The Margaret Mead Film Festival is an annual film festival held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. It is the longest-running, premiere showcase for international documentaries in the United States, encompassing a broad spectrum of work, from indigenouscommunity media to experimental nonfiction. The Festival is distinguished by its outstanding selection of titles, which tackle diverse and challenging subjects, representing a range of issues and perspectives, and by the forums for discussion with filmmakers and speakers.
The festival owes its origins (and its name) to renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead, who worked for 52 years at the American Museum of Natural History. She acted as curator in the museum's Department of Anthropology, where she helped create the Hall of Pacific Peoples, which bears her name. In her lifetime, Margaret Mead greatly advanced the academic standing and popular appeal of cultural anthropology, and was also one of the earliest anthropologists to integrate visual methods into her research, focus on the study of visual communication, and teach courses on culture and communication. "Pictures are held together," Dr. Mead wrote, "by a way of looking that has grown out of anthropology, a science in which all peoples, however contrasted in physique and culture, are seen as members of the same species, engaged in solving problems common to humanity."
In 1976, in commemoration of her 75th birthday, the museum decided to pay tribute to her work with a film festival of top ethnographic and other documentary films. In its early years, the festival focused on ethnographic films and was hosted by the USC Center for Visual Anthropology (directed by Mead's student, the late filmmaker Tim Asch).[1][2] Today, the Festival continues to exemplify Mead's teachings: that film is a tool for cross-cultural understanding and that it is possible, and important, for societies to learn from each other.
Margaret Mead Filmmaker Awardedit
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. Each year the award is given to a filmmaker whose feature documentary offers a new perspective on a culture or community remote from the majority of our audiences' experience as well as displays artistic excellence and originality in storytelling technique. U.S., North American, or World Premiere documentaries (60 minutes or longer) are eligible for the Award. This award has a cash prize.
2010 Winner: Marc Francis/Nick Francis for When China Met Africa[3]
2012 Winner: Adam Isenberg for A Life Without Words[5]
Traveling Festivaledit
The Margaret Mead Traveling Film & Video Festival presents highlights of the Festival that takes place in November. Each year titles are selected from the annual Mead Festival to participate in this year-long program which brings innovative non-fiction work to communities throughout the United States and abroad.
2012 Mead Festivaledit
18 Days in Egypt by Jigar Mehta and Yasmin Elayat
Bad Weather by Giovanni Giommi - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee
Bay of All Saints
Bury the Hatchet by Aaron Walker
Buzkashi!
Children of Srikandi
A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet
George Stoney Tribute: How the Myth Was Made
Grab
Himself He Cooks by Valérie Berteau and Philippe Witjes - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee
The Human Tower by Ram Devineni and Cano Rojas - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee
Jai Bhim Comrade
Keep Me Upright (Tiens moi droite) by Zoé Chantre - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee
A Life Without Words (Una Vida Sin Palabras) by Adam Isenberg - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee
The Light in Her Eyes
Manapanmirr, in Christmas Spirit by Miyarrka Media - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee
Maori Boy Genius by Pietra Brettkelly - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee
Mead Arcade
Meanwhile in Mamelodi by Benjamin Kahlmeyer
Nagaland: The Last of the Headhunters by Patrick Morell - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee
Re-Seeing the Century: The Expedition on Film
Sun Kissed
Sweet Dreams
The Other Half of Tomorrow by Sadia Shepard and Samina Quraeshi - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee
Through Navajo Eyes
Tropicália
Tundra Book. A Tale of Vukvukla, the Little Rock (Kniga Tundry. Povest' o Vukvukaye - malen'kom kamne)
Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos (Atuaqsiniq Inuit Tunninginnik)
Wheat and Tares (Het Kaf en Het Koren) by Stefan Wittekamp and Suzanne Arts - Mead Filmmaker Award Nominee
Whose Story Is It? Story Lounge
2011 Mead Festivaledit
2011 Filmsedit
At Night, They Dance (La nuit, elles dansent) by Isabelle Lavigne and Stéphane Thibault
^"Center for Visual Anthropology: USC Department of Anthropology". Archived from the original on 2009-11-27. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
^"Filming Culture: Nigeria, Korea and Beyond Margaret Mead Ethnographic Film Festival Travels to the University, Bringing Two Videos by Usc Visual Anthropology Graduates". Archived from the original on 2008-05-24. Retrieved 2009-12-07.
^"Directors Marc and Nick Francis Win First Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award for When China Met Africa at the American Museum of Natural History". AMNH Filmmaker Award. AMNH Press Center.