“The New Yorker Documentary: Remote Festival Series” kicks off online Wednesday at 9 a.m/12 p.m. Et with a glimpse inside the world of nail technicians.
The special, short-run program will showcase a new film online each week through the summer and is part of the ongoing “New Yorker Documentary” series. The festival features renowned filmmakers will open with Crystal Kayiza’s “See You Next Time,” which examines the relationships between nail artists and their clients.
Here are the other artists’ works to be featured weekly through the summer:
“Raising Baby Grey,” directed by Alex Mallis “Flower Punk,” directed by Alison Klayman “The Pause: A Brief Contemplation of Scott’s Infertility,” directed by Richard Yeagley “Betrayal,” directed by Scott Calonico “USA v. Scott,” directed by Ora DeKornfeld and Isabel Castro “On Falling,” directed by Josephine Anderson “Allan & Suzi,” directed by Smriti Keshari “Woody’s Order!” directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A.
The special, short-run program will showcase a new film online each week through the summer and is part of the ongoing “New Yorker Documentary” series. The festival features renowned filmmakers will open with Crystal Kayiza’s “See You Next Time,” which examines the relationships between nail artists and their clients.
Here are the other artists’ works to be featured weekly through the summer:
“Raising Baby Grey,” directed by Alex Mallis “Flower Punk,” directed by Alison Klayman “The Pause: A Brief Contemplation of Scott’s Infertility,” directed by Richard Yeagley “Betrayal,” directed by Scott Calonico “USA v. Scott,” directed by Ora DeKornfeld and Isabel Castro “On Falling,” directed by Josephine Anderson “Allan & Suzi,” directed by Smriti Keshari “Woody’s Order!” directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A.
- 6/17/2020
- by Lindsey Ellefson
- The Wrap
"For Team Israel, it's a chance for the underdog to get a crack at the big dog." We are proud to exclusively debut the official trailer for an award-winning documentary titled Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel, made by filmmakers Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger. This uplifting, moving, intimate sports documentary tells the inspiring story of a team of nice Jewish baseball players who take on the world. Some of them are actual players from the Mlb who join the national team to compete. After years of defeat, Team Israel is finally ranked among the world's best in 2017, eligible to compete in the prestigious international tournament - the World Baseball Classic. The film won Best Documentary at a few Jewish Film Festivals this year, and is ready for release this August. My favorite part about their team is the "Mensch on the Bench" mascot, and the...
- 6/18/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Ever wanted to follow in the footsteps of beloved anthropologist Margaret Mead? Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger’s award-winning documentary “The Anthropologist” does just that. The film follows American teen Katie Crate who, along with her anthropologist mother Susie, spends five years studying the impact of climate change on indigenous communities. Along the way, their incredible journey parallels Mead’s, who spent decades of her professional career seeking to understand how global change affects remote cultures.
Watch: The Legacy of Environmentalism Comes Alive in Exclusive ‘The Anthropologist’ Trailer
The film had its world premiere at Doc NYC last November as a co-presentation with the American Museum of Natural History. The film then went on to be selected by more than 30 film festivals, including Cleveland, Dallas, IFFBoston, St. Louis, and San Francisco Green. It was also invited by the United Nations to show at the COP21 Paris Climate...
Watch: The Legacy of Environmentalism Comes Alive in Exclusive ‘The Anthropologist’ Trailer
The film had its world premiere at Doc NYC last November as a co-presentation with the American Museum of Natural History. The film then went on to be selected by more than 30 film festivals, including Cleveland, Dallas, IFFBoston, St. Louis, and San Francisco Green. It was also invited by the United Nations to show at the COP21 Paris Climate...
