Sugarcane
Preview by Brad Balfour
Margaret Mead Film Festival
May 9 – 12, 2024
American Museum of Natural History
Festival entrance on 77th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.
New York’s American Museum of Natural History will host a four-day celebration of voices and perspectives from around the world. The Margaret Mead Film Festival will take place from Thursday, May 9, to Sunday, May 12 with globally focused documentaries.
The festival opens with a performance of Soundtrack ‘63 by Soul Science Lab, a multimedia orchestral retrospective of the Black experience in the United States, combining live music, archival footage, and animation.
The opening night film is the Sundance award-winning film Sugarcane, a documentary that uncovers the legacies of pain stemming from “residential schools” in British Columbia, ultimately hinting at an ongoing journey toward healing.
Catch the New York premiere of Porcelain War, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at 2024 Sundance Film Festival. In Ozogoche, filmmaker Joe Houlberg Silva draws a parallel between human and avian voyages and shows the annual migration of the mysterious “Cuvivi” sandpiper bird to the remote Andean lakes of Ecuador. ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak), directed by Schon Duncan and Michael McDermit, is a documentary shot over three years on the preservation of the Cherokee language.
The festival closes with Agent of Happiness, a documentary which looks at life in Bhutan and Amber, a bureaucrat who measures the nation’s “Gross National Happiness”, while also searching for fulfillment in his own life.
To learn more, go to: https://www.amnh.org/explore/margaret-mead-festival