Pigeon Keepers of Bushwick

Trailer

Look up from the busy hectic streets of New York City life, and you will see a flock of purebred pigeons flying in circles around an abandoned tenement building in Bushwick. Their aerial acrobatics are guided by their keeper, a street-wise Puerto Rico man nicknamed 2Tone. On the other end of Brooklyn, Goodwin and his pal, Super 13, tend their pigeon coop and flock of 300 birds. Each one trying to lure each other’s pigeons away in order to get bragging rights. The keepers are “animal freaks,” as Super 13 calls himself. They love all animals, but are enamored by pigeons. Pigeon keeping is an art that has been around for centuries and practiced all over the world. In the past, pigeon coops were all over New York City, but have been relegated to obscure parts of the outer Burroughs.

PIGEON KEEPERS OF BUSHWICK is a beautifully shot documentary designed for online news and cultural publications. The film is told through the voices and perspectives of the pigeon keepers and brings the audience into this obscure and dying culture in New York City. The video is inspired by a series of stunning photos by Chris Arnade, which are also available for syndication.

Available for syndication. Shot on the Canon 5d.
NTSC. Full HD. 9 minutes.

“A true pigeon-man will never give it up, and that’s the god’s honest truth. Even if its one bird in a box in a corner somewhere. As long as he has one bird, and that’s the bird he loves, he is content with that.” — 2Tone

Photo spread featured in COLORS magazine.

Featuring 2Tone, Super 13 & Goodwin
Producers: Ram Devineni, Ashok Sinha & Martina Sönksen
Camera: Ashok Sinha & Ram Devineni
Director & Editor: Ram Devineni
Executive Producer and Camera Stills: Chris Arnade
Rattapallax. All rights reserved.

Postcards

In spring 2011, poets & writers Joshua Ferris, Eliza Griswold, Bob Holman, Nathalie Handal & Christopher Merrill traveled to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and UAE as part of a literary tour sponsored by the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. POSTCARDS is a series of short transmedia pieces about their trip including their experiences in Pakistan when Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Forces.

POSTCARDS FROM EARTH’S WHISPER

JOSHUA FERRIS, the author of the novel, Then We Came to the End (Little, Brown and Company and finalist for the National Book Award), is the main character who leads us from the stability of Brooklyn to the turbulent countries of SouthEast Asia. He witnesses the political violence in Karachi to the a national shutdown of Kathmandu due to Maoist Rebels to the daily struggles of living in war-torn Kabul. (42 minutes, HD NTSC)

POSTCARDS FROM KARACHI

Writer and reporter ELIZA GRISWOLD (The Tenth Parallel, Farrar Straus Giroux) is in Karachi, Pakistan conducting workshops with the rest of the delegation when suddenly Osama bin Laden is killed and the country is thrown into turmoil. She is asked to report on the general feelings and fears of the Pakistani people for the Daily Beast. A great documentary on the insights of reporting in difficult area during turbulent times. Featured in GUERNICA MAGAZINE (9 minutes, HD NTSC).

POSTCARDS FROM KATHMANDU

Spoken-word poet BOB HOLMAN is on a search to record a Newari poet for the endangered languages cento, which will be presented at the United Nations in New York City. Pressed for time, he travels to Kathmandu and experiences the diverse languages and peoples of the mountainous country. In the midst of a national strike that shutdowns Kathmandu, he finds a young poet who reads a poem about her grandfather. Bob returns to New York City and jubilantly presents the cento at the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. (6 minutes, HD NTSC)

POSTCARDS FROM KABUL

Poet NATHALIE HANDAL is living in New York City. As the editor of New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond (W.W. Norton & Co.), she published an Afghanistani woman poet who was later killed, so Nathalie travels to Kabul to meet with other women poets and experience their culture and language. At Kabul University, she teaches a poetry workshop with young girls and creates a beautiful love poem with them, which becomes featured in COLORS magazine. Featured in BOMB magazine and the POETRY FOUNDATION. (8 minutes, HD NTSC).

Produced in association with the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. This video and the tour was made possible by a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Special thanks to Natasa Durovicova, Christopher Merrill, and Kelly Bedeian. Also special thanks to the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, American Embassies in Kabul, Abu Dhabi, and Kathmandu, and the diplomats and local staff who organized the tours. Rattapallax is supported through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Read the interview with filmmaker Ram Devineni on the U.S. State Department’s website: A Literary Connection.

Verse

VERSE: A murder mystery. When a young poet discovers a lost manuscript, he is drawn into the New York City literary world with the only key to an unsolved, 30-year-old murder. Starring Jon Sands, Angel Nafis and Mark Greenfield. Produced by Rattapallax Productions. Directed by Ram Devineni. Script by Susan Brennan. Music by Shira E. & the Tiny Tornadoes.

Read More

A Kiss for Gabriela

Synopsis: Gabriela Leite is the first known sex worker to run for Brazilian Congress. “A Kiss for Gabriela” (28 minutes) accompanies her 2010 campaign as she faces 822 opponents and challenges the male dominated political system to see if a sex worker, activist, wife, mother, and cultural icon can beat the odds and win the election. Status: Post-production.

Prostitution is a legal profession in Brazil, yet it is still heavily stigmatized. Gabriela Leite has dedicated the past thirty years of her life to trying to change this, making her perhaps the most well known, and controversial, prostitute activist in Brazil. She founded the Brazilian Network of Prostitutes, an NGO for sex worker rights called Davida, has authored two autobiographies, and gained status as a cultural icon after founding Daspu, a clothing line to promote sex worker rights that has been featured in the international mass media. Despite her political activism, her 2010 campaign was the first time she sought to enter the predominantly male and economically privileged circle of Brazilian Federal Deputies.

Combining an observational style with unrestricted access, this 55-minute documentary follows Gabriela’s journey as a charismatic candidate full of contradictions. Scenes of her embarrassed to hand out pamphlets contrast with her openly talking about having had three illegal abortions in campaign speeches. Invitations to exclusive parties are set against her struggle to run a campaign with virtually no money and being evicted from her campaign headquarters in a historic sex motel. Images of her cooking for her husband, refusing a bribe from an Evangelical pastor, behind the scenes at popular television talk shows, singing her favorite sambas, working alone late at night, and crying as she votes for herself for the first time form the backdrop to this intimate portrait of a remarkable woman whose reasons for notoriety and prominence are the same reasons that make the possibility of her election impossible.

Although Rio de Janeiro voters did not elect Gabriela, in “A Kiss for Gabriela,” we see that it is not whether you win or lose, or even how you play. For women like Gabriela that challenge stereotypes and make history with their campaigns, it’s that you’re in the game.

Winner “Best Documentary Pitch” at the Fusion Film Festival in March of 2011. For more information, contact laura (at) akissforgabriela.com

LAURA MURRAY has worked with sex worker rights groups internationally since 2000 as a researcher, activist, and filmmaker. A Kiss for Gabriela is her third documentary film about sexuality in Brazil: she co-produced one about an HIV prevention intervention with sex workers and co-directed and produced a short about a transvestite samba school president living on the border of Brazil and Bolivia that is currently in post-production. Laura is a PhD Candidate in Medical Anthropology at Columbia University where she is writing her dissertation about sex worker activism, media, and citizenship in Brazil. She has published journal articles on sexuality and HIV in Brazil in Social Science and Medicine, Culture Health and Sexuality, and the American Journal of Public Health in addition to a book of the life histories of sex workers in the Dominican Republic.

Read Portuguese version.