The Absent Stone Sandra Rozental & Jesse Lerner 2013, 82 min., Color, Mexico In 1964, a colossal pre-Hispanic monolith was taken from the town of San Miguel Coatlinchan in the state of Mexico and brought to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Since then, the ab...
Blaze: The Truth Through Hip Hop Maurice Lynch 2006, 90 min., Color, US The Hip-Hop Christian movement has been uplifting youth by delivering positive religious messages that are not about drugs, sex, or hate but of hope and peace.
In a society where artists are glorif...
Border Brujo Isaac Artenstein Producer: Cinewest 1989, 60 min., Color, US Border Brujo is a ritual-linguistic journey across the U.S./Mexico border written and performed by artist Guillermo Gómez Peña. In the guise of a cross-cultural shaman, Gómez Peña shifts into 15 diff...
Dastaar: Defending Sikh Identity Kevin Lee Producer: Third World Newsreel 2005, 12 min., Color, US A restaurant owner beaten. A policeman fired. A 20 year subway conductor born in the U.S., threatened with job loss: All for wearing the signature turbans of their religion, Sikhism. Since 9/11, h...
E Minha Cara Thomas Allen Harris 2001, 56 min., Color, US/Brazil A mythopoetic feast of self-discovery that crosses three continents and three generations, E MINHA CARA traces the filmmaker's journey to Salvador Da Bahia, the African heart and soul of Brazil, as he...
Encounter at the Intergalactic Café Thomas Allen Harris 1996, 17 min., Color, US A videotape of a live performance--a mythopoetic rendering of the original encounters between African, Indigenous and European peoples in the present day "border regions". Saint, comic, demon, deity, ...
Epilogue: The Palpable Invisibility of Life Tran T. Kim-Trang 2006, Color, US How can we make visible the invisible? How can we "see" our lost loved ones? In EPILOGUE, Vietnamese-American filmmaker Tran T. Kim Trang looks for answers to these questions in the audio recordings ...
Ex-voto Tania Cypriano 1990, 7 min., Color Both artistic production and spiritual offering, EX-VOTO was created by the artist as an expression of her gratitude for surviving near fatal burns in a fire when she was ten years old. Cypriano mixes...
Fragments of Barbara McCullough Barbara McCullough 1980, 10 min., Color, US This work is a montage of magic centered imagery. It contains some of the footage from Shopping Bag Spirits plus new material....
Ganja and Hess Bill Gunn 1970, 110 min., Color, US This extraordinary foray into the realms of Black consciousness has acquired deserved status as a cinema classic. The vampire film genre is used to create a mythical vision of the forces that shape Dr...
Haircuts Hurt Randy Redroad 1992, 10 min., Color, US A Native American woman and her young son encounter everyday racism when they visit a local barbershop. The situation leads her to reflect on her own childhood and reconsider her son's first haircut. ...
Hair-tage Shawn Batey Producer: Third World Newsreel Workshop 1997, 10 min., Color, US This short documentary examines the decisions involved in growing and wearing dreadlocks in African-American communities. Through interviews and playful camerawork, Batey explores the motivations and ...
Heaven, Earth and Hell Thomas Allen Harris 1994, 26 min., Color, US Reflecting on the "trickster" figure in African and Native American cultures, while recounting the story of his first love, this beautiful work incorporates the critical texts of Frantz Fanon, bell ho...
High Horse Randy Redroad Producer: Randy Redroad 1995, 40 min., Color, US A provocative narrative on the concept of "home" for Native Americans. The film opens in what the filmmaker calls "the artificial world of the colonizers" - a modern American city. From a cop to a y...
In the Spirit of Peace Al Santana Producer: Third World Newsreel 2001, 8 min., Color, US After September 11th, religion becomes the vehicle for a community looking for commensurability in the midst of an environment that would rather seek quick answers to a larger problem....
Ma/baap Siraj Jhaveri 1994, 30 min., Color When your parents hate each other -- how do you learn to love? This award-winning, personal chronicle's the relationship between the filmmaker's Muslim father and Hindu mother --exploring their forbid...
Mi Otro Yo (My Other Self) Isaac Artenstein Producer: Cinewest 1989, 30 min., Color, US Expanding his exploration of marginalized identity and border culture, videomaker Artenstein's MI OTRO YO looks at the work of Chicano artists living in California. Their cultural ties to Mexico and h...
Mother of the River Zeinabu Irene Davis 1995, 28 min., BW, US This powerful drama of a young girl's slave experience in the antebellum South is based on the power of the folk tale and the riddle. Dofimae is an independent spirit despite her condition of slavery....
