Robert-Goldwater-Library

2005 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival

The 2005 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival is scheduled to run this November 3-6 and 12-13 at the American Museum of Natural History, according to the museum's preliminary web page:

The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival is the longest-running showcase for international documentaries in the United States, encompassing a broad spectrum of work, from indigenous community media to experimental nonfiction. The Festival is distinguished by its outstanding selection of titles, which tackle diverse and challenging subjects, representing a range of issues and perspectives, and by the forums for discussion with filmmakers and speakers.

The Festival was founded by the American Museum of Natural History in 1977, in honor of pioneering anthropologist Margaret Mead on her seventy-fifth birthday and her fiftieth year at the Museum. A film festival represented an especially apt form with which to celebrate Mead's life, as she was one of the first anthropologists to recognize the significance of film for fieldwork ... [read more]

The preliminary web site features a list of selected films and videos with description, as well as ticket information.

Christianity’s First Centuries in Africa

SUNDAY AT THE MET - LECTURES
Sunday, October 2

Christianity’s First Centuries in Africa 

1:30     
Introduction: The Arrival of Christianity in Africa. Helen C. Evans, curator, Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Thelma K. Thomas, associate professor, Art History, and associate curator, Kelsey Art Museum, University of Michigan. Referring to works in the Museum’s extensive collections, Thelma K. Thomas sets the stage for the introduction of Christianity into Africa in the first centuries after the life of Christ. She presents developments of the beliefs, ritual practices, and material culture of Christianity in Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia.

2:00      
Outside In: Saint Catherine’s Monastery and the Early Church in Egypt. Brandie Ratliff, doctoral student, Art and Archaeology, Columbia University. Brandie Ratliff's lecture explores the widespread appeal of the ancient Orthodox Monastery of Saint Catherine on Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments. 

2:45     
From Black and White to Technicolor: The Red Monastery, Sohag, Egypt. Elizabeth S. Bolman, associate professor, Art History, Temple University. Elizabeth S. Bolman presents the richly colored interior currently being revealed by an international team of experts at the Red Monastery in the Nile Valley.

3:30      
Reflections on Christianity: Two Perspectives on Ethiopia's Living Tradition. Chester Higgins, Jr., photographer, New York, and Alisa LaGamma, curator, Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Alisa LaGamma provides an overview of some of the landmark artistic achievements of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church that continue to be important sites of devotion and pilgrimage.  Her commentary will be complemented with that of New York Times photographer Chester Higgins, Jr., who has eloquently documented the sites in question.

This program is made possible by Kay Harrigan Woods, Suzanne Fawbush, and Christopher Grisanti.

Free with Museum admission; tickets and reservations not required. Programs in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.