Craft In America
Craft in America:
Episode 1: Memory;
Episode 2: Landscape;
Episode 3: Community
Whether our eyes are those of sophisticated appreciators or just people on the street, we are likely unaware of the many ways that craft and design touch our lives. Craft in America is an amazing multimedia effort with a simple mission: To explore the vitality, history and significance of the handmade in the United States and demonstrate its impact on our nation's cultural heritage.
Craft in America is presented in three self-contained but interrelated episodes. Episode I: Memory takes a personal tour through craft's history in this country by looking at some of the pioneers of the new craft movement in America. Episode II: Landscape looks at the sublime and complex relationship between craft artists and their environment, examining the processes through which natural materials become finished works of craft as well as some of the deeper messages that creators hope to attach to their work. Episode III: Community focuses on the spiritual connection artists have to their communities through craft, thus revealing the deeply held belief that craft is about more than just the making an object; it is about connecting to one another across social and geographical divides.
Craft in America introduces viewers to a relatively unfamiliar world through the memories, insights and experiences of craft's contemporary pioneer-practitioners. These invitingly human stories, along with the visual nature of finished craftwork and the processes that make it possible, make for powerful and affecting television.
Trailer
Credits
Directors: Nigel Noble (Memory), Daniel Seeger (Landscape), Hilary Birmingham (Community)
Executive Producers: Carol Sauvion, Kyra Thompson
Cinematographers: Don Lenzer (Memory, Community), Peter Pilafian (Landscape), Allan Palmer (Community)
Editors: Yaffa Lerea (Memory), Leonard Feinstein (Landscape), Lillian E. Benson, A.C.E. (Community)
Writer: Kyra Thompson
Music: Laura Karpman
Running time for Each Episode: 56 min.
Website: www.craftinamerica.org
About the Filmmakers
CAROL SAUVION is the creator and executive producer of Craft in America, and the executive director of Craft in America, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting the origins, artists and techniques of craft in the United States and their impact on our nation's cultural heritage. The Craft in America series results from the organization's mission to promote and advance original handcrafted work through programs in all media.
NIGEL NOBLE is an Academy Award-winning producer/director of films and television, whose work is characterized by a sense of compassion and a keen eye for the telling moment. His work has earned him many awards as both a director and a producer, including an Oscar, a second Oscar nomination, two Emmy Awards, two ACE awards, two Telly's and a Peabody Award. Noble recently produced They Killed Sister Dorothy, which won both Jury and Audience Best Documentary Awards at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Noble has also just completed producing and directing his third production for The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (2008 Telly Award), and has just completed the 90th anniversary film for the AFSC, the American Friends Service Committee (also a 2008 Telly Award).
DANIEL SEEGER has worked extensively as a producer, director and cameraman on many documentaries, including the award-winning Clearwater, the story of the construction and launch of the Hudson River sloop Clearwater, and her maiden voyage from Maine to New York.
HILARY BIRMINGHAM wrote and directed the critically acclaimed film Tully, which was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards in 2003. She developed New Passages (1996), an ABC primetime special, executive-produced by Barbara Kopple; and Generations (1996), a feature documentary on the 25th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival.