DocuClub in November!
Our November DocuClub will take place on Wednesday, November 16, 7 p.m., at DCTV, located at 87 Lafayette (at Walker).
This month, we will screen a rough cut of Brasslands by the Meerkat Media Collective. Once a year, a tiny Serbian village explodes with brass cacophony and riotous celebration as half a million fans descend upon Guča, the world’s largest trumpet competition. On the 50th anniversary of the festival, an unlikely American brass band undertakes a journey to the source of their inspiration, barely a decade after NATO bombs rocked Belgrade. The citizens of Guča prepare for the oncoming hordes with a mix of national pride and nervous energy. The older generation has lived through world war, socialist rule, national fragmentation, and ethnic cleansing – all of which has given way to a festival at the center of a evolving national identity. Middle-aged business owners hope to capitalize on a growing festival and huge influx of cash. The youngest watch the best trumpeters in the world play their country’s traditional music; some yearn to play on that stage, while others throw on their headphones to pump Metallica and Lady Gaga. Brasslands explores the moment when cultural appropriation confronts its origin – in this war-scarred landscape, disparate societies find common ground in a joyous, deeply transcendent music that leaves no ear unaffected. For more info about the film, and to preview a trailer, go to: http://brasslands.com/mkm-collective.
Meerkat Media Collective is a self-organized community of media makers committed to creating innovative and thought-provoking films through shared authorship. Since 2005, they have produced and distributed over twenty short films and two features. Their first feature documentary, Stages (2010), won Best Documentary and Audience Award at the HBO New York International Latino Film Festival. Work of the production team of more than fifteen meerkats behind Brasslands has been broadcast on PBS, HBO, The Discovery Channel, ESPN, MTV and Arté; streamed online via Time Magazine and The Onion News Network; and featured at festivals internationally, including Cannes, Silverdocs, Nashville Film Festival, Media that Matters, Locarno Film Festival and Sheffield Doc Fest. Learn more at meerkatmedia.org.
Our moderator will be filmmaker Kelly Anderson. She is an award-winning independent producer and director of documentary and narrative films. Her most recent production is Never Enough, a documentary about American’s relationship with their material possessions, which won an Artistic Excellence award at the 2010 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Other recent directing work includes Someplace Like Home, a documentary about the redevelopment of Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn, which she made for FUREE (Families United for Racial and Economic Equality). In 2004, Anderson produced and directed (with Tami Gold) and edited Every Mother's Son, a documentary for ITVS about mothers whose children have been killed by police officers and who have become national spokespeople on the issue of police brutality. Every Mother's Son premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award, and had its broadcast premiere on PBS’s P.O.V. series. Gold and Anderson also made Making a Killing, a half-hour documentary that addresses the marketing practices of the tobacco industry in the developing world. Making a Killing premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival, was screened for delegates at the World Health Organization and aired on television in Nigeria, Serbia, Lagos and Vietnam. In 2000, Anderson completed Shift, a one-hour drama for ITVS about the volatile relationship between a North Carolina waitress and a telemarketing prison inmate, which premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and aired on many PBS stations. Her other documentaries include Out at Work (with Tami Gold), which was screened at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival and was shown on HBO. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College in New York City. Learn more about her films at: www.andersongoldfilms.com.
If you’re planning to attend, please RSVP to docuclub@artsengine.net.
Admission at DCTV is free for current DocuClub members and $6 for non-members.
Tickets will be sold at the door, cash only.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. No admittance after 7:15 p.m.
Our last DocuClub of the year is confirmed for December 14. Save the Date!
Membership is an annual $50 and it includes free admission to all DocuClub events. It takes five minutes to join online:
http://www.artsengine.net/store/items/docuclub_membership_individual_rate
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