 degrees Fahrenheit* tonight. Brrrr. But as I look through the photos and think about the time I just spent in Mexico, it helps me feel a little warmer.

See a complete photo library of the bound resist natural dye workshop at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58355&l=1dc92&id=656399116

This year, perhaps because I am at a new school, perhaps because of the financial crunch, I didn’t get enough students to lead a trip to Oaxaca this year. So I took the opportunity to work with the new Textile Museum in Oaxaca ( http://www.museotextildeoaxaca.org.mx/) and offered a workshop to some very talented weavers from the Oaxaca area. It was a big milestone for me in that it was the first time I have taught a class all in Spanish (translated directions, converted from TBS to grams (they use weight rather than measuring spoons) and Fahrenheit to Celsius) so it was a bit of a challenge. But very fun.

Weaving by Elsa Abigail Mendoza Antonio

I taught a four day class in Bound Resist (Teñidos de Reserva) using natural dyes, and discharge (color removal) on cotton and linen. They had a wonderful exhibit up at the museum on bound resists from all over the world, including a patola from India and double ikat from Japan, adire oniko from Nigeria and wonderful Mexican bound resist from the 20’s. It was great to be able to go into the museum to look at pieces multiple times during the workshop to look at some of the best examples from around the world.

Bound Resist with Indigo, Mexico 1920’s

I also brought along a lot of my own dyed fabrics and pieces that I have collected. Unlike the ones in the museum exhibit, we could touch and fold these.  Some of the students had done some dyeing but all had been working with textiles their whole lives. It was amazing to see how quickly they understood the processes as I described them. And they were excited to be learning something very different than anything they had done before.

Demonstrating folding and clamping

We spent three days working in with stitched resist, cochineal for red, pericón for yellow, indigo for blue and Thiox to remove color.

Indigo workshop area

Bound resist in pericón and indigo and Indigo dyed yarn

I brought along some wooden clamps that I had my friend Paul cut out for me. We used these to compress the fabric tight enough so that the dye could not penetrate between the clamps.  With these, they made some beautiful designs.

Photos Left to right:
Eufrosina Vásquez López      Fabric by Eric Chavez Santiago     Line of fabrics drying

On the last night, I gave public lecture (also in Spanish – a bit scary but fun to have made it through!) on my own art work, the projects that I have been doing with the weavers in Oaxaca and talked about the work we did in the workshop. It seemed to go really well and I think everyone understood me. No one feel asleep and people seemed to laugh at the right places.

The museum set up a display of the pieces that the students made during the workshop.  After the lecture, the students talked to the guests about what they did and explained the processes.  I don’t know what more they will do with this, but several of them were asking questions about how to do specific projects that they were thinking of. So I am hoping that when I go back again, some of them may have some pieces to show.

One of 4 display tables       View of workshop area from museum

Reporters from two local newspapers showed up. I was able to get a copy of one of the articles, but the other came out after I already left. (If you can read Spanish, it is on the web at: http://www.imparcialenlinea.com/index.php?mod=leer&id=70451&sec=cultura&titulo=Intercambian_culturas_a_trav%E9s_de_te%F1idos
Though I don’t think those are direct quotes. The Spanish usage seems much too complex to be anything I actually said.)

All in all, it was a really great experience. It was wonderful to work with such a talented group of artists and with the fabulous staff at the Textile Museum in Oaxaca.

Special thanks to Eric Chavez Santiago for helping to organize everything and who gave wonderful information on natural dyes.  Photos are courtesy of Carolyn Kallenborn and Eric Chavez Santiago.

Carolyn Kallenborn
Assistant Professor
Design Studies
University of Wisconsin – Madison
1300 Linden Drive
Madison WI 53706
608-233-1432

cmkallen@wisc.edu
www.carolynkallenborn.com

Film Making Workshop: Visual Storytelling — February 19-26, 2010

TWO SPACES LEFT!  Register Now.

Novice to Intermediate Levels Welcome!

For seven days, from Friday evening, February 19, to Friday, morning, February 26, you will immerse yourself in the art and craft of documentary film making in the indigenous Zapotec village of Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico. There are 7,000 people and 2,000 looms in this famous rug weaving center situated 15 miles outside the colonial capital of Oaxaca City. This learning laboratory opens your eyes to new perspectives. A core aspect of this workshop is to encourage you to take the skills and insights you gain through this cross-cultural experience back home to document your own community, culture, or advocacy project with fresh vision.

Creating a documentary is much more than learning how to point, shoot and edit. Capturing the unique voices of your subjects is at the heart of the work. Topics may include the intimate rituals of daily life — making tortillas from scratch, preparing natural dyes, the voices of women, celebrations and life cycle events.

Newsflash: Artist Panteleon Ruiz, a renowned Zapotec painter who incorporates natural dyes in his oil pigments, will be one of the subjects for the film workshop!

