[HTML1] Susun Weed interviews Roberta Cantow, Educator – Film and Video Maker – Videographer – Digital Storyteller
30 minute on-demand radio interview listen now or download MP3
BLOODTIME MOONTIME DREAMTIME
A poetic documentary film trilogy by Emmy Award winning filmmaker, Roberta Cantow, with a musical score by Bronwen Jones.
This three-part documentary work re-contextualizes contemporary women’s experiences of blood, creativity and power. With stunning visual images, a haunting musical score and an original approach, this work delves into the values of the ancient “wise woman” ways.
Whether a member of that community, or situated outside of it, Bloodtime Moontime Dreamtime provides a bird’s eye view of a culture within our culture, which, whether we agree with its beliefs and practices or not, has begun to have influence over how women think and feel….about their bodies…. about the earth… about creativity and power and about personal and spiritual transformation.
Combining notions of spirituality: (myth and ritual), with the philosophy of the expressive arts movement and eco-feminism, this trilogy presents a landscape of women creatively engaged in the meaning making of their lives.
– The meanings and metaphors of blood (20:00)
– Honoring girls’ entrance into womanhood (36:00)
– Art and ritual as transformative tools; women as agents of change (62:00)*
* Awards: Accolade Award of Excellence, Documentary Feature Category, June, 2008
More about Roberta Cantow
Throughout my life, I have combined by background as an independent film/video maker with my teaching skills. I have served as an educator to a wide variety of multi-ethnic populations in community college, adult education, youth oriented museum and artist-in-residence programs teaching English as a Second Language, basic writing, drama, art, filmmaking and digital storytelling.
In the early 1990’s I founded One of a Kind Video Portraits, a personal history video service for individuals and families. In 1999, I began to offer my editing services for hire. In 2003, my exposure to storytelling as “new media” led me to change the emphasis of my editing entity, Original Digital, to serve the values-oriented storytelling needs of organizations (with a particular interest in those which emphasize paradigm shifts, community service and a return to wholeness).
I have volunteered for such organizations as Hospice and Hollygrove, a home for abused and neglected children, where served as a “special friend” to a 13 year old child. One of my interests is to find a way to combine my ESL and Writing teaching background with my interest in the application of digital storytelling in educational and community-based settings. There is a growing trend of using digital stories as a technique for teaching writing and assisting students to understand the links between their own narratives and the narratives of their cultures and communities.
The collection of digital stories in an institutional setting can be a powerful tool for the purpose of educating, community building, informing and inspiring. I would like to be involved in the creation of a project (or a center) where the possibilities inherent in the creation, collection and exhibition of digital stories is understood as a way to honor and improve the lives of individuals and communities.
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