DVD: A Century of Color: Maya Weaving and Textiles

"Endangered Threads Documentaries is a small California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation founded in 2004.

"Our goal is to produce educational documentaries recording endangered indigenous art forms, especially those in imminent threat of disappearing due to global economic expansion and the resulting homogenization of cultures. Target viewers are museum audiences, weavers, textile enthusiasts, anthropology teachers, students, travelers and the general public."

Length of the video is 53 minutes. It comes in a plastic DVD case aand is NEW and unopened. About this DVD the Endangered Threads website says:

"A Century of Color: Maya Weaving & Textiles surveys 100 years of continuity and change in Maya weaving and textiles of Guatemala. It begins with the 1902 Gustavus Eisen collection of photographs and textiles at the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, and continues through the century with stunning examples of blouses, skirts, belts, hair ribbons, men’s wear, ikat and embroidery.

"The viewer is introduced to the effects of cultural changes brought about by the following: the recent 36-year Civil War; introduction of Spanish language in rural schools; proliferation of mass media; increased tourism and artisan organizations; changes in the role of women; pressure from a globalized world economy; and importation of vast quantities of cheap, new and used clothing.

"The documentary runs 53 minutes in length. The narration is selectable in English (Cheryl Guerrero) or Spanish (Marta Lucía Beltrán) on the DVD. Original music was composed by Christopher Hedge, with sound by The Magic Shop.

"Margot Blum Schevill and Kathleen Mossman Vitale wrote the script. Schevill is a textile scholar, anthropologist and exhibition curator. Her most recent books are The Maya Textile Tradition with photography by Jeffery Jay Foxx, and Maya Textiles of Guatemala: The Gustavus A. Eisen Collection, 1902.

"Vitale, a former journalist, photographer and editor, began producing documentaries in 1998. She lived in Latin America for 13 years, including two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Her documentaries include CS Price: Modernist Painter in Search of Spirit, and Blossoms from the Mud: The Art of Wang Gongyi (English & French). In 2005, Schevill and Vitale produced their first documentary together for Endangered Threads Documentaries called Splendor in the Highlands: Maya Weavers of Guatemala (English & Spanish)."