You will work in small groups, guided by expert faculty who give you the creative freedom to produce a 3-5 minute short subject film. A celebratory final night viewing will showcase everyone’s work.

Here’s the REGISTRATION FORM: http://oaxacaculture.wordpress.com/workshops/workshop-registration-form/

Here are the three films produced at the last workshop:

Weaving a Curve (English subtitles)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxgxcMQlQZM

Dance of the Feather: A Promise & Commitment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpr4dBi-6h4

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

You will:

• Explore the creativity, challenges and ethics of telling a compelling story
• Learn the steps of documentary film production from start to finish
• Develop the technical skills for video and audio recording
• Edit the raw footage into a rich narrative using Final Cut Pro

This is an excellent opportunity for those who want to get a first hand experience in documentary field work — all in a great travel destination.

After you register, faculty will contact you to discuss your interests and skill level. Then, we’ll send you a complete packet of materials, including a list of what to bring, like your own camera and tapes.  Pre-workshop readings will address: What style of documentary do I want to make? What issues do I need to be sensitive to when entering an unfamiliar culture? What about using my video camera, microphone and lighting? How do we maximize the collaborative process with teammates and crew? What are film production stages? Can I really learn to edit? How do I conduct an effective interview?

What Participants Say…

Erica encouraged me to challenge myself and go beyond what was easy and “routine” for me.  I am really happy with the final piece.  The experience was challenging and VERY rewarding.  A wonderful experience, a beautiful place. –Sarah Kennedy Davis, Kentucky, USA

The experience helped me understand the importance of teamwork. I loved the way Erica explained things. –Eric Chavez Santiago, Oaxaca, Mexico

The instructors were delightful and able to explain to the novice very sophisticated concepts in an understandable way.  I really appreciated Erica’s wise and warm approach to the subject.  The location is picturesque and the family very friendly; the food was wonderful.  Thank you. –Betty Hutchins, Toronto, Canada

Thank you for everything. I learned a lot–interviewing skills and how to use Final Cut Pro.  The multicultural residency enhanced my filmmaking goals because it expanded my experience beyond a controlled environment.  I loved it. –Scott Switzer, Oregon, USA

Thanks for inspiring teaching.  I have an appreciation for what it takes to make a film.  ths is a unique combination of a documentary course in a multicultural setting. — Eunice Hogeveen, Toronto, Canada

When you arrive in Teotitlan, you’ll meet the faculty and we’ll give you your documentary topic. We will pre-arrange your field contacts and provide bilingual translators to accompany you on interviews. You will then work with your partner and faculty to develop the technical and creative approach that best fits your personal and professional goals for the week.

What Is Included?

· Over 75 hours of expert instruction

· “On location” in a fascinating place

· A comprehensive notebook of materials

· Lodging for 7 nights

· 7 breakfasts, plus 5 lunches and dinners

· Bilingual interview translation services

· A DVD of all the films produced during the workshop

· The experience of a lifetime!

Accommodations are in a lovely village guesthouse with bougainville and pomegranate trees. The setting is traditional, yet comfortable.  The Zapotec proprietors are a daughter-in-law and mother-in-law team — gracious hosts and excellent cooks. As guests in their family compound, you will taste delicious traditional foods that Oaxaca is famous for and live with the family during your stay.  An intimate and rewarding experience!

Your Faculty Experts:  Erica Rothman and Jim Haverkamp

Erica Rothman, LCSW, is a documentary filmmaker who uses her psychotherapy background to understand and capture her subjects with sensitivity and depth, in an intimate and compelling way. As the principal of Nightlight Productions, she has written, produced and directed acclaimed projects, including full-length documentary films, that focus on local and global health care, public policy, the arts and humanities. She received a 2007 Gracie Award for American Women in Radio and Television, and key awards at the Houston International Film Festival. Rothman teaches in the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies.

“I love the collaboration between the people working on the film, the subjects and the content.  I’m excited about this 2010 workshop because Jim and I have worked together for over five years.  Documentary filmmaking is a powerful way to use storytelling to bring people to action.” – Erica Rothman

Jim Haverkamp is a filmmaker and freelance editor based in Durham, North Carolina.  His short fiction and documentary films have shown at over 50 festivals around the world, including Chicago Underground, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and the Maryland Film Festival. He has taught filmmaking at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, and was awarded a filmmaking fellowship by the North Carolina Arts Council in 2000.  He teaches at the intensive documentary institute at Duke Center for Documentary Studies for six year. He hold the B.A. American Studies, University of Iowa.

Cost and Registration: $1795 per person, double occupancy, including food and lodging outlined above. A $500 deposit will hold your reservation. Workshop limited to 6 people.

Contact: Norma Hawthorne, (919) 274-6194 or normahawthorne@mac.com to register.

