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California State University, Chico

Advanced Laboratory for Visual Anthropology

Digital Cinema Technology for Anthropological Research

The Advanced Laboratory for Visual Anthropology (ALVA) was created with funding from the National Science Foundation, Major Research Instrumentation grant. It is the first facility to incorporate digital cinema technology into anthropological research and the communication of the results of that research to broad audiences.

Portfolio

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    We Are the Land

    2019 / 28 minutes / Directed by Jesse Dizard
    A solar company built a power station in the Mohave desert. The land was home to prehistoric Native American communities. The artifacts they left behind were displaced and destroyed. This film tells the story of the tribes whose ancestors inhabited that desert basin. Their descendants speak of the pain caused by destruction of their cultural patrimony, and the vitality of the desert landscape for indigenous people. They envision a sustainable future that protects the values of the past.

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    Bang the Drum

    2020 / 28 minutes / Directed by Will Nitzky
    For the Yao minority of rural southwest China, the bronze drum is a sacred heritage. Its sound aids the souls of deceased elders to reach the ancestral land. When the Chinese government steps in to protect heritage, the life of the bronze drum takes on new meaning and becomes an icon for tourist performances. Bang the Drum traces the path heritage takes in a changing China.

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    Saving the Sacred

    2020 / 28 minutes / Directed by Dan Bruns
    The Koi and Habemetol Pomo have called the majestic Clear Lake basin home for an incredible 14,000 years. However, rapid urbanization and the looting of artifacts for sale on illegal markets has threatened to completely erase their long history and rich culture from this unique landscape. In an effort to protect these sacred sites, the tribes unite with their local governments and communities to preserve their priceless culture and past.

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    Muerte Silenciosa

    2020 / 27 minutes / Directed by Jesse Dizard
    Hundreds of California’s municipal water supply systems rely on contaminated sources. Many such systems are in the San Joaquin Valley, home to over four million people – as well as some of the most productive farmland in the world. How is it possible that in one of the richest states in the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, people still lack access to safe, clean, and affordable drinking water in their homes? Meet activists, laborers, lawyers, and politicians all seeking solutions to the problem of this silent killer.

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    When the Smoke Clears

    2021 / 27 minutes / Directed by Jai Dhillon
    When the Smoke Clears chronicles the Camp Fire from its inception on November 8, 2018, to the aftermath almost two years later. The film focuses on the town of Paradise, interviewing residents about their reactions and impressions of the fire, its devastation, and impact on their lives. Although heartbreaking at times, the film reveals the resilience and hope of its residents as they rebuild their community in this Northern California town.

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    Stolen Paradise

    2018 / 28 minutes / Directed by Jesse Dizard
    The stark landscape of the Eastern Sierras, Mono Lake, and Owens Dry Lake illustrate the consequences of efforts in the early 20th century to move water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles. Emphasis is on the results of 100 years of water transfers from this region averaging 5-7 inches of rain per annum, and the abiding sense of loss felt by the Paiute-Shoshone people whose ancestors first settled what is now the Owens Valley. Viewers are introduced to locals with unique insight into the grass roots impacts of decisions taken far, far away.

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    Mr. Tanimoto's Journey

    2017 / 26 minutes / Directed by Jesse Dizard
    After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, 120,000 American citizens of Japanese descent were wrongfully imprisoned at internment camps across the country. Jim Tanimoto, born in California, is the last living member of a group of men known as Block 42, who bravely protested the loss of their constitutional rights. This is his story.

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    Potter's Field

    2017 / 26 minutes / Directed by Christina Jeffries-Kenney
    In 2012, a thousand once-forgotten burials were excavated under a parking lot at a San Jose hospital. Now anthropologists at California State University, Chico study how the skeletons could offer insight into navigating a future of antibiotic resistance.

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    Illusions In Stone

    2016 / 58 minutes / Directed by Brian Brazeal
    Illusions in Stone tells the global story of the emerald trade - a story of hope, faith, danger and desire. It is a place where righteous thieves, reckless miners, and religious scholars are all united by their fascination with the green stones. Each of their stories are tied together by the thread of hope and a dream of riches that often proves to be an illusion...

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    Stories In Thread

    2016 / 27 minutes / Directed by Tamara Maxey / Produced by Will Nitzky
    Stories in Thread focuses on Hmong Pa Dau. The traditionally hand-made textiles are integral to what it means to be Hmong in America.

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    A Walk Through Time

    2013 / 28 minutes / Directed by Daniel Bruns
    With its majestic landscapes, diverse wildlife, and a history spanning 14,000 years, Anderson Marsh State Historic Park is one of the most unique places in all of California. It is also the home of the Koi people who were the first humans to colonize the area and who are still there to this day.

    Their deep cultural heritage prompted the extraordinary events that led to the park's creation and reinforces the current struggles to protect the amazing resources that the park holds.

