Savage Memory Film Project

Tuesday, May 24, 2005


Painting by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz entitled "Malinowski with Scarf and Glove." Witkiewicz was M's closest friend during his formative years. They traveled together to the South Pacific befor M began his fieldwork. It was with Witkiewicz that Mal observed his first Magic ritual in Sri Lanka, an experience he records with excitement, the beginning of the "hands on ethnographer." Posted by Hello


Luczan Malinowski, my great great grandfather, a linguist whose portrait we saw hanging in the ancient hall of the Jagiellonian University Museum, Krakow. Posted by Hello


Kelly on our Verandah at our our home for a week in Okaiboma Village. Posted by Hello

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We've been misssing comments and I'm just writing to see if I can add the comment option to this entry. If so, I hope more people will send thier comments!!

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Long time

It's been a while and we've seen a lot in the past few weeks. Our journeys have taken us from London to Krakow to the hills of Zakopane (a resort town two hours from Krakow where Malinowski vacationed as a young man) and finally to Oberbozen to begin editing this baby.

In Krakow, we stayed in the spare apartment of a young, hip scholar, Grazyna Kubicza. She spent two years of her life devoted to publishing Malinowski's complete Polish diaries and she wasn't quite sure if she'd do it again. But without a doubt, after talking with her and a few other Polish scholars, we came to realize Mal's Polishness, or his 'Slav Soul', tormented, lonely, and passionate that it was. Grazyna took the reins and basically arranged our enitre itinerary, from touring us around all of Malinowski's old haunts to interviewing with Maliphiles. One professor we interviewed had named her computer 'Bronio' and the other, he was fabulous - moved us to pieces, talked with such excitement about Malinowski that he came close to ripping the mic off his shirt. These people really have personal relationships with this long dead man, perhaps more personal than his own biological descendants. Grazyna also invited us to speak at her Anthropology and Gender class to talk about the project and that made us feel oh so professional.

The editing process has begun. 50 hours of arduously logged footage later, the project is taking shape. Despite our domestic squabbles and with many decisions to be made and themes to explore, we're feeling good.

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