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Received from Pacho Lane in 2004.
Pacho Lane films, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Production film materials for TREE OF LIFE (2 versions
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or Anthropology Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Titles are supplied by the archivist for untitled films.
Edited film by Pacho (Bruce) Lane documents preparations and performance of "Los Voladores" (men who are suspended from and "fly around" a tall pole made from a selected tree in the nearby forests), a 1500 year old ritual performed by the Totonac Indians of eastern Mexico that lies at the spiritual heart of Mexico. Sacred to Quetzalcoatl, the ritual is at the spiritual heart of Mexico and combines Mexican Indian dance, music, poetry (from the "Cantares Mexicanos, a collection of pre-hispanic Nahuatl verse from Texcoco) and art in a meditation on our place in nature, on how to keep the world in balance by our lives. Originally filmed in 1973? in Huehuetla in Sierra Norte de Pueblo in the Nuasteca region of Mexico.
HSFA 2004.14.1
Edited film by Pacho (Bruce) Lane documents preparations and performance of "Los Voladores" (men who are suspended from and "fly around" a tall pole made from a selected tree in the nearby forests), a 1500 year old ritual performed by the Totonac Indians of eastern Mexico that lies at the spiritual heart of Mexico. Sacred to Quetzalcoatl, the ritual is at the spiritual heart of Mexico and combines Mexican Indian dance, music, poetry (from the "Cantares Mexicanos, a collection of pre-hispanic Nahuatl verse from Texcoco) and art in a meditation on our place in nature, on how to keep the world in balance by our lives. Originally filmed in 1973? in Huehuetla in Sierra Norte de Pueblo in the Nuasteca region of Mexico.
HSFA 2004.14.1
Edited film by Pacho (Bruce) Lane focuses on the Totonac Indian community in Huehuetla, Puebla, in eastern central Mexico and contrasts two systems of education. The public school system uses patriotic symbols to "integrate" Indian pupils into the national culture while teaching them to reject their own identity. In contrast, the Danza de los Huehues urges young Totonacs to learn from the mestizos ("whites"), yet warns them not to abandon their own culture. Originally filmed in 197X[?]
HSFA 2004.14.3
Edited film by Pacho (Bruce) Lane documents Mexican-American "danzantes" travelling to Chalma, Central Texas, and San Diego, California, where they rediscover their indigenous heritage. The "danzantes" are adherents of "La danza de la conquista del Gran Tenochtitlan," also known as "Los concheros," "Danza Azteca," and "Danza Chichimeca," a dance tradition that traces its origins to pre-Columbian Nahua ("Aztec") roots
HSFA 2004.14.4
Edited film shot in Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, Spinbuldak, and the Afghan countryside in 1987, is a look at the "other" side of the war in Afghanistan - the Communist government and its supporters. Film includes interviews with Afghans, predominantly pro-government, describing the issues, events and conditions typifying the nine-year-old civil war. Hopes are expressed for the government's program of national reconciliation, with some compromises to be made between the modernist, pro-Soviet adherents and the predominantly tribal Islamic traditionalists.
HSFA 2004.14.5
Edited film examines the Afghan civil war through interviews with Russian military men who outline their perceptions of their mission in Afghanistan and the legitimacy of their presence; they describe the conditions and dangers of duty and characterize the nature of the Afghan rebels. Moscow civilians, including the bereaved parents of sons lost in battle, express their feelings about the Russian military intervention in Afganistan.
HSFA 2004.14.6