Film with the Asháninka people of eastern Peru, ROOTS, THORNS deals with the people's everyday life while contemplating their uncertainties and fears of the unknown. It shifts between the fears found in daily living and those brought on by the country's current political turmoil and other forces from the outside. The underlying focus is the intimate relationship the people have with the land, plants, animals and weather. One of the concerns is to get in touch with this raw reality of nature while exploring the balance of deeper allegorical moments that take place in daily "ordinary" life.
Awards: Charlotte Film and Video Festival; Black Maria Film and Video Festival; American Film and Video Festival of Indigenous People, Bolivia.
1993, 16mm, color/so, 23m, $70
Still images taken from postcards, primarily of the 1950s and '60s, cut back and forth on different graphic and conceptual biases.
1998, 16mm, color/so, 5.5m, $20
A notch, a narrow passage between mountains, must be found in order to navigate the peaks and deep gorges of the southern Appalachians of North Carolina.
2000, 16mm, color/so, 8m, $25
"Diane Kitchen's new tour-de-force creates a stream of intimate portraits of leaves dancing in the sun's light." - Steve Anker, S.F. Cinematheque
2001, 16mm, color/si, 17m, $50
Forces of wind and light provoking nature's occurrences.
2004, 16mm, color/si, 6.5m, $20