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INDEPENDENTS NIGHT:
MANA – BEYOND BELIEF

February 17, 2005 at 6:30

Independents Night is a joint program of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFP/New York.

Independents Night is a program devoted exclusively to showcasing American documentaries. This rich genre comes to the big screen every month at the Walter Reade Theater, making Independents Night one of the city's foremost year-round venues for nonfiction work. Join the filmmakers for a provocative evening of discovery and exploration and stay for the Q & A discussion after the film. Independents Night is supported, in part, by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

MANA – BEYOND BELIEF
Peter Friedman & Roger Manley
February 17, 2005 at 6:30pm
92 minutes, 2004
Not the power behind objects, but a wondrous and provocative examination of power objects is the subject of this dazzlingly-shot documentary that begs the question, “what makes matter matter?” How these objects make us feel when we put them on, or worship before them, or celebrate their season or passing is explored in this rich meditation of mana, the Polynesian word for the “power that resides in things” (while there is no exact equivalent in other languages, it comes close to being translated as “prestige” in English). How people behave in the presence of these power objects reveals a process of the human mind which is fundamental and universal: belief.

MANA – BEYOND BELIEF takes us on an exhilarating and colorful adventure, both across the globe and into the human mind. From a New Zealand rainforest to cherry blossoms in Japan; from a guilded boulder in Burma to a Navajo medicine man’s mud-covered hogan; from a Chinese funeral in Malaysia to a an ancestral ghost gathering in Benin; from a Rembrandt painting to the Shroud of Turin; and from an Indian couple ceremoniously blessing their new computer to Graceland, this beautifully and crisply filmed rumination brings our focus to power objects – things that are precious because people believe they are – and reveals the myriad activities and behaviors that take place around them. MANA – BEYOND BELIEF is produced, written and directed by Peter Friedman and Roger Manley. Friedman previously directed SILVERLAKE LIFE, DEATH BY DESIGN and THERE ARE NO DIRECT FLIGHTS FROM NEW YORK TO MARSEILLE, and Manley is a foremost photographer, author, and curator, particularly in the field of Outsider Art.


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