- 11/10/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
The official Doc NYC selection "The Anthropologist" promises a new look on climate change through the eyes of 13-year-old Virginia native Kate Yegorov-Crate and her mother, notable anthropologist Susie Crate. Directors Seth Kramer, Daniel A Miller and Jeremy Newberger follow the two as they study the effects of climate change on indigenous communities. Read More: 10 Must-See Documentaries at Doc NYC 2015 Providing insight on the Crates' findings is Mary Catherine Bateson, daughter of groundbreaking anthropologist Margaret Mead. Filmed over the course of five years, the Crates work with people as far away as Siberia and as close to home as Chesapeake Bay to discover the effects of climate change across a variety of landscapes. "The Anthropologist" will premiere at Doc NYC on November 13. Watch the exclusive trailer above. Read More: Doc NYC Announces Full 2015 Lineup...
- 11/12/2015
- by Aubrey Page
- Indiewire
It’s been a couple months since the last edition of What’s Up Doc? placed Michael Moore’s surprise world premiere of Where To Invade Next at the top of this list and in the meantime much shuffling has taken place and much time has been spent on various new endeavors (namely my Buffalo-based film series, Cultivate Cinema Circle). Finally taking its rightful place at the top, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hagedus’ Unlocking the Cage is in the midst of being scored by composer James Lavino, according to Lavino’s own personal site. Though the project has been taking shape at its own leisurely pace, I’d expect to see the film making its festival debut in early 2016.
Right behind, the American direct cinema masters is a Texan soon to make his non-fiction debut with Voyage of Time. Just two weeks ago indieWIRE reported that Ennio Morricone, who scored...
Right behind, the American direct cinema masters is a Texan soon to make his non-fiction debut with Voyage of Time. Just two weeks ago indieWIRE reported that Ennio Morricone, who scored...
- 11/5/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Update, 8:20 Am: CNN just announced it has pushed the premiere date for Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie to Thursday, August 20. It will air at 9 Pm and 11 Pm Et. Previous, July 9, Am: CNN Films has acquired the exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie and has set its TV premiere for August 13 at 9 Pm Et on CNN. Produced and directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger of Ironbound Films, the Evocateur documents the…...
- 7/31/2015
- Deadline TV
Update, 8:20 Am: CNN just announced it has pushed the premiere date for Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie to Thursday, August 20. It will air at 9 Pm and 11 Pm Et. Previous, July 9, Am: CNN Films has acquired the exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie and has set its TV premiere for August 13 at 9 Pm Et on CNN. Produced and directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger of Ironbound Films, the Evocateur documents the…...
- 7/31/2015
- Deadline
Chicago – The biggest column yet on What to Watch on DVD, Blu-ray, Netflix, Amazon, On Demand, and more is another seemingly random hodge-podge of offerings that you can use to guide your way through the new releases shelf at Best Buy, the On Demand section on Vudu, the store on iTunes, and maybe even Netflix and Hulu. Pick your favorites. This is the way we’d rank these new releases if you have a free night this weekend or money to burn next week.
Parks and Recreation
Photo credit: Universal
“Parks and Recreation: Season Five”
The funniest show on network television. Seriously, it’s not even close. I love “Enlightened,” “Girls,” “Louie,” and even the FX bad boys of shows like “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “Legit” but there’s nothing left on network TV to compare to this brilliant program now that “30 Rock” is gone. There are good comedies,...
Parks and Recreation
Photo credit: Universal
“Parks and Recreation: Season Five”
The funniest show on network television. Seriously, it’s not even close. I love “Enlightened,” “Girls,” “Louie,” and even the FX bad boys of shows like “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “Legit” but there’s nothing left on network TV to compare to this brilliant program now that “30 Rock” is gone. There are good comedies,...
- 9/6/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie" co-directors Jeremy Newberger, Seth Kramer and Daniel A. Miller took to Reddit this afternoon to answer questions about the doc, which was released by Magnolia Pictures on June 7 and chronicles the rise and fall of the controversial TV tall show host. More than 6,500 Reddit users showed up for the Ama, reddit's Ask Me Anything platform, and many posed questions to the filmmakers. "Was he related at all to Robert Downey Jr. Or is the connection purely coincidental?" one fan asked. The directors joked that this was "perhaps the most-oft-asked question about Morton Downey Jr. of all time… we finally reveal: Morton Downey Jr. was Robert Downey Jr.'s father! Kidding. No relation." When I asked the filmmakers what Downey Jr. would have made of the movie, they said, "He would have loved the movie, but perhaps pretended he hated it." The filmmakers also suggested that Downey Jr.
