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Sarah Masters reviews the film

The Drums of Winter

This quietly beautiful film explores the traditional dance, music and spiritual life of the Yupik Eskimo people of Emmonak, a remote village at the mouth of the Yukon River on the Bering Sea coast. A rare dance language is at the heart of the Yupik Eskimo spiritual and social life, and The Drums of Winter shares with the viewer an intimate look at this art.

The Yupik Eskimos believe that the drum is the “cadence of the universe.” Join the villagers in their dance house as they practice dance moves to moving drum beats in preparation for potlatch ceremonies with Eskimos from other villages. Each movement is a deliberate piece of a story. Practice involves both old and new songs and dances. Interestingly, the new dances are reflections of the complexities these Eskimos face in the modern age. Directors Elder and Kamerling mix current dance footage with archival photographs and footage.

The Drums of Winter is exceptional because of its exquisite representation of the resilience of this indigenous people and their religious practice in the face of more than one hundred years of suppression by Christian missionaries.

Alaskan composer John Luther Adams wrote in Sight and Sound Magazine that “There is no narration, no one who tells us what to think. Rather than watching from the outside, we feel as though we're inside the dance house experiencing each moment with the community."

The Drums of Winter has been added to the National Film Registry.

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Completed: 1988
Running Time: 90 Minutes
Directors: Sarah Elder and Leonard Kamerling

If you are interested in purchasing this film, you can do so at www.der.org/films/drums-of-winter.html. The cost/DVD is $79.95.

Book Review

Chaplain Jane Mather reviews the DVD

Reflections on Psalm 23 for People with Cancer

This video production was designed as a support for cancer patients who might be struggling with their spirituality and faith as they wade through the difficulties presented by diagnosis, treatment and even survival of cancer. Its author and producer, himself a cancer patient, was profoundly transformed by his intimate encounter with the 23rd Psalm on his own journey of treatment for cancer. The Psalm’s ancient wisdom and promise were meaningful and instructive to him in ways that Mr. Curtis thought might be of benefit to others facing similar challenges with the uncertainties attending advanced cancer.

The video has been shot in the Holy Land and is visually compelling. The beauty and simplicity of the land and seascapes, the mountains and valleys of Biblical significance and the sunsets and sunrises on pastoral scenes no doubt reminiscent of those experienced by the Psalmist himself, all invoke images of being gently shepherded and lovingly tended. The author has broken the lessons into relatively short segments (about 8 minutes) each one dealing with consecutive phrases from the Psalm and each with a stand-alone message of practical wisdom and inspiration.

Mr. Curtis draws on his own experience in such a way as to provide the listener with a sense of his credibility as a cancer patient whose journey has been made less painful by a growing faith rather than as a person of faith who is “using” his illness to win converts. He is neither casual toward nor dismissive of the terrible demands that cancer diagnosis and treatment places on individuals – with or without a religious belief system -- nor does he offer easy, simplistic solutions to these demands. Rather, he shares the struggles and insights as they presented themselves to him in the hope that others might find avenues of insight or inspiration that will give them strength of their own. He neither generalizes about his experience with cancer nor tries to impose his interpretation of the Psalm. In fact, he makes every effort to free his listeners to find their own stories and inspiration as he shares what happened to him. While coming from a clearly Christian perspective, the author works at not imposing Christian doctrine in an effort to open the listener to the lessons he learned from the Psalm. This effort toward universal or non-sectarian acceptance (no matter how nobly intended) served to dilute the message for both the Christian and non-Christian audiences.

This video was intended for use during cancer treatment and was sent to this reviewer in order to assess its value for inpatients. The consensus of those who assisted in the review was that it was too long (even if broken up into the 8 minute segments) for inpatient use. Hospitals are places of continuous interruptions and distractions. Today, hospitalized patients are in extremis – or they are home or in extended care! While the words and images of the message were inspiring, the segments were spoken in one voice and tended to become tedious when listened to contiguously. But the biggest challenge to its use for those in the hospital was the concern that, while this patient found healing sustenance in his meditation on the Psalm (throughout the video the “patient” narrator is strolling through the country side or along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and the video ends with the author well enough to dive into the Sea of Galilee and swim away from the camera, reflective of diving into the unknown with the conviction that “goodness and mercy will follow”) other patients with other forms of cancer (or degrees of faith) may somehow feel betrayed by the Psalm if their results are less vigorous.

I recommend this for use in churches as a way to initiate discussion among believers about how to face serious illnesses with faith and conviction before either becomes a reality.

Curtin, Ken. Reflections on Psalm 23 for People with Cancer. Vision Video, Worcester, PA, and Nazareth Village with EO-TV International, Holland and UCB-TV, England.

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