Description |
1 videodisc (approximately 74 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 insert (1 folded sheet ([8] pages) : illustrations ; 19 cm.) |
System Details |
DVD. |
Performer |
Featuring the people of Juchitán and San Blas Atempa, Oaxaca, Mexico ; narrator, Maureen Gosling ; voices, Soco Aguilar, Jaime Garza, Lorenzo González, Werner Herzog, Boris Krutonog, Macario Matus, Romeo Sibaja, Natalia Toledo. |
Credits |
Cinematographer, Xavier Pérez Grobet ; narration written by Toni Hanna ; additional narration, Pam Rorke-Levy ; Spanish translations, Toni Hanna ; Zapotec translations, Obdulia Ruiz Campbell, Deborah Augsburger. |
Note |
Originally produced as an American documentary in 2000. |
Summary |
Blossoms of Fire is a bright, amiable chronicle of the vivid lives of the women of Juchitán, a small, sun-soaked city on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, Mexico. Celebrated by artists like Miguel Covarrubias and Frida Kahlo, Tehuantepec women are already famous, or perhaps infamous for being very visible, hailed as the last practitioners of matriarchy. In reality, this culture features a highly pragmatic and mutually satisfactory partnership between men and women in a pre-industrial mercantile economy. Since there is no concrete division between the hearth and the community, women participate as visibly in the marketplace and in civic affairs and as they would in the home. In the ongoing struggle with modernization this egalitarian habit, along with the indigenous culture and language, may vanish. |
Contents |
Introduction: a unique flair -- Matriarchy myth -- Maria's marinated plums -- Pulsing heart -- Pulling together -- Sense of entitlement -- Fluid concept of gender -- Mother, cultural teacher -- Isthmus in full bloom -- Times call for it -- Day the sun dies -- Tail credits. |
Note |
Special features: Sketches of Juchitán [featurette] (22 min.); Photo galleries: The filming of Blossoms of Fire by Maureen Gosling, Placeres de mi Tierra/ Pleasures of my Land by Martha Toledo [slide shows]; insert contains essay by Maureen Gosling. |
Language |
In Spanish and Zapotec with English subtitles. |
Note |
GMD: videorecording. |
Subject |
Zapotec women -- Social life and customs.
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Matriarchy -- Mexico -- Juchitán de Zaragoza.
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Businesswomen -- Mexico -- Juchitán de Zaragoza.
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Embroidery -- Mexico -- Juchitán de Zaragoza.
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Juchitán de Zaragoza (Mexico)
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Genre/Form |
Documentary films.
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Added Author |
Gosling, Maureen. Producer. Director.
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Osborne, Ellen, 1954- Producer. Director.
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Hanna, Toni. Screenwriter.
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Intrépidas Productions.
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New Yorker Films.
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New Yorker Video (Firm)
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Added Title |
Sketches of Juchitán.
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ISBN |
1567304362 |
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9781567304367 |
Standard No. |
717119861643 |
Music No. |
86106 New Yorker Video |
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NYD 86106 New Yorker Video |
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