Presented by: Norma Hawthorne, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator, www.oaxacaculture.com and http://oaxacaculture.wordpress.com

How to Register  Workshop cost is $1795 per person, double occupancy. Single supplement is available at $300 per person.  Please print out and complete the registration form and mail it with your deposit. Registration form:  www.oaxacaculture.com

Deposit: A $500 deposit will reserve your space in the filmmaking workshop.

Final payment is due 30 days before the start day of the workshop. If the balance is not paid by this time, then we reserve the right to treat the reservation as cancelled. Any registrations made 30 days or less before the start of the workshop must be paid in full at that time. If cancellation is necessary, cancellation notice must by made in writing by email.  Deposits are refundable, as follows:

Deposits may be refunded:

*Up to 30 days before the workshop start date, less a $100 cancellation fee.

*After that, deposits are not refundable.

If cancellation is necessary, you may apply the deposit to a future workshop. We reserve the right to cancel or reschedule workshops, in which case you may choose a 100% refund or apply the tuition to a future workshop.

Personal checks are accepted. We also accept payment with PayPal. Contact us for details: normahawthorne@mac.com

Documentation: U.S. citizens traveling to Mexico are required to carry a current passport, valid for at least 3 months after your re-entry to the U.S. It is your responsibility to carry proper documentation. If you are not a U.S. citizen, contact the Mexican embassy, consulate or a national airline of Mexico for entry requirements.

Trip insurance: PLEASE consider purchasing travel insurance. Unforeseen circumstances of getting to Teotitlan del Valle could cost you more than you expected. In the event of an emergency or natural disaster caused beyond our control, trip insurance will cover any unexpected expenses.

What is NOT included

Transportation to Mexico, Oaxaca and Teotitlan; gratuities and fees; local bus and taxi fees, trip insurance, medical expenses, hospitalization, any other fees; evening dinner in Oaxaca, liquor; optional side trips and excursions; extensions to your stay.

Schedule  Upon registration, we will send you an outline of the week’s activities.

Friday: Arrive in Oaxaca and take a taxi to your B&B in Teotitlan del Valle. We’ll provide you with directions and how to get from the airport to the village. We will meet together in the courtyard at 8:00 p.m. for a welcome reception. Saturday: Meet for breakfast at 8:30 a.m. Workshop starts at 9:00 a.m. and continues through the day into the evening.  Sunday-Friday: Each day is planned with different activities to enhance the learning process. The workshop day typically begins at 9 a.m. after breakfast and continues, with meal and snack breaks, through the evening. We will take one late afternoon and evening “off” to go into Oaxaca City for comida together and to explore the sights. Saturday morning: Breakfast, summary and evaluation. The workshop ends by 10:00 a.m.

Send your registration deposit with your name, address, telephone, cell phone and email address, and a brief statement about why you want to attend this workshop and your experience, to:

Norma Hawthorne, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC, 110 Blue Heron Farm Rd., Pittsboro, NC 27312

Questions?

normahawthorne@mac.com or (919) 274-6194

We also offer weaving and natural dyeing workshops in Teotitlan del Valle!

AHrgggH! Skyrocketing Airfares & August 11-14 Weaving & Natural Dyeing Workshop

We just booked a round-trip on Continental through Houston directly to Oaxaca from August 9-18, and the airfare is $892! Yikes. Just three days ago it was $822 and we waited too long. I know this is pegged to record costs for oil, now $133 per barrel. I’m waiting to hear announcements that we will be charged for baggage, too. Nevertheless, my friends, Cindy Edwards and Sue Szary are joining me for a 4-day weaving and natural dyeing workshop with Federico Chavez Sosa and his daughter Janet.

We have space for 2 more people, so if you’d like to join in the fun, let me know!

Cindy Edwards is the art gallery director at the North Carolina Arts Incubator in Siler City, NC, and Sue Szary (pronounced Zarry, like Larry) is the executive director of the NC Arts Incubator. Sue also owns “Against His Will Gallery”, is a spinner, raises sheep, and has worked in natural dyes. She runs workshops and classes to teach people how to knit, spin, and dye. Sue wants to learn indigenous Zapotec dyeing techniques. Cindy wants to weave a bag or purse. I’ll probably work on creating a pillow cover.

The NC Arts Incubator offers extensive classes in weaving in partnership with the Central Carolina Community College. Both women are novice/inexperienced weavers, and because the workshops with the Chavez family in Teotitlan del Valle are small, Federico and Janet can customize instruction based on level of participant experience. More experienced weavers will learn more complex techniques. (See March 28 Blog Post describing the Oaxaca Weaving Workshop: Dancing on the Loom for more details.)

We’re going to do some day trips to the Tlacolula market, Mitla, Ocotlan and Arrazola, too, and y’all are invited to come along.

Now, I can reminisce about the days when I could choose which special meal I wanted to order — remember when you could actually EAT on a 4-hour flight when it didn’t feel like it was a “bring along your own picnic.”