Between August 6 and 27, 2003, over 50 hours of tape were recorded at the shows and in interviews described below. We are now beginning the editing phase.
Although it would be an ambitious claim that such a vast subject could ever be covered comprehensively in one movie, the filmmakers have used their extensive knowledge and contacts to ensure that the result will be an informative documentary on Indian arts, able to serve as a standard for schools, Indian arts classes, tourists, collectors and the general public.
Footage taken at the 82nd Annual Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, and the Union of the Masters show, both in Gallup; the Whitehawk Antique Indian Art show in Santa Fe and the 81st Annual Santa Fe Indian Market will be combined to give a very wide range of experience for the viewer.
Art forms include silver and gold jewelry, rugs and blankets, pottery, baskets, sculpture, festish carving, painting, beadwork, mixed media and artifacts. A sampling of artist interviews includes: Raymond C. Yazzie and Lyndon Tsosie, modern jewelers, stone sculptor Tim Washburn, weavers Nanaba Aragon, Colina Yazzie and Caroline Sales, beadworkers Jamie Okuma and Dina One Heart Gilio, basket-maker Ronnie-Leigh Goeman, painters David K. John and Anderson Kee, Northwest glass sculptor Melvin Oliver, and prize-winning youth artists Jason Benally and Paris Bread, among others.
Twenty experts displayed for us fine antique American Indian art and explained contemporary Indian arts and crafts in historical context. These included Joe Tanner, whose family name has been synonomous with the Indian arts trade in the Southwest for a century, Bill Malone, manager of the Hubbell Trading Post National Park, the original late nineteenth century trading post, and Mark Winter, owner of the Toadlena Trading Post, who allowed us to shoot at his Two Gray Hills Weaving Museum.
But the footage is by no means all interviews and gorgeous art. It will be cut with action imagery from the events, ranging from Indian rodeo to the crowning of the Ceremonial queen, to tribal members in full regalia parading through Gallup, New Mexico, as well as both daytime and night-time dancing in the main arena at nearby Red Rock State Park. The dances feature tribes from local Navajo, Zuni and other Pueblos, to the Plains and East Coast tribes, and the spectacular Totonac Voladores (flyers) and the Aztec Dancers from Mexico.
Multiple camera technique, including extreme telephoto and slow motion techniques, and interviews with Cheyenne, Zuni, Navajo and Totonac leaders of Indian dance troups at the Gallup Intertribal give the viewer a closer and more personal look at the meaning and regalia of the dances in their own culture.
At the annual Union of the Masters exhibit in Gallup, the Indian Market in Santa Fe, and in their studios, the artists themselves talk about the traditions of their art, what it means to them to be Indian artists in the modern world, how they are inspired by their art, and how they are using their art to help children of all nationalities - not just American Indian children.
One successful artist shows how teaching art in a rehabilitation center has brought a new self-respect and self-sufficiency to his pupils, while other artists describe their own personal struggles as they strive to express their talents and present their art in the competitions of the juried shows.
Another artist shows us his award-winning bracelet that has a price tag of $75,000 - an industry record - and another that he is working on day and night to finish before the show. Will they garner awards - or sell - at the prestigious Indian Market in Santa Fe?
The excitement of the fund-raising auction at Indian Market is captured when Ali McGraw puts a fabulous necklace around the neck of the highest bidder.
These images of art and artists are interwoven with scenes of the natural beauty of the New Mexico, including the red sandstone cliffs of Red Rock State Park, and Santa Fe�s setting in the Sangre de Christos Mountains. As an appropriate backdrop for the art, as we see wild horses on the range, a Navajo mounting another horse being saddled for the first time, cloud-filled skies discharging bolts of lightning, fine sunsets and other imagery that makes the Southwest so memorable
Delivery formats will include VHS and DVD, PAL for television in Europe, 1080i HD for Japanese and American television, and 24p HD for film festivals.
He has three documentary videos in production, and is currently a freelance writer for American Cinematographer and Independendent Documentary magazines, Film/Tape World newspaper, and the website DVinfo.net. Since late 2000, he has published over twenty articles on equipment and movie reviews, video and High Definition production. He is a member of the Film Arts Foundation, the California Film Institute, the Association of Independent Video & Filmmakers, the International Documentary Association, and California Lawyers for the Arts.
Director of Photography Mike Caporale has twenty years of experience in shooting commercials and features, both on film, and video. The first person to buy a Panasonic Varicam HD camera in 2001, he also represents the Panasonic range of 24p video cameras to the public at trade shows and events throughout the world. A feature film he shot won Best Digital Feature at Cine Quest in San Jose in Spring 2003. Alan Hereford is a second generation filmmaker, an experienced Cinematographer with PBS credits, and shot the recently completed 'making of' documentary of the last two Matrix movies.
Aaron MacIlvain was Cinematographer on 'Stuck,' an imaginative low budget feature movie that played at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival in Spring 2003. Aaron is also an accomplished video editor, and is studying for a Masters Degree in Video. Kent Torkelson, with a background in computers and audio, completes the line-up for camera operators, and Ruth Corwin is Production Manager.