- 7/9/2013
- by Paula Bernstein
- Indiewire
When he was a teenager in Edison, N.J., Daniel Miller’s friends used to pile into cars and go to tapings of the incendiary “Morton Downey Jr. Show,” reporting back on developments “to our utter glee.” Miller never went himself, but he was a regular viewer of the seminal trash-tv talk show host and now he and friends Seth Kramer and Jeremy Newberger have directed “Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie,” which charts the stratospheric rise and precipitous fall of one of television’s most controversial, and possibly influential, figures.One of the more shocking things you learn -- or are reminded -- is that Downey was only on the air for about two years, 1987-89, during which he turned his studio into the intellectual equivalent of the Roman Colosseum.“That seems to be a common response,” Miller said. “But it seems that he tattooed himself on people’s brains.
- 6/7/2013
- by John Anderson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The chain-smoking, chopper-mouthed, right-wing eighties-talk-show blowhard Morton Downey Jr. is the subject of the documentary Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie, which deftly chronicles (with period footage, interviews, and hilarious gonzo animation) his tortured life. Directors Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger depict Downey as a man with serious daddy issues. His father was a hugely popular Irish tenor, his mother — one of cinema’s famed Bennett sisters — exiled early from the family manse (and apparently into alcoholism). Sons with an obsession to best their dads are trouble. In worst-case scenarios, they get us into cataclysmic wars in places like Iraq. Downey, once a Kennedy loyalist, tried singing, but his voice was buffalo-abysmal. He found a more powerful voice on Channel 9 in Secaucus.The show owed much to an earlier one by Joe Pyne, but Downey turned his red-meat act into a Theater of Cruelty. Footage of...
- 6/7/2013
- by David Edelstein
- Vulture
Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger's film opens in theaters and on VOD from June 7th via Magnolia Pictures and we have both the red band and green band versions of the movie's trailer up below. The film is produced by Seth Kramer, Newberg and Miller. Before entire networks were built on populist personalities; before reality morphed into a TV genre; the masses fixated on a single, sociopathic star: controversial talk-show host Morton Downey, Jr. In the late ‘80s, Downey tore apart the traditional talk format by turning debate of current issues into a gladiator pit. His blow-smoke-in-your-face style drew a rabid cult following, but also the title “Father of Trash Television.” Was his show a platform for the working man or an incubator for Snooki and The Situation? Ironbound Films’ Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie dissects the mind and motivation of television’s most notorious agitator.
- 6/4/2013
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Watch: Meet the "Father of Trash Television" in Trailer for 'Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie'
Before the airwaves were built around the faces of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, Morton Downey Jr. was an anomaly in the world of televised news. Throughout the 1980s he was one of the most notorious faces on television, pioneering the reactionary agitator image that can now be seen on almost every popular cable news station. Now, the documentary "Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie," co-directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger, aims to re-introduce viewers to one of television's most infamous figures. Ahead of its upcoming theatrical release, a trailer has landed for the Magnolia Pictures film. "Évocateur" had its world premiere at last year's Tribeca Film Festival where it received largely positive reviews. The film tracks Downey through his confrontational rise, eventually gaining the title of the "Father of Trash television," and his eventual downfall on the talk show scene. The film will be released...
- 4/10/2013
- by Cameron Sinz
- Indiewire
Catch the first poster Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie, produced and directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger. The film will be available on iTunes/On-Demand as well as in theaters from June 7th, 2013 via Magnolia Pictures, and stars Morton Downey Jr. The film is rated R. The film will be available on iTunes/On-Demand as well as in theaters from June 7th, 2013, and stars Morton Downey Jr. The film is rated R. Before entire networks were built on populist personalities; before reality morphed into a TV genre; the masses fixated on a single, sociopathic star: controversial talk-show host Morton Downey, Jr. In the late ‘80s, Downey tore apart the traditional talk format by turning debate of current issues into a gladiator pit. His blow-smoke-in-your-face style drew a rabid cult following, but also the title “Father of Trash Television.” Was his show a platform for the...