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    Impact Of The Frolic

    2013 / 28 minutes / Directed by Matt Ritenour
    In the summer of 1984, archaeologist Thomas Layton unearthed some unexpected Chinese artifacts at a Native American site in Mendocino County. Driven to discover their origins, Dr. Layton set out on a quest to solve the riddle of the mysterious potsherds. What he eventually uncovered was a story of vast cultural connections and a shipwreck that impacted California forever.

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    Torn

    2013 / 27 minutes / Directed by Jake Martin
    For thousands of years stunning petroglyphs on the volcanic tablelands near Bishop, California shimmered in the starlight, but then a menace struck. Looters with rock saws and chisels destroyed this ancient site leaving everyone with one question...why?

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    Traditional Ecological Knowledge

    2013 / 27 minutes / Directed by Maija Glasier-Lawson
    Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) promotes an indigenous approach to environmental stewardship. Our world faces unprecedented ecological challenges. Collaborating with local peoples is a crucial step toward a more sustainable future.

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    Bound To Tradition

    2012 / 22 minutes / Directed by Anna Rushton
    Susan Campbell, a Mountain Maidu Native American is making a cradleboard for her first grandchild. Along the way she discovers just how difficult it can be the balance her traditional ways with modern society.

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    The Beginning of The End

    2012 / 26 minutes / Directed by Kelsea Rossow and Andrew Reuther
    In 1872 a small group of Modoc men, women and children refused to be confined to a reservation and sought refuge in the area now known as the Lava Beds National Monument. After keeping the US Army at bay all winter, in the Spring of 1873 the Modoc's leader, Captain Jack, shot and killed General Edward Canby, the only US General killed in the so-called Indian Wars. This film tells the epic story of the Modoc War and why so few know of it today.

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    Treading Water

    2012 / 26 minutes / Directed by Jesse Dizard
    Facing an uncertain future, a community confronts its reflection in the mirror of water scarcity. In the new normal of what once was the California dream, activists, commercial fishermen, farmers, local politicians and others share their anxieties and reveal their values in an effort to find common cause, if not always common ground.

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    A Man Called Ishi

    2012 / 22 minutes / Directed by Magdalena Roberts
    Ishi survived attacks on his people and lived in the remote wilderness of northern California for 40 years. His story reminds us that Native Americans are neither gone nor forgotten.

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    California Indian Voices

    2012 / 22 minutes / Directed by Jesse Dizard
    Native People from all over California came together to discuss issues of cultural sustainability, tradition, the environment, substance abuse and what it means to be an Indian in the 21st century. These are their stories.

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    Someone You Know

    2012 / 22 minutes / Directed by Jesse Dizard
    Across our colleges and universities, women are being sexually assaulted and then blamed for it. Their stories have been silent for too long. This film brings them out into the open.

About ALVA

Student and faculty researchers associated with ALVA have completed multiple broadcast length documentary films. These films have screened in festivals as well as on PBS affiliates on the West Coast. With many more films in the production pipeline, we look forward to transforming the relationships among scholars, students and the mass media.

In 2012 the director of ALVA received a grant from the NSF, Innovation Corps program to explore the commercial potential of anthropological digital cinema. Since then we have been seeking partnerships with cultural resource management companies as well as state and federal agencies.

The goal of these partnerships is to use film as a tool for public outreach and defuse the results of the anthropological research they sponsor to the widest possible audiences.

The Advanced Laboratory for Visual Anthropology is a fully furnished digital cinema production and post-production facility. It houses a Red one and a Red Scarlet camera, a full suite of prime and zoom lenses, professional wired and wireless microphones, still photographic equipment, field lighting solutions, field data storage solutions and all the hardware necessary for cinema production in anthropological contexts.

Our post-production facilities include Mac Pro towers with multiple non-linear editing software platforms, calibrated speakers and monitors for sound mixing and color grading, Blu-ray and DVC Pro mastering hardware, and a formidable data storage, processing and archiving system. Our 32 TB raid subsystem is connected to our editing workstations over an XSAN based, Fibre Channel, local area network. Our data is incrementally backed up and archived to LTO-5 tape.

Researchers

Our most important assets are the anthropological researchers and technical staff who are devoted to communicating the insights of anthropological research to the general public.

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    Dr. Brian Brazeal

    Brian Brazeal, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Chico State, researches religion, ritual, and global economies. As founder of ALVA, he mentors students in creating anthropological documentaries for broad audiences.

    bcbrazeal@csuchico.edu
    530-898-4094

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    Jesse Dizard

    Jesse Dizard, Professor of Anthropology at Chico State, studies culture, environment, and indigenous communities. A filmmaker, he produces documentaries on social and ecological issues while teaching applied and cultural anthropology.

    jdizard@csuchico.edu
    530-898-5583

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    Daniel Bruns

    Daniel Bruns comes to ALVA from the world of commercial filmmaking. He supervises production and post-production of all of our films and is the main point of contact for our contract filmmaking activities.

    ddbruns@csuchico.edu
    530-898-6192

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    Will Nitzky

    William Nitzky, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Chico State, researches identity, heritage, and museum studies in China. He directs student-curated exhibits and explores how cultural representation shapes communities and change.

    wnitzky@csuchico.edu