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Sequence: Mandy’s Funeral at James Madison’s Montpelier The enslaved graveyard is strategically situated in a wooded area southeast of the main house of James and Dolly Madison. It was there that we believe were put to rest the ancestors of Bettye Kearse, author of The Other Madisons, griot memories of eight generations, starting with Mandy, the first African in her family to serve as property at Montpelier, household-plantation of the 4th president of the United States, and his father before him. In the documentary film, based on Ms. Kearse’s book, and currently in production, we are introducing for the sequence establishing the burial of Mandy Adowa tunes, music of the Ga people of Ghana which, as we currently understand, were the traditional roots of Mandy. The recordings use to score the aforementioned sequence, pertain to an exquisite recording by Folkways Records, New York 1978 recorded and annotated by Barbara L. Hampton. This recording is being now research for copyright clearance which we’re hoping will be granted for the purpose of giving credibility to the historical reconstruction. For more information about the actual album and recording, please visit album data.

In “ALICE: At Home with Alice Parker”, a documentary film by Montes-Bradley, the audience joins the filmmaker Montes-Bradley as he breaks the Fourth Wall leading into Alice’s kitchen, in her 17th-century cottage, once the town meeting hall in Hawley, a small village in the western mountains Massachusetts. And what the camera is about to reveal are previously unknown aspects of Alice’s relationships and collaborations with other American Artists resulting in a magnificent body of work with profound lyricism and devotion for the land, and humankind. One such collaboration evoked in the film is the one Alice reflects upon when thinking of Emily Dickinson. “Emily's and my situation are very similar in some ways and very different in others. We certainly were shaped by this climate.” Alice assures us, “We were shaped by this rogued countryside. The granite and the hills.” The intimacy of the dialogue between protagonist and filmmaker renders “ALICE” as a unique window into a vanishing universe with persistent truths and values.

In the process of making a film with Alice Parker in Massachusetts, we recorded scenes that would eventually not make it to the movie. These scenes, part of a larger picture, were recently collected and edited to share with you in anticipation of the upcoming worldwide of ALICE in October 8, an event organized in collaboration with Chorus America and Melodious Accord. Before then, we’ll share more sequences portraying Alice at home with filmmaker Eduardo Montes-Bradley. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more memorable Outtakes. Thank you!

While on location at Alice's old family farm in Hawley, Massachusetts, we run into our good friends Beth Neville, and John Borden Evans. They were then attending a class by Alice Parker, the celebrated composer, conductor and teacher. That evening I turned the camera on. I wanted to know what brought them all the way up here from Charlottesville, Virginia. What you're about to see is part of a conversation between Beth Neville and John while trying to put together a puzzle at the end of another day in Hawley.

Tucumán, por Miguel Siso-Fernández En Buscando a Tabernero, Montes-Bradley triangula entre tres ciudades, Berlín, Barcelona y Buenos Aires una expedición tras la pista de un sujeto ya fallecido, un hombre misterioso, conmovedor y ejemplar, que se llevó consigo el secreto de ese misterio, ese mal necesario, ese boleto solo de ida que llamamos "exilio". ¿Qué nos pasa si la vida nos obliga a dejar el suelo patrio para siempre? Quizá que perdamos todo lo que nos defina, incluso el nombre. Es el caso de Tabernero, al que Montes-Bradley, a través de discípulos, cinéfilos, cineastas y su propio hijo (Henry Weinschenk), redibujará con gran nitidez a partir de meras manchas dispersas, casi residuales. Así, conoceremos a quien, huyendo de un verdugo implacable y multiforme, migró repetidas veces en pos de la supervivencia de su vocación y de su propia persona, para prestidigitarse una vida memorable.

