The Margaret Mead Film Festival turns 40 this year, opening tomorrow, Thursday, October 13 with Jessie Deeter’s A REVOLUTION IN FOUR SEASONS, which follows the paths of two notable women in the aftermath of Tunisia’s Arab Spring. The event, a program of the American Museum of Natural History, will showcase approximately 30 nonfiction features before it wraps on Sunday, October 16. The following offers additional highlights.
Making its world premiere at the festival is Yan Chun Su’s DROKPA (pictured), a portrait of Tibetan nomads; while Thor Anderson’s women-focused ZAPATISTA CHRONICLE appears as a work-in-progress. US premieres include: Aleksandra Maciuszek’s CASA BLANCA, which profiles a Cuban man with Down syndrome who cares for his ailing mother; Steven Feld and Anyaa Arts Kollektif’s JC ABBEY, GHANA’S PUPPETEER, about a unique entertainer and storyteller; and Christine Cynn’s SHOOTING OURSELVES, which employs multiple perspectives to reveal the global arms trade and its consequences.
Among the films making their first appearance in NYC are: Max Lewkowicz’s UNDERFIRE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF PFC TONY VACCARO (pictured), about powerful photos captured by a soldier during WWII; Corina Gamma’s SILA AND THE GATEKEEPERS OF THE ARCTIC, about climate change’s impact on an Inuit community in Greenland; Idriss Gabel’s KOLWEZI ON AIR, on the efforts of independent television journalists to expose injustice in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Hilary Linder’s INDIVISIBLE, a look at the impact of immigration policies on children.
what (not) to doc 