Director Aleksandra Maciuszek received the Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award at the 2016 Mead Awards Ceremony on Sunday, October 16, for her film Casa Blanca, about a young Cuban man with Down syndrome who grapples with new responsibilities when his mother falls ill. Maciuszek was selected from among eleven contenders by a jury that included the co-founder and executive director of Cinema Tropical Carlos A. Gutiérrez; Citizenfour director and cinematographer Kirsten Johnson; Carolyn Rouse, cultural anthropologist at Princeton; director of programming for DOC NYC Basil Tsiokos; and MIT anthropologist Christine Walley.
“The jury celebrates the delicate and bold rigor of its depiction of the complex individuality of relationships.” said juror Carlos A. Gutiérrez.
Casa Blanca focuses on Nelsa and her son, Vladimir, who has Down syndrome, living together in a multifamily home in Cuba. When Nelsa falls ill, Vladimir is forced to assume adult responsibilities for the first time, struggling with the challenges and ultimately finding fulfillment in everyday caretaking.
The jury also gave a Margaret Mead Film Festival Special Mention to Jessie Deeter for A Revolution in Four Seasons. Two women, secular journalist Emna Ben Jemaa and Islamist politician Jawhara Ettis, publicly envision two different dreams for the shape of democracy in Tunisia in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. This timely and insightful documentary tells their stories, illuminating their conflicting visions for their nation and the common obstacles they face as outspoken women in their society.
“A Revolution in Four Seasons offers viewers an extraordinary glimpse into the lives of two politically active Tunisian women following the Jasmine Revolution. By focusing on two equally powerful, liberated, and smart women the film challenges commonly held misperceptions about gender in Islam and politics and culture in the Middle East. For the jury, A Revolution in Four Seasons reminds us of Margaret Mead’s mission as a public intellectual to use anthropological research as a way to disarm American preconceptions about themselves and others,” said juror Kirsten Johnson.
In addition to Maciuszek and Deeter, the 2016 eligible candidates for the Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award included Pietra Brettkelly for A Flickering Truth; Simon Brook for A Different American Dream; Yan Chun Su for Drokpa; Christine Cynn for Shooting Ourselves: Susan Gluth for Urmila: My Memory is My Power; Marco Antonio Goncalves and EliskaAltmann for Under the Clouds (Das Nuvens Pra Baixo); Janet Merewether for Reindeer in My Saami Heart; Aaron Petersen for Zach’s Ceremony; Klára Trencsényi for Train to Adulthood; and Adriana Vila Guevara for Belén.
The Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award recognizes documentary filmmakers who embody the spirit, energy, and innovation demonstrated by anthropologist Margaret Mead in her research, fieldwork, films, and writings. The award is given to a filmmaker whose feature documentary offers a new perspective on a culture or community while displaying artistic excellence and originality in storytelling. Eligible filmmakers must present a U.S. premiere at the Margaret Mead Film Festival.
The Margaret Mead Film Festival—the showcase for contemporary cultural storytelling and conversation in the unique setting of the American Museum of Natural History—screened 44 outstanding films from 50 countries in 2016 and hosted special events and performances. This year’s festival featured including 10 feature-length U.S. premieres, two North American premieres, and one world premiere. It focused on the theme “Re:Frame,” celebrating stories that offer opportunities to see the world anew. This year the Museum honored the legacy of Margaret Mead whose groundbreaking work in anthropology revealed how our own values and points of view inevitably frame our encounters with other cultures. The number of provocative films that premiered at Mead this year illustrates what people are discussing this election year, whether it’s women’s rights, climate change altering landscapes and livelihoods, walls separating families, fracking and the fossil fuel industry, and supplying weapons to a world in conflict.
Support
The Margaret Mead Film Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Consulate General of Argentina in New York
Australian Consulate-General New York
Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany New York
Mexican Cultural Institute New York
Trade Commission of Peru in New York
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History, founded in 1869, is one of the world’s preeminent scientific, educational, and cultural institutions. The Museum encompasses 45 permanent exhibition halls, including the Rose Center for Earth and Space and the Hayden Planetarium, as well as galleries for temporary exhibitions. It is home to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial, New York State’s official memorial to its 33rd governor and the nation’s 26th president, and a tribute to Roosevelt’s enduring legacy of conservation. The Museum’s five active research divisions and three cross-disciplinary centers support approximately 200 scientists, whose work draws on a world-class permanent collection of more than 33 million specimens and artifacts, as well as specialized collections for frozen tissue and genomic and astrophysical data, and one of the largest natural history libraries in the world. Through its Richard Gilder Graduate School, it is the only American museum authorized to grant the Ph.D. degree and the Master of Arts in Teaching degree. Annual attendance has grown to approximately 5 million, and the Museum’s exhibitions and Space Shows can be seen in venues on five continents. The Museum’s website and collection of apps for mobile devices extend its collections, exhibitions, and educational programs to millions more beyond its walls. Visit amnh.org for more information.