Filmmaker Robin McKenna will screen scenes from her in-progress documentary, GIFT. The film is based on Lewis Hyde's beloved book
The Gift and examines gift-based cultures around the world. Creative Commons CEO Ryan Merkley will lead a conversation and audience Q&A with McKenna.
GIFT is a feature‐length documentary and crossmedia project inspired by Lewis Hyde’s classic bestseller The Gift: “a brilliant defense of the value of creativity and its importance in a culture increasingly governed by money and overrun with commodities.”
Richly cinematic and politically provocative, GIFT interweaves character‐driven stories. On North America's Pacific Northwest Coast, an indigenous community undertakes the elaborate preparations for a potlatch. At the Burning Man festival in the desert, a mutant bumblebee art car distributes honey in a post-apocalyptic desert landscape. In Rome, Italy, illegally occupying an abandoned factory, a community of migrants and artists come together to create a living, breathing artwork. Meanwhile, we follow Taiwanese, Paris-based artist Mingwei Lee through the creation of Sonic Blossom- where classically trained opera singers approach gallery-goers, offering them a “transformative gift” of song.
Trailer:
https://vimeo.com/78845545
