• 

  Mexican handcraft masters: face of the devil

  

  aeon.co

  Following the conquest of Mesoamerica, the Spanish attempted to eradicate indigenous dance as part of their imposition of Catholicism. When it proved impossible to extinguish, evangelisers instead altered the dances to include Christian symbolism and themes. Remnants of these syncretic dance forms still exist throughout Mexico in places such as Felipe Horta’s workshop in Tócuaro, a small village in the state of Michoacán. For more than 30 years, Horta has been crafting colourful, menacing devil masks and costumes for nativity plays. Horta’s painted wood masks and hand-sewn sequin suits are designed to evoke the eternal fight between good and evil by transforming their wearers into dragon-like ‘demons and devils’. Through his art, Horta seeks to assure that the nativity plays endure as a piece of the region’s living traditions, not merely historic folklore. This film is part of the Mexican director Mariano Rentería Garnica’s short documentary series on artisans in the western state of Michoacán.By Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

  • Add  

  1

More like this (3)

• 

  How the devotion of a canine companion enhanced the life of a disability advocate | Aeon Videos

  

  aeon.co

  Lorna Marsh, a UK dance instructor and disability rights advocate, uses a wheelchair due to cerebral...

  Lorna Marsh, a UK dance instructor and disability rights advocate, uses a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy quadriplegia, which also limits the use of her arms. When the charity Canine Partners for Independence offered her an assistance dog, Marsh was initially reluctant to accept, worried that a working dog might not enjoy a fulfilling life. But she soon found that beyond helping her live with more freedom, her new dog Eli was a true companion, their relationship brimming with affection, mutual enjoyment and a bit of mischief. The UK filmmaker and casting director Leanne Flinn’s film Eli (2010) is a day in the life of Marsh and her canine partner, featuring many of the roughly 300 commands Eli has been trained to perform, as well as a hefty dose of play. The heartwarming short was created as part of the straight 8 project, which challenges filmmakers to craft shorts using only a single cartridge of Super 8 film with no additional post-production editing.By Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

  • Add  

  
• 

  Segregated by design

  

  aeon.co

  The majority African-American enclaves found in every major US city are no accident of history. And, although...

  The majority African-American enclaves found in every major US city are no accident of history. And, although societal racism certainly played its part, de facto segregation isn’t the prime culprit for the urban divide. In this animation, adapted from his book The Color of Law (2017), the US historian Richard Rothstein explains with devastating precision how decades of brazenly intentional racist local, state and federal government housing policies led to the current status quo. While this history was once widely understood, the extent of these efforts – including their origins in Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal public housing initiatives – have been forgotten, even as their lasting effects are omnipresent. In reviving this history, Rothstein details the multitude of ways these policies are still affecting African-American communities, and offers a remedy for the generations of harm. He argues that state-sponsored segregation efforts were unconstitutional at their very inception, and must be reckoned with both in the courts and with new policy that acknowledges the pernicious legacy of housing discrimination in the US.By Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

  • Add  

  
• 

  The beauty of gefilte fish

  

  aeon.co

  Celebrated annually in early spring, Passover commemorates the Jewish people's liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt...

  Celebrated annually in early spring, Passover commemorates the Jewish people's liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt as described in the Book of Exodus. The holiday is generally marked by a large gathering of family and friends known as a Seder, and includes a reading of the Haggadah, a text that recounts the exodus from Egypt, and provides a guide to the traditional Passover meal, which includes matzoh (unleavened bread) and bitter herbs. This short documentary from the US director Rachel Fleit focuses on the tradition as celebrated by the Hermelin family of Detroit, in particular their relationship with a Passover dinner staple – gefilte fish. Though it plays no part in the Exodus story (it originated with Ashkenazi Jewish communities in eastern Europe), this dish of ground whitefish – with a flavour ranging from savoury to sweet, depending on the recipe – is nonetheless the most discussed culinary offering at the table. But despite its deeply polarising taste and texture, the annual gefilte fish is embraced by generations of Hermelins as a symbol of cultural tradition and familial bonds, imbued with ‘the joy of Judaism’.By Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon

  • Add