The Foreign Service Journal, February 2010

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 37 During the yearlong process of documenting the collection for the Phoebe Hearst Museum of An- thropology, Kathleen was encour- aged to develop a film on indigen- ous weavers in Guatemala for an upcoming museum exhibition. About the same time, I filed the pa- perwork necessary to establish a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit named Endangered Threads Doc- umentaries. An Adventure in Cultural Preservation ETD’s purpose is to produce educational films about endangered indigenous art forms, especially weaving in Guatemala and Ecuador. I continue to handle the endless paperwork, the orders, the logistics in the field and all things administrative and diplomatic. Kathleen is the CEO, as well as the lead photographer/videographer and documentary editor. More than a dozen volunteers, in- cluding two interns, have pitched in over the past six years. In pursuit of footage, we have spent 145 days of the last five years in Guatemala, visiting 55 communities and film- ing more than 100 indigenous Maya between the ages of 8 and 80. We also spent a month in Ecuador filming weavers. All the documentaries — three completed to date and one scheduled for release in early 2010 — are available through our Web site at www.endan geredthreads.com. In 2005, ETD released “Splendor in the Highlands: Maya Weavers of Guatemala,” which introduces viewers to 22 weavers from indigenous communities. That film was used to attract donors and grants to fund production of “A Century of Color: Maya Weaving and Textiles,” a sur- vey of styles and designs of Mayan clothing over 100 years in Guatemala. The documen- tary takes examples from the Hearst Museum’s Gustave Eisen Collection made in 1902 and follows through to pres- ent-day footage of huipils (blouses), skirts, belts, pants and headdresses. The 56-minute film shows the resplendent color and ample talent of Maya weavers. Tying and dying techniques in the ikat style provide some of the more unusual footage. “Century” premiered in 2007 at the DeYoung Museum in San Fran- cisco in a special program for the museum’s Textile Arts Council. It was also screened at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in NewMexico and at the Hearst Museum in Berkeley. The current Mayan textile exhibition at the Hearst Mu- seum, “Traje de la Vida” (“Suits for Life”), includes a con- tinuous 30-minute loop of “Splendor in the Highlands” and ETD-produced loops on “Scenes of Guatemala” and “Languages of the Maya.” Recording Secrets of the Past Our latest documentary, “Manuela & Esperanza: The Art of Maya Weaving,” premiered at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archeology and Anthropology in April 2009, in conjunction with the opening of the ex- hibition, “Painted Metaphors: Pottery & Politics of the Ancient Maya.” Endangered Threads Documentaries also F O C U S We have spent 145 days of the last five years in Guatemala, visiting 55 communities and filming more than 100 indigenous Maya. Above left, Paul and Kathleen Vitale in Panajachel, Guatemala, with the Panjoj family. All females in the family are weavers. Above right, “A Century of Color” DVD cover. Photo: Cheryl Guerrero