- 4/3/2013
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Catch the first poster Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie, produced and directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger. The film will be available on iTunes/On-Demand as well as in theaters from June 7th, 2013 via Magnolia Pictures, and stars Morton Downey Jr. The film is rated R. The film will be available on iTunes/On-Demand as well as in theaters from June 7th, 2013, and stars Morton Downey Jr. The film is rated R. Before entire networks were built on populist personalities; before reality morphed into a TV genre; the masses fixated on a single, sociopathic star: controversial talk-show host Morton Downey, Jr. In the late ‘80s, Downey tore apart the traditional talk format by turning debate of current issues into a gladiator pit. His blow-smoke-in-your-face style drew a rabid cult following, but also the title “Father of Trash Television.” Was his show a platform for the...
- 4/3/2013
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to the documentary “Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie,” directed by Ironbound Films’ Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April and will receive an early 2013 theatrical release. The film tracks Downey’s impact on the talk show scene beginning in the late 1980’s when he brought a brash, confrontational style that earned him the title “Father of Trash Television." “‘Évocateur’ is an incredibly entertaining documentary,” said Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles. “While we tend to think that everything has gotten so extreme in this age of reality television, it’s shocking to see how ‘The Morton Downey Jr. Show’ makes everything today pale in comparison. The filmmakers have done a great job capturing that.” Magnolia exec Dori Begley...
- 6/12/2012
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- Indiewire
At 85, Tony Bennett looks and sounds great. In The Zen of Bennett, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and will soon appear on Netflix, Bennett relies on a single word, repeated over and over throughout the documentary, to describe his life philosophy. That word is “quality.” For the clothes he wears, for the songs he sings, for the people who are his friends, for everything, quality is his guiding principle. Conversely, the elderly singer with the smoothest pipes in the business, disparages cheap songs, crude and outlandish behavior, and anger. “Everything you do should be done with love, not with anger.”
Going from Tony Bennett in The Zen of Bennett to Morton Downey, Jr. in Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie is like going from a soothing, relaxed discussion in a cinematic sauna to being manhandled out of that sauna and confronted by a raving maniac aiming a flamethrower at your cojones.
Going from Tony Bennett in The Zen of Bennett to Morton Downey, Jr. in Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie is like going from a soothing, relaxed discussion in a cinematic sauna to being manhandled out of that sauna and confronted by a raving maniac aiming a flamethrower at your cojones.
- 4/30/2012
- by Stewart Nusbaumer
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Tribeca: Tell us about Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie. How do you describe Morton Downey Jr. to people not familiar with him? Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy Newberger: Morton Downey, Jr., was argumentative, divisive, violent - arguably the most controversial talk-show host in the history of television. Think Fox News meets the Saw franchise. Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie examines Mort's mind, motivation, and legacy. Tribeca: What inspired you to tell this story? It clearly seems like a labor of love and passion. Were you fans from way back? Kramer/Miller/Newberger: The three directors of Évocateur - Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger of Ironbound Films - came of age in the suburbs of New Jersey and Long Island. Watching, discussing, and attending The Morton Downey Jr. Show was our Facebook. Jeremy even played Morton Downey Jr. Show dress-up with his high school friends.
- 3/17/2012
- TribecaFilm.com
A new big batch of films have been added to the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival line-up, and while there aren't a lot of big premieres in the bunch, there's a lot to catch up with for those of you (and us) who didn't attend Tiff 2011, Sundance 2012, etc. etc.
Highlights for us include Sarah Polley's sophomore directorial effort "Take This Waltz," starring Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams, Julie Delpy's "2 Days In New York," starring herself and Chris Rock in a sequel to "2 Days in Paris," Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's "Chicken With Plums," their directorial follow-up to the very excellent 2007 animated film "Persepolis," Lynn Shelton's "Your Sister's Sister" starring Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt and Mark Duplass, and "Lola Versus," Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister Jones' follow-up to the celebrated 2009 micro-budgeted indie "Breaking Upwards" starring Lister Jones herself alongside Greta Gerwig, Joel Kinnaman (AMC's "The Killing," the new "RoboCop"), Bill Pullman,...
