The Mead Festival opens tomorrow at the American Museum of Natural History

November 12-15 to celebrate the 33rd annual Margaret Mead Film & Video
Festival. The line-up is live at  http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/.
Presenting 33 films, 25 premieres, and 26 filmmakers will be in attendance.

Do not miss these films!
BEYOND THE GAME http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/films/beyond-the-game
directed by Jos de Putter, goes behind the scenes of the tight-knit and
competitive community of Warcraft III cybergamers, who compete
professionally on an international circuit. Filmmaker in Person

BLIND LOVES http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/films/blind-loves Sitting
around the parlor one afternoon in their home in Levoča, Slovakia, Peter and
Iveta imagine an underwater world, him noodling on the piano, her knitting
vigorously. Director Juraj Lehotský obliges the married couple's fantasies,
rendering them in a fanciful vignette. But neither Peter nor Iveta can see
it. They are both blind. Combining moody, low-light cinematography, an
artist's eye for composition, and a sharp ear for quotidian sounds, Blind
Loves depicts the day-to-day world of the blind, rich in other sensory
experiences.

DJ SPOOKY 
http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/films/dj-spooky-and-the-science-of-te
rra-nova Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek of the latest multimedia
creation by Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, whose Rebirth of a Nation
redefined D.W. Griffith's racist 1915 film about the American Civil War.
With Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctic, he turns his attention to global
climate change, specifically its effects on the world's only uninhabited
landmass, Antarctica. Using sounds recorded during a visit to the frozen
continent and images culled from AMNH archives, DJ Spooky demonstrates how
he created Terra Nova, discussing his project with Heidi Cullen, director of
communications and senior research scientist at Climate Central, a nonprofit
foundation created to provide science-based assessments of climate change
and options for addressing it. Andrew C. Revkin, an environmental reporter
for The New York Times, whose Dot Earth blog examines efforts to balance
human affairs with the planet's limits, will moderate the event. Artist in
Person

FIG TREES http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/films/fig-trees Known for
combining realistic and magical elements in his fiction films, John Greyson
brings his creative powers to documentary. Predicated on the conceit that
Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson are writing their 1934 avant-garde opera
"Four Saints in Three Acts" based on the lives of Zackie Achmat of South
African's Treatment Action Campaign and Tim McCaskell of Canada's AIDS
Action, Fig Trees recounts the history of AIDS activism over the past two
decades.

INTIFADA NYC http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/films/intifada-nyc
Hhalil Gibran International Academy, the first Arabic-language public school
in the U.S., opened in Brooklyn in 2007. Almost immediately, "Stop the
Madrassa" formed out of fear that the school would teach radical Islam or
even produce terrorists. As critics and the mainstream media stoked the
flames in post-9/11 America, the controversy forced the school's
Arab-American Muslim principal from her job. Weaving together interviews and
cinema verité footage, the film is supplemented by graphic-novel style
illustrations of closed-door proceedings. Filmmaker in Person

THE LAST DAYS OF SHISHMAREF
http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/films/last-days-of-shishmaref Inupiaq
Eskimo have lived in Shishmaref on Sarichef Island off Alaska's Seward
Peninsula for an estimated 4,000 years. Bound by the Chukchi Sea and the
Bering Strait, the residents of Shishmaref rely on the frozen north to
sustain their way of life, hunting walrus and bearded seal, caribou and
ducks, and whatever else the seasonal bounty provides. As the world debates
the causes and effects of global climate change, the Arctic glaciers melt,
eroding the coast of this island community and leaving the land vulnerable
to the powerful storms that rage closer and closer to shore. As a result,
the Inupiaq are losing their homes and quite possibly their ancient culture.
Filmmaker in Person

THE LIVING http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/films/living
Fed by four major rivers, Ukraine is a land of fertile steppes that used to
be known as the Breadbasket of the Soviet Union. A Slavic culture that was
once the hub of Europe, 20th century Ukraine has been carved up and
dominated successively by Russians, Austro-Hungarians, and Soviets, all of
whom recognized its strategic value. When Stalin implemented forced
collectivization as part of his Five Year Plan to industrialize and
de-privatize the USSR, he ordered Communist officials in the Ukraine to
starve the resistant rural population. The resulting Holodomor was witnessed
by few outsiders; one of these, British journalist Gareth Jones, left behind
evidence in his personal diaries. While sharing entries of these piercing,
first-hand accounts, director Sergiy Bukovsky juxtaposes propaganda cinema
of the era showing a happy, productive peasant population against snippets
of testimony of Holodomor survivors. Filmmaker in Person

HAIR INDIA http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/films/hair-india
In order to pay for the wedding of Vishnu to the Goddess Padmavathi, the
gods' treasurer granted a long-term loan to be paid off by future
generations. Still today, Hindu believers offer money and jewels to service
the centuries-old debt. The very poor, we are told, sacrifice their only
possession--their hair. At an impartial remove, The filmmakers follow the
course of this hair as it is sheared in an ancient, sacred ritual, sold at
auction to the highest bidder, and ends up strutting down the red carpets on
top of the world's most famous heads. CLOSING NIGHT Filmmaker in Person

HOTEL SAHARA http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/films/hotel-sahara The
temporary residents of Nouadhibou, Mauritania, have come from all over
Africa to wait for transport to Europe, and the chance at a better life.
Bettina Haasen's intimate camera ushers us through the provisional world of
these migrant workers as they pick up odd jobs and sleep in sparse rooms,
all under the constant threat of deportation. Sandwiched between the Sahara
Desert and the Atlantic Ocean, they try to stoke their individual dreams in
a place where the only thing not fleeting is their desire to reach their
destination.

PERESTROIKA http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/films/perestroika  Once
the seat of the Russian Empire, the Baroque historic center of St.
Petersburg is up for sale. Having had its architectural jewels hacked up
into komunalka during the Communist era, the city is now experiencing the
wake of perestroika reforms, where communal property promises
capitalist-sized profits. Christiane Büchner brings us along for a sardonic
ride through the cramped quarters, peeling-paint hallways, and water-damaged
ceilings of Russia's new economy. Filmmaker in Person

THE WONDROUS WORLD OF LAUNDRY
http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/films/wonderous-world-of-laundry,
directed by Hans-Christian Schmid, visits the Polish border town where
Fliegel Textile provides 24-hour turnaround service to its Berlin hotel
clients. The resulting story exposes how the global marketplace is affecting
small-town eastern Europe, where labor is cheaper and life is harder.

For a full line up go to http://www.amnh.org/mead/2009/
All screenings are held at the American Museum of Natural History
Please enter through the 77th Street entrance between Central Park West and
Columbus Avenues for all Festival screenings