Nailed Angel Velasco Shaw 1992, 50 min., Color A Filipina's exploration of the Catholic Church and 400 years of colonialism in the Pacific region is woven in a montage of images, sounds, stories and performances. Inspired by Lucy Reyes, a woman wh...
Noble Sacrifice Vatche Boulghourjian Producer: Rebus Film Production 2002, 39 min., Color, Lebanon NOBLE SACRIFICE explores the nexus between mourning and militancy as expressed in the annual Shiite observance of Ashura. Participants in the procession engage in self-flagellation, bloodletting and o...
The Other Side of the Water: The Journey of a Haitian Rara Band in Brooklyn (72) Jeremy Robins and Magali Damas 2010, 72 min., Color/BW, US/Haiti Part carnival, part vodou ceremony, and part grassroots protest, Haitian “Rara” is one of the most breathtaking and contested forms of music in the Americas. The Other Side of the Water follows a grou...
The Other Side of the Water: The Journey of a Haitian Rara Band in Brooklyn Jeremy Robins and Magali Damas 2010, 52 min., Color/BW, US/Haiti Part carnival, part vodou ceremony, and part grassroots protest, Haitian “Rara” is one of the most breathtaking and contested forms of music in the Americas. The Other Side of the Water follows a gro...
Our Lady Queen of Harlem: A Portrait of Faith and Rebellion Trinidad Rodriguez Producer: Trinidad Rodriguez 2008, 17 min., Color, US “Some people have said to me that I am in disobedience, and because of that I’m in sin. We are not in sin, we are fighting for our rights!” --Carmen Villegas, parishioner and protest organizer
On a...
Ọya: Something Happened On The Way To West Africa! Seyi Adebanjo 2015, 30 min., Color, US/Nigeria In this documentary, Queer Gender-Non-Conforming Nigerian media artist Seyi Adebanjo tells a tale not often heard about gender and indigenous Yorùbá spirituality. ỌYA follows Seyi's journey to Nigeria...
Praise House Julie Dash 1991, 30 min., Color, US This video uses stunningly beautiful and innovative techniques to tell the story of a young woman moved to dance by a powerful and creative spirit. Despite her mother's disinterest, Hannah is driven t...
Rest in Peace Jeff Mao 1990, 15 min., BW, US In this subtle and comic narrative, a young Asian American is pressured by his wife, family and "tradition" to grant the last wish of a dying relative. First, however, he must decipher a note written ...
Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections On Ritual Space Barbara McCullough 1980, 60 min., Color, US This video investigates the use of ritual in the work of artists using different media. Here ritual is defined as the creation and utilization of objects, words or tones used in a repetitive or habitu...
The Sisters of Ladakh Ricardo Lobo 2003, 50 min., Color, US THE SISTERS OF LADAKH is an inquiry into the feminine vision of Buddhism. Filmed on location in Ladakh, on the Himalayan border between India and Tibet, this one hour documentary features stunning pho...
Sowing Hope a.k.a. Seedtime of Hope Sistema Radio Venceremos/Radio Venceremos System Producer: Sistema Radio Venceremos/Radio Venceremos System 1983, 30 min., Color, El Salvador This film depicts the activist role taken by the Catholic Church in defending human rights in El Salvador. Interviews with the late Archbishop Romero and Christians living in guerrilla-controlled zone...
To Light the Spirit Reynaldo Yujra Producer: CEFREC/CAIB 2002, 45 min., Color, Bolivia In a collective production, an Aymara filmmaker follows the Kallawayas, healers and spiritual leaders of the Chari community of La Paz, to learn about the indigenous reality of the region. Traditional...
Voices of the Gods Al Santana Producer: Al Santana 1985, 60 min., Color, US This documentary captures the rich legacy of ancient African religions practiced today in the United States. It provides viewers with rare insight into the practices and beliefs of the Akan and Yoruba...
Voodoo Dance: A Tribute to the People of Haiti Elsie Haas 1989, 52 min., Color, Haiti This film documents the significant role of Voodoo in Haitian culture from the perspectives of Voodoo priests, government officials, historians and politicians. Attacked by Western clerics and declare...
Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification Barbara McCullough 1979, 4 min., BW, US An original and visionary work, this cathartic film links the present with the ancestral past. A graceful young African American woman emerges from the ruins of a crumbling building. She disrobes, and...
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TWN acknowledges that in New York we are on the unceded territory of the Lenni Lenape,
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