Highlights for us include Sarah Polley's sophomore directorial effort "Take This Waltz," starring Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams, Julie Delpy's "2 Days In New York," starring herself and Chris Rock in a sequel to "2 Days in Paris," Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's "Chicken With Plums," their directorial follow-up to the very excellent 2007 animated film "Persepolis," Lynn Shelton's "Your Sister's Sister" starring Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt and Mark Duplass, and "Lola Versus," Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister Jones' follow-up to the celebrated 2009 micro-budgeted indie "Breaking Upwards" starring Lister Jones herself alongside Greta Gerwig, Joel Kinnaman (AMC's "The Killing," the new "RoboCop"), Bill Pullman,...
- 3/8/2012
- by The Playlist
- The Playlist
The Tribeca Film Festival announced its Spotlight and Cinemania programs today, including Morgan Spurlock’s latest documentary, Mansome, period drama Cheerful Weather for the Wedding with Like Crazy’s Felicity Jones (right), and Struck By Lightning, written by Glee’s Chris Colfer. “It was important that we head into Tribeca’s second decade highlighting projects that were attuned to the pulse of our cultural climate,” said director of programming Genna Terranova, in a release. “That said, both consciousness and levity play a prominent role in this year’s selection. We are also eager to introduce audiences to a group of...
- 3/8/2012
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
"The Office" star Rainn Wilson is lending to his voice talents to a new documentary, "The New Recruits," from the creators of the award-winning doc "The Linguists." But the new company Wilson will be narrating for is nothing like Dunder Mifflin.
"The New Recruits" follows a group of business students who think of a new way to end global poverty: charge poor people for basic services. The students hit Kenya, Pakistan, and India to charge people for toilet service and drip irrigation in a movement touted "the alternative to charity."
"We are elated to have Rainn lend his comic sensibility and universally recognizable voice to 'The New Recruits'," said Jeremy Newberger, who along with Seth Kramer and Daniel A. Miller, is one of the three directors of the film. "Viewers will relish engaging 'The New Recruits' with Rainn as storyteller."
"I'm thrilled to be doing narration...
"The New Recruits" follows a group of business students who think of a new way to end global poverty: charge poor people for basic services. The students hit Kenya, Pakistan, and India to charge people for toilet service and drip irrigation in a movement touted "the alternative to charity."
"We are elated to have Rainn lend his comic sensibility and universally recognizable voice to 'The New Recruits'," said Jeremy Newberger, who along with Seth Kramer and Daniel A. Miller, is one of the three directors of the film. "Viewers will relish engaging 'The New Recruits' with Rainn as storyteller."
"I'm thrilled to be doing narration...
- 11/5/2009
- icelebz.com
Technology and overpopulation have helped shrink the world's languages at an alarming rate, and there are a handful of people who are diligently trying to record and save some of the more remote, arcane spoken languages left in the world. Babelgum.com will air a film that follows two acclaimed scientists on a race against time to document the world's vanishing languages Independent Web TV service Babelgum announced today that it has acquired the exclusive worldwide Internet and mobile rights to the feature documentary The Linguists. Screened in the Documentary Spotlight Program at the Sundance Film Festival, the film will premiere on Babelgum on April 20th, 2009. The Linguists, directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and...
- 4/2/2009
- by April MacIntyre
- Monsters and Critics
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- Indiana Jones' spirit certainly infects the intrepid heroes of "The Linguists". These are bold academics who plunge into the jungles and backwater villages of the world to rescue living tongues about to go extinct.
There are more than 7,000 languages spoken in the world. Yet we lose a language every two weeks thanks to colonialization, globalization and indifference.
David Harrison and Gregory Anderson are scientists in a race against time. They trek deep into sometimes dangerous territories to record nearly dead languages, a thing that is at the heart of culture and knowledge.
