Independents Night presents
Mana - - Beyond Belief

Documentary, 2004, 92 minutes

Directed by Peter Friedman & Roger Manley





What do the American flag, a cherry blossom tree, a frozen tuna, and a Rembrandt painting have in common? All people, all over the world, value or venerate something. This particular universality across cultures - whether the object of value is religious, artistic, economic, historical, or personal, whether the believer is one person or a group - is the connective spine for Peter Friedman and Roger Manley's investigation of "power objects" in Mana—Beyond Belief.

Mana is the Polynesian word for the power that resides in things, and Mana, the movie, observes the myriad ways in which people around the world invest objects with special meaning. And by observing how people interact with these objects and behave in their presence, the film seeks to document a process of the human mind that is also universal and continuously at work around us - belief.

Serious and intellectual? Not at all. Friedman and Manley mix the "serious" events with the whimsical with no suggestion of hierarchy. Touches of humor and the everyday occur at even the most reverent moments, such as when the faithful are reminded to guard against pickpockets amongst themselves, or visitors to the Shroud of Turin are admonished to turn off their cell phones and "enjoy this spiritual journey."

Shot in stunning high definition video and employing sparse dialog, the film journeys from a Navajo Hogan in Arizona to a time machine in Wisconsin, from an ancient pagoda in Burma to Graceland, from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to a Japanese cherry blossom festival. With minimal information given in a traditional way (locations are not identified until the end credits), the film demands that viewers make their own connections on this journey, and as we see these "objects" in relation to people, and then frequently in their enigmatic solitude we are left to ponder their meaning for ourselves.




The Filmmakers

Peter Friedman has won many of the top awards for documentary film in the USA and Europe. His films, which have been broadcast and screened in dozens of countries worldwide, include Wizard of the Strings (Academy Award¢ç nominee), I Talk to Animals, Silverlake Life (Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, Los Angeles Film Critics Award, Peabody Award), Death by Design, and The Life and Times of Life and Times and There are No Direct Flights from New York to Marseille (both of which screened at Independents Night).

Roger Manley's books and exhibitions have earned him international recognition in the fields of outsider art, anthropology and photography. His curatorial work with self-taught artists and documentation of the folklife of indigenous peoples have won both the National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Grant and the National Endowment for the Humanities Independent Scholars Grant. His award-winning screenplays include several in the ITV series "From the Brothers Grimm," which aired nationwide on PBS. His books include The End Is Near!(1998), Self-Made Worlds (1997), The Tree of Life (1996), Dear Mr. Ripley: Wonders of the Age from Ripley's Believe It Or Not! (1993), and Signs and Wonders (1989).




Join the filmmakers for a screening of Mana and stay for a Q & A discussion after the film.

RSVP: rsvp.ifp.org
Free for IFP Members who RSVP. RSVPs are held until 6:25pm only.

For more information, visit http://www.filmlinc.com/.


Independents Night is a joint program of IFP/New York and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Independents Night is supported by a grant from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.


Please be advised that if this event does not appear on our RSVP page, that means the event has been sold out for free member tickets.

Date: Thursday February 17

Time: 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm

Admission: Free for IFP/New York Members who RSVP

Walter Reade Theater (Get Map) Lincoln Center, 165 W. 65 Street, bet. Broadway and Amsterdam Ave. New York City, New York 10023 (212) 875-5601

Email this Event