FILM BASED ON a book by BETTYE KEARSE. For thousands of years, descendants of West African nations have passed on their sfamily stories from generation to generation. The tradition migrated and persisted in America through eslavement, emancipation, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Era and still it continues to shape a powerful legacy. Without this tradition Bettye Kearse would not have known that she is a descendant of James Madison, president of the United States, and Father of the Constitution. In her book The Other Madisons, author Bettye Kearse explores her family roots and the complex legacy of slavery and race. Now, her is being made into a documentary film by Eduardo Montes-Bradley, whose previous works include biographical portrayals of poet laureate Rita Dove, civil rights activist Julian Bond and President James Monroe. "I think "The Other Madison's" is a story that trascends the mere biographical experience by becoming an opportunity to explore the legacy of slavery while recognizing at the same time, generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society." Eduardo Montes-Bradley. Pricipal photography is expected to begin in mid-October 2020, and premier is currently being planend during the African American History Month (February 2021) in Boston and Washington, DC.

Charottesville - A few days back, I drove by Dry Bridge Rd. on my way to test a new batch of burbon in a near by destillery. On my way I decided to stop by and pay my respects to Jay Y. Guillenwater. The former subject of one of my most recent biographical documentaries is a well respected physician, emeritus profesor of medicine at the University of Virginia, and also a friend and a neightbour. Jay and I worked together on his documentary for almost a year. During my visit he asked to record his words using my iphone. And this is what he had to say.

Evolution of a Work-in-Progress. The artwork of your film should be an intrinsic part of your creative process. As a filmmaker, I can not remove myself from the design that will ultimately represent my work. Part of the revolution shaping the way in which we conceive and produce documentary films today is placing the filmmaker in a more compelling role as a developer, cinematographer, editor, sound designer, and yes, graphic guru. The New Documentarian is one of many hats, an artist that stretches his canvas as far as the imagination goes.

Outtakes from a forgotten documentary film Fury Over Spain is a documentary film produced by CNT-FAI in Barcelona in 1936. I strongly believed the film was put together by Emma Goldman in the role of executive producer when acting as a liaison between the CNT in Catalonia and the Anarchist Movement in the United States the UK. Fury Over Spain was released in the United States in 1937, first in New York, and reviewed by The New York Times, later in fundraising events around the country, also in Canada and Australia. The New York Times exalted the role of Peter Weinschenk as one of the camera operators, and photographers. Pablo Weinschenk would later change his name to Pablo Tabernero in Argentina where he lived between 1937 and 1967. My film "Searching 4-Tabernero", approaches the life of Pablo Weinschenk in detail. It is believed that Fury Over Spain was shown by Eleonor Roosvelt in the White House, although I have not been able to confirm the rumor, also that the film inspired late comers to join the International Brigades fighting agains Franco during the regional conflic. By the time Fury Over Spain was released in New York, Pablo Weinschenk had already made his way out of Spain and was living in Amsterdam. It is my believe that his inmigrant-visa to the United States was denied to Mr. Weinschenk on the basis that most critics had agreed that Fury Over Spain was a propaganda film siding with the Republican side in the conflict. Although Mr. Waisnchenk himself was not of Anarchist or Socialist persuation he will eventually have to change his name to Pablo Tabernero during the forthcoming years of exile in Argentina 1937-1967. Further notes: When Paul Weinschenk arrived in Buenos Aires on October 27, 1937, he found himself in country where noone had the experience he had in documentary filmmaking. Almost forgotten today, Pablo Tabernero -as he would be know in Argentina- was the founding father of a documentary tradition later cultivated by such prominent documentarians as Fernando Birry, Pino Solanas and Raymundo Gleyzer to name but a few. The use of Wagner's "Der Fliegende Holländer" in Fury Over Spain is an interesting coincidence that I find remmarcable.

Por Diego Trerotola* Quienes alguna vez, a fuerza de ver y rever cierto cine argentino que nos encandila, reconocimos la firma de Pablo Tabernero como director de fotografía de algunas películas bastante prodigiosas y originales en el cine vernáculo, no sabíamos todo el misterio que había detrás de su nombre. Puede ser que lo hayamos intuido, sin embargo, porque nadie que pudiese crear esos espejismos, esos juegos de luces y sombras, podría haber sido una persona sin aventuras, sin experiencias de valor. Haberme encontrado con Eduardo Montes-Bradley en medio de su investigación para hacer una película sobre Tabernero no fue producto de la casualidad, sino de eso que finalmente es la matriz de este documental: una búsqueda en distintos rincones del planeta para lograr capturar una vida errante donde la pasión desperdigada dejó huellas profundas, algunas inexploradas, inesperadas. Buscando a Tabernero es casi una novela policial, la pesquisa en distintos países sobre la vida y obra de un director de fotografía que hizo de la cámara un viaje de ida, un punto de fuga. No es raro que el primer recuerdo que narre su propio hijo (Henry Weinschenk) en el documental sea de su padre detrás de una cámara de cine sobre una grúa: quien busca imágenes está en movimiento tanto como esa cámara que inventó la captura del movimiento como un arte del siglo XX. La de Tabernero, ahora lo sabemos con detalles, fue una vida inquieta, a la deriva, pura épica cinematográfica, de quien recorrió todo el siglo pasado haciendo que la fotografía se anime para mostrar lo visible y lo que imaginario. En sus recorridos por ciudades de Alemania, Suiza, España, Francia, Argentina y Estados Unidos, lugares donde Tabernero vivió o dejó huellas, Montes-Bradley filma los efectos de un viaje pasado hecho presente: muchas veces registra con su celular, la lupa del detective moderno, para encontrar durante más de dos años nombres, rostros, coordenadas, imágenes, genealogías e ideas que son otra manera de mirar no solo una biografía individual sino los modos de supervivencia de una generación enfrentada a contextos adversos. Y tampoco es una biografía individual porque Montes-Bradley y el hijo de Pablo Tabernero en el recorrido conjunto del documental superponen sus propias vidas migrantes como notas al pie, en una relación especular con Tabernero. Hay dos hallazgos perfectos de Montes-Bradley, que incluso echan luz para la historia. El primero es la genealogía de la sensibilidad visual de Tabernero en los geniales grabados de su padre, donde el niño conoció la importancia del claroscuro antes de su educación en fotografía en la Alemania del expresionismo. El segundo hallazgo es verlo a Tabernero filmar en España, en el campo de batalla durante la guerra civil, acompañando cámara en mano al anarquista Buenaventura Durruti. ¿No es ese mismo riesgo de su cine guerrilla al inicio de su carrera profesional que luego asumió de forma transfigurada en sus experimentos en el cine de estudio? Sí, porque Tabernero hacía una fotografía vital. Estas son solo dos de las revelaciones de un documental que tiene el mismo nivel de riesgo y exploración que usaba Tabernero para construir sus imágenes. A quienes nos enloquece esa dimensión un poco de científico loco que tuvo Tabernero como maestro de la fotografía en cine, nos conmueve más ver que su vida tuvo mucho de belleza, libertad y pesadilla, esas tres cosas que combinan las imágenes que creó en películas, durante tres décadas del cine argentino, como Prisioneros de la tierra (1939) de Mario Soffici, Vidalita (1949) de Luis Saslavsky, Si muero antes de despertar (1952) de Carlos Hugo Christensen o La Quintrala (1954) de Hugo del Carril. Montes-Bradley también hace justicia logrando, por primera vez, demostrar con un documental que un director de fotografía del cine argentino puede ser también un verdadero autor, un creador con un universo propio. Por todo eso, Buscando a Tabernero no solo ilumina una historia, sino que hace Historia. Sobre el autor Diego Trerotola es crítico de cine, programador, docente y activista queer. Publicó textos de cine en libros de Argentina, Holanda, Polonia, Corea del Sur y España. Junto a Leandro Listorti es compilador del libro Cine encontrado: ¿Qué es y adónde va el found footage? Publicó en más de veinte medios, como las revistas El Amante e Inrockuptibles, y escribe en el suplemento Soy del diario Página/12 desde su aparición en 2008. Fue programador del Festival de Cine Independiente de Buenos Aires (BAFICI) durante seis ediciones, en el Festival de Cine de Mar del Plata en dos ediciones, además de colaborar en festivales de España, Estados Unidos y Viena. Desde hace más de quince años dicta clases en el Centro de Investigación Cinematográfica (CIC). Desde 2017 es el director artístico del Asterisco Festival Internacional de Cine LGBTIQ.