Clocking in at a little more than an hour, director-producers Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy S. Newberger's "Linguists" watches three of these fascinating and at times treacherous linguistic expeditions. The film should perform marvelously on television once it completes a festival run that begins at Sundance.
In Siberia, the linguists search fruitlessly for speakers of the Chulym language only to discover their driver, who at first won't admit he speaks Chulym, is fluent. This speaks volumes of a tyrannical Soviet regime that tried to suppress much of native culture and languages.
In the Indian state of Orissa, tribal children attend boarding schools where they learn Hindi and English. This is practical, of course, but a disaster for native languages.
In Bolivia, the men seek the less than 100 speakers of Kallawaya language in the Andes, a language tied into the rituals and practices of medicine and not a language learned as a child. They also find themselves in a sticky situation when they botch an act of gift-giving.
The film has a perhaps unintended subtext of cultural misunderstandings where well-meaning but sometimes impatient and naive Westerners confront ways of thinking and behaving totally antithetical to their own. For instance, when Harrison insists on spending a night in a remote Indian village where bandits lurk, he not only endangers himself but also embarrasses his disapproving middle-class Indian hosts. Yet guileless bravery and full-throttle enthusiasm see the linguists through these scrapes.
Jumping from one expedition to another while throwing in an excursion to an American Indian reservation in Arizona causes the viewer to lose the thread of the individual quests. But this does help identify patterns in language disuse and subsequent extinction. The film certainly makes a compelling case for this particular kind of academic derring-do.
THE LINGUISTS
Ironbound Films
Credits:
Director-producers: Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy S. Newberger
Writer: Daniel Miller
Director of photography: Seth Kramer, Jeremy S. Newberger
Music: Brian Hawlk
Editors: Seth Kramer, Anne Barliant
Running time -- 64 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- Indiana Jones' spirit certainly infects the intrepid heroes of "The Linguists". These are bold academics who plunge into the jungles and backwater villages of the world to rescue living tongues about to go extinct.
There are more than 7,000 languages spoken in the world. Yet we lose a language every two weeks thanks to colonialization, globalization and indifference.
David Harrison and Gregory Anderson are scientists in a race against time. They trek deep into sometimes dangerous territories to record nearly dead languages, a thing that is at the heart of culture and knowledge.
Clocking in at a little more than an hour, director-producers Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy S. Newberger's "Linguists" watches three of these fascinating and at times treacherous linguistic expeditions. The film should perform marvelously on television once it completes a festival run that begins at Sundance.
In Siberia, the linguists search fruitlessly for speakers of the Chulym language only to discover their driver, who at first won't admit he speaks Chulym, is fluent. This speaks volumes of a tyrannical Soviet regime that tried to suppress much of native culture and languages.
In the Indian state of Orissa, tribal children attend boarding schools where they learn Hindi and English. This is practical, of course, but a disaster for native languages.
In Bolivia, the men seek the less than 100 speakers of Kallawaya language in the Andes, a language tied into the rituals and practices of medicine and not a language learned as a child. They also find themselves in a sticky situation when they botch an act of gift-giving.
The film has a perhaps unintended subtext of cultural misunderstandings where well-meaning but sometimes impatient and naive Westerners confront ways of thinking and behaving totally antithetical to their own. For instance, when Harrison insists on spending a night in a remote Indian village where bandits lurk, he not only endangers himself but also embarrasses his disapproving middle-class Indian hosts. Yet guileless bravery and full-throttle enthusiasm see the linguists through these scrapes.
Jumping from one expedition to another while throwing in an excursion to an American Indian reservation in Arizona causes the viewer to lose the thread of the individual quests. But this does help identify patterns in language disuse and subsequent extinction. The film certainly makes a compelling case for this particular kind of academic derring-do.
THE LINGUISTS
Ironbound Films
Credits:
Director-producers: Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy S. Newberger
Writer: Daniel Miller
Director of photography: Seth Kramer, Jeremy S. Newberger
Music: Brian Hawlk
Editors: Seth Kramer, Anne Barliant
Running time -- 64 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/18/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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