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In
the film we witness M.C. engaging in contemplative questioning regarding
the nature of art, imagination, wholeness, community, and our place
in the cosmos. She inspires us to live creatively, to believe in
ourselves, to experience the sensuality of existence. This is a
film not just about M.C. It’s about all of our quests to become
authentic creators of art and community. The film premiered in New
York and Philadelphia and completed a 24 U.S. city tour in 2006
screening at eight international film festivals. It continues to
receive requests for screenings throughout the world.
As one of the most influential art educators in America, the ideas
of M.C. Richards and her seminal non-fiction work Centering were
used to inspire the 2005 National Council for Education in the Ceramic
Arts (NCECA) conference theme – Centering: Community, Clay
and Culture. The film’s producer, Melody Lewis-Kane, presented
at the conference with three of M.C. Richards’ closest associates:
Paulus Berensohn, Julia Connor, and George Kokis. Four additional
chapters are now on the DVD – one hour of interviews with
M.C.’s closest associates: Paulus Berensohn, Karen Karnes,
George Kokis and Robert Turner.
Also active in Greenwich House Pottery, M.C. was a central player
in the New York avant-garde scene in the early 50s when she lived
in Stony Point, New York with composers John Cage and David Tudor,
potters Karen Karnes and David Weinrib, architect Paul Williams
and children's author Vera Williams.
Her influence goes well beyond the visual art world. As the first
English translator of THE THEATER AND ITS DOUBLE, by French
actor/playwright/activist Antonin Artaud, M.C. is credited by director
Arthur Penn and avant garde Living Theater co-founder Judith Malina,
as being instrumental in changing the course of theater in America
for all time. The translation, to this day, is considered the authority.
In this thought-provoking documentary, you hear from a cadre of
her associates and followers as they carry on her important work
of inspiring people to live creatively. The hour documentary features
interviews with many renowned artists, poets, thinkers, and theologians
including: Marjory Bankson, Paulus Berensohn, Julia Connor, Merce
Cunningham, Adriana Diaz, Martin Duberman, Howard Evans, Matthew
Fox, Gertrude Hughes, Karen Karnes, George Kokis, Judith Malina,
Amy Evans McClure, Arthur Penn, and Robert Turner.
Sponsored by: Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center and
Chester Springs Studio.
With support from: the Humanities-and-the-Arts initiative,
administered by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and funded principally
by the Pennsylvania Arts Council; the North Carolina Humanities
Council; the New York Council for the Humanities; the Rudolf Steiner
Foundation; the Rudolf Steiner Institute; the Foundation for Contemporary
Performance Arts, Inc. and many individuals.
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