In the center of Mexico, in the center of Lake Patzcuaro, lies the island of Janitzio. For centuries the stronghold of Tarascan Indian culture, its inaccessibility has served well to protect their cherished traditions. Here, in the fall of 1981, came Bob Freimark, professor of Art and Chicano Studies at San Jose State, and Warren Haack, filmmaker, to capture the spirit and meaning of Dia de los Muertos - Day of the Dead - before its significance is diminished by oncoming tourism and so-called progress.
This 27-minute color film focuses on the making of folk art for ofrendas, the preparation of grave sites, as well as the history of the "Day of the Dead." It is a perfect teaching aid to stimulate interest and is well-researched concerning the many aspects of this important holiday and tradition.
1982, 16mm, color/so, 27m, $70
INTRUSION attempts to deal, in an allegorical sense, with Man's inhumanity to his fellow-man. Achieving this through symbolism, the film takes place in the re-telling of a very old story. Throughout time, man has had insensitive feelings towards his fellow human beings. I chose to represent this insensitivity by covering the people in the film with mud. I used music electronic in nature, and made loops of it, to further the machine-like movements of the clay people. They start out blind, and end blind; their only function in our world being that of getting rid of intruders so they can get back to their state of "internal harmony."
16mm, b&w/so, 8m, $25
"Our intellect has created a new world that dominates nature, and has populated it with monstrous machines. The latter are so indubitably useful that we cannot see even a possibility of getting rid of them or our subservience to them. Man is bound to follow the adventurous promptings of his scientific and inventive mind and to admire himself for his splendid achievements. At the same time, his genius shows the uncanny tendency to invent things that become more and more dangerous, because they represent better and better means for wholesale suicide. In spite of our proud domination of nature, we are still her victims, for we have not even learned to control our own nature. Slowly, but, it appears, inevitably, we are courting disaster." - Carl Jung
16mm, b&w/color/so, 9m, $25
Since 1956, the United States had been involved in a ground war in Asia. The American commitment had led to an ever increasing involvement in that area of the world - despite growing dissatisfaction here at home. To implement this country's mobilization, the draft system had been stepped up. This system made virtually no exemptions for those who felt this war was immoral and unjust. These young men either had to serve in a war in which they did not believe, or face the bleak alternatives to service. Some chose prison. Some sought refuge in other countries. This film documents another alternative. There was no attempt to alter the proceedings that took place.
Awards: First Prize, Documentary, Fifth National Student Film Festival, NY, 1970; Premiere at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; First Prize, Documentary, Foothill Film Festival, 1970; First Prize, Documentary, Ann Arbor Film Festival, 1971.
1970, 16mm, color/so, 13m, $40