THE MAKING OF A CHIEF a feature-lenght documentary writer/producer/director/cinematographer/editor
Deep inside the oldest rock formation on the planet, at the foot of the mountain that houses the earth’s highest waterfall, Kamaracoto Indian Hortensia Berti stands at a crossroads. She wants her children and their children to inherit the traditions of her tribe. But her world, although remote, is influenced by tourism, missionary schooling and Direct-TV. Day by day, the thread to her culture grows thinner, and her answers to the questions of her children more tentative. Deep in her heart she hears fragments of the teachings of her great-grandfather, a legendary chief. To piece those teachings together she must access the minds of the elders, crisscrossing the wide savannahs that border the Amazon forest, to their mud-huts. What unfolds is an unsuspected frontier of myth, magic and a deep communion with nature, for the new generations to inherit –not just the Kamaracotos, but all of us who have lost our connection to the earth.
THE MAKING OF A CHIEF, formerly WOMEN OF THE FALLS, is a NYFA sponsored project. READ MORE.
READ MORE ABOUT THE MAKING OF A CHIEF.
THE ASPERN PAPERS an adaptation of the Henry James novella co-writer/producer
A young American publisher sets off on an uncertain journey to acquire the valuable manuscripts and relics of his beloved poet Jeffery Aspern. He discovers the poet’s ancient muse, Juliana Bordereau, is alive and hiding in the outskirts of a fishing town in the Venezuelan rainforest, with her recluse niece, Tita. The American plots to entice them with money, convinced that once inside the house he will find his way to the precious papers. He gains entrance to the dilapidated house – a run down cocoa hacienda in the middle of the jungle - by inventing a false identity - a writer in need of a quiet room to rent for several weeks. Juliana takes him in, but only after extracting from him an exorbitant fee, which he willingly pays, failing to realize that he is the one being pulled into the labyrinth of deceit. What ensues is a triangle between the muse, the spinster, and the publisher, in which the price of seduction is too high -even for the paper-obsessed American. A feature adaptation of the novella by Henry James set in the present tme.
Starring Brooke Smith, Felix D'Alviella, Judith Roberts and Joan Juliet Buck.
Directed by Mariana Hellmund, who also co-wrote and produced. Also produced by Andrea Roa.