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2 weeks ago
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1 month ago
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2 months ago
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 We watched this film with excitement and fascination because we are soon leaving to live in Yunnan Province (where I can still watch Jaman films). Th ... | We watched this film with excitement and fascination because we are soon leaving to live in Yunnan Province (where I can still watch Jaman films). This amazing documentary is told by the voices of people who live on the historic tea-horse road - a still active trade route into Burma, India and Tibet from Yunnan Province. The route is often just a narrow ledge blasted out of a gorge. The route, as also for the more well-known Silk Road (from Western China to Europe), traverses a variety of ethnic groups. The director, Tian Zhuangzhuang, uses interviews with fragile elders( one woman is over 100 years old), middle aged and young people who work and live along the route. Interviews convey the best kind of history - that of people talking about living their lives during various periods of Chinese 20th century history. We hear of several generations of Catholics, growing out of the work of a French missionary, now meeting in a bare wood structure, singing Christian hymns in their local language with a evocative harmony. A shy Buddhist lama is pressed by the interviewer to talk about his loneliness. A lovely teacher discusses the consequences of living in a remote village on her prospects for marriage, and her high ideals for a mate. A woman describes the pain of separation from her small children during the Cultural Revolution. We view a man crying over an accident in which his mule dies, and explaining how much his mules mean to him and his family. Because the entire documentary is narrated by people living along the Tea - Horse route, I had many questions when it ended: why were these caravans traveling? What were they carrying? Where exactly is this route? I found the answers by Googling. http://www.tuochatea.com/ancient_tea_horse_road.htm It turns out they were carrying Pu-erh Tea, salt and sugar from Yunnan into Tibet, Laos, Myannmar, Nepal and India. I suppose the "why" is because there are no roads through this formidable landscape and people needed to trade. People in the villages speak of increasing (presumably trekking) tourism - so if you want to fantasize about a wild and fascinating trek to a place mostly as it was for thousands of years - see this documentary. Or you could just drink some Pu-erh Tea. |
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10 months ago
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 Children narrate this well-done short documentary about an after school program in Jamaica Plain, Mass called Art@Night. The relaxed, pleasant appeara ... | Children narrate this well-done short documentary about an after school program in Jamaica Plain, Mass called Art@Night. The relaxed, pleasant appearance of the children showed that the program was effective in teaching them self expression. I learned about abstract art in many modalities: storytelling with sand paintings, music from ordinary objects, painting with light in photos, using words poetically. I watched and listened to teaching and as they demonstrated and explained what they learned. The documentary techniques of collage, varied pacing with music unfolding information, and process/product unveiling also taught me about visual explanation. Watch this for a delightful visual, auditory and intellectual interlude. |
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11 months ago
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12 months ago
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12 months ago
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12 months ago
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1 year ago
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1 year ago
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