The Music of the Golden Triangle
Films


           
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Documentary Film

The Music of the Golden Triangle and the Cycles of Life, a one-hour documentary film formatted for public television, bears witness to the ancestral songs and ceremonies of a number of the 130 different tribal peoples who inhabit the mountains of the Golden Triangle.

Filmed over 3 years in remote hill villages of Laos, Myanmar/Burma, Thailand, and China, the film follows cycles of the earth and passages of life to illustrate a remarkable spectrum of traditional music and rites that infuse their daily and sacred experiences.

The film moves from infancy to old age, highlighting ceremonies rarely witnessed: fertility festival, safe birth ceremony, baby naming, courting and marriage, harvest festival, New Year festival, ancestor worship, healing rites, and funerals. (Documentary Film will be completed in 2011)

Educational Films

Below is a selection of some of the educational films in post-production

lahu Shi-Harvest Festival Lahu Shi:
Harvest Festival
Myanmar/Burma

  Karen Pwo-Life of harvest Karen Pwo, Karen S’gaw:
Life of Harvest, Harvest Festivals
Thailand
         
Mien-3 day wedding ceremony Mien:
Three-Day Wedding
Thailand
  Lisu shae Shae-New Year Festival Lisu Shae Shae:
New Year Festival
China
         
Hmong Deaw- instruments, baby healing ceremony Hmong Deaw:
Instruments, Baby Healing Ceremony
Laos
  Akha Nuqui Akha Nuqui:
Women’s New Year
Laos
         
Palaung-Daily Life Palaung:
Daily Life, Courting, Wedding
Myanmar/Burma
  Lenten-Safe Birth Ceremony Lenten:
Safe Birth Ceremony
Laos
         
Lollopho: New Year Festival Lollopho:
New Year Festival
Laos
  Eng-Baby Healing Eng:
Baby Healing
Myanmar/Burma
         
Eng fertility festival Eng:
Fertility Festival
Myanmar/Burma
  From Picking cotton to weaving Various Tribes:
Textiles of Memory:
From Cotton Harvest to Weaving
 
The Music of the Golden Triangle Educational Films are a series of approximately 20 in-depth one-hour documentaries based on individual tribal groups, which capture a single ceremony in its entirety. Traditional peoples of Southeast Asia honor their ancestors and spirits with complex, highly organized rituals that last many hours, often many days. The Educational Films offer the essence of these celebrations in a condensed format. Each will feature extended footage of music, rituals and other aspects of traditional daily village life. Victoria Vorreiter, Documentary film maker
Victoria Vorreiter-Documentary film maker

The Educational Films include an informational narrative and full translations, and are created for the general public as well as scholars, researchers, anthropologists and ethnomusicologists. Additionally, educators in such diverse fields as sociology, religion, folk arts, folklore, cultural geography and ethnic studies may use these Educational Films to engage students from grade school to the university level. The series can be experienced as a whole or each film can be viewed independently.

For descendants of the ethnic groups portrayed - some who may have moved away from their ancestral villages, perhaps to another country – these documentaries will serve as a source of identity, preserving rituals and music for future generations. (Educational Films will be completed in 2011.)

 
All images and information copyright © Victoria Vorreiter